Daily Note: Contextual Awareness and Intelligent Systems

These notes are a summary of concepts presented in “Adding generic contextual capabilities to wearable computers.”

J. Pascoe, “Adding generic contextual capabilities to wearable computers,” Digest of Papers. Second International Symposium on Wearable Computers (Cat. No.98EX215), Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 1998, pp. 92-99, doi: 10.1109/ISWC.1998.729534

  1. Contextual Awareness
    • Working definition: Ability of a program or device to sense its environment and self
    • Contextual sensing as the foundational level of context-awareness
  2. Extending Contextual Abilities in Intelligent Systems
    • Sensing and adaptation
      • Mechanisms for environmental sensing and self-monitoring
    • Resource discovery and Augmentation
      • Identifying and leveraging resources in the environment
  3. Contextual Information Management
    • Data handling across formats
      • Obtaining, manipulating, and modeling contextual information
    • Sensor interface mechanisms
      • Compatibility and integration with various sensor types
  4. Behavior Adaptation
    • Adapting system behavior to align with user environment and current situation
    • Strategies for context-aware personalization
  5. Resource Discovery and Exploitation
    • Adaptive behaviors for discovering and utilizing peripheral devices
    • Continuous resource exploitation while remaining within the same context
  6. Reality-Information and Reality-Process Couplings
    • How intelligent systems link with real-world information and processes
    • Contextual interactions between the system, user, process, and environment
  7. Dynamic Environments
    • Adapting to fast-changing, diverse contexts.
  8. User-System Intimacy
    • Forming close, responsive associations with users
    • Personalizing interactions to strengthen user experience
  9. Request-Based Context Updates
    • Ability for users to request real-time contextual updates
    • Ensuring adaptability through responsive data retrieval
  10. Indirect Operation Modes
    • Operating without direct user intervention
    • Enhancing user experience through passive context awareness.
  11. Consumer Hardware for Intelligent Systems
    • Designing lightweight, robust, and portable systems
    • Ensuring the device can seamlessly operate in diverse conditions
  12. Data Collection
    • Transparent data gathering for real-time contextual awareness
    • Contextual data accessibility when needed by users
  13. Core Functions of Intelligent Systems
    • Contextual Sensing: Capturing environmental data
    • Contextual Adaptation: Adjusting behavior based on sensed context
    • Contextual Resource Discovery: Identifying and using available resources
    • Contextual Augmentation: Enhancing functionality based on context
  14. Evaluating Contexts and Sensing Technologies
    • Optimizing experiences by selecting suitable sensing methods
    • Decision-making for effective context exploitation
  15. Perception and Evaluation of Context
    • Determining and interpreting contextual states
    • Formats, types, and operational methods for translating between states
  16. Ethereal and Ephemeral Constructs
    • Understanding transient and impermanent contextual elements
    • Analyzing artifacts and their relationships (anchors, explicit, inferred)
  17. Sensor Functionality and Quality
    • Evaluating sensor data accuracy and optimization
    • Differences between sensors providing data and monitors initiating data collection
  18. Monitors and Simulations
    • The role of monitors in choosing when to collect contextual data
    • Simulations as part of dynamic context analysis