The Context-aware Middleware in Ambient Intelligence

150 Pages·2014·3.31 MB·English

N° d’ordre : 2013-47

Thèse de l’Université de Lyon

The Context-aware Middleware in
Ambient Intelligence

Pour l’obtention du titre de
Docteur de l’Ecole Centrale de Lyon

Ecole Doctorale
Informatique et Mathématiques

Spécialité
Informatique

Par
XU Tao

Soutenue publiquement le 9 décembre 2013, devant la commission d’examen :

Christophe KOLSKI Professeur – Université de Valenciennes Rapporteur
Serge GARLATTI Professeur – Télécom Bretagne Rapporteur
Bertrand DAVID Professeur – Ecole Centrale de Lyon Directeur
René CHALON Maitre de Conférences – Ecole Centrale de Lyon Co-directeur
Jean-Paul BARTHES Professeur Emérite – U.T.C. Compiègne Président
Chuantao YIN Assistant Professor – Ecole Centrale de Pékin Examinateur

Acknowledgements

PhD for me was once a distant dream, and the studying processing was full
of hardships. Such a daunting task, if not many people guidance, support
and assistance, is impossible to successfully complete.

I owe my supervisor, Prof. Bertrand David, my eternal gratitude. He has
advised, encouraged, and inspired me through the arduous doctoral process.
He provided the precious opportunity to continue my PhD in France when I
was helpless. He introduced me to the field of Ubiquitous computing, guid-
ed me throughout my graduate work. He always believed in me and support
me do research in the field that I was interested in. I feel extremely lucky to
have worked under his guidance.

I am also indebted to my co-supervisor, Prof. René Chalon who has been
patient, helpful, and supportive during my research. He created a good en-
vironment to study and constantly motivated and encouraged me to perform
high quality research.

I’d like to thank the members of Silex group in Ecole Centrale de Lyon, in-
cluding Huiliang Jin, Bingxue Zhang, Chen Wang, and Florent Delomier
for all they helped me in life and research. Boyang Gao, Huibing Li, Tai-
ping Zhang, Chao Zhu, Zhe Li and all my friends in France, helped make
my time especially enjoyable and never feel alone even so far away from
my mother land.

I also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of China Scholarship
Council, which provide a great chance for me to study aboard.

I would like to thank my family who have inspired and supported me
throughout my life. I am very grateful to my parents for their constant en-
couragement and support. They bestowed me a love for learning, and
showed me the way. Finally, I would like to thank my girlfriend Yun Zhou,
(she has become my wife now), who help me greatly in both my life and re-
search, and has always supported me emotionally throughout my doctoral
studies.

Tao Xu, Thèse en Informatique / 2013, Ecole Centrale de Lyon 3

Sommaire
Table des matières
Acknowledgements 3

1 Introduction 9

1.1 Ubiquitous Computing 9
1.2 Context-aware Computing 12
1.2.1 Definition of context 13
1.2.2 What is context awareness? 14
1.3 Challenges in Context-aware Computing 15
1.4 Context-aware System 17
1.5 Research Contributions 18
1.6 Organization of the dissertation 20
2 State of the Art in Context-aware

Computing 23

2.1 Introduction 23
2.2 Context-aware System 24
2.2.1 Context Toolkit 24
2.2.2 CASS 26
2.2.3 CoBrA 27
2.2.4 SOCAM 29
2.2.5 CA-SOA 30
2.3 Analysis and Comparison 32
Tao Xu, Thèse en Informatique / 2013, Ecole Centrale de Lyon 5
2.3.1 Architecture of the context-aware system 32
2.3.2 Context representations 33
2.3.3 Context Sensing 34
2.3.4 Context Storage 36
2.3.5 Context Reasoning 37
2.3.6 Discussion 38
2.4 Conclusion 39
3 The Spatial-temporal Ontology-based

Model 41

3.1 Introduction 41
3.2 Context modeling 41
3.2.1 Context classification 42
3.2.2 Existing context modeling approaches 44
3.3 The Spatial-temporal Ontology-based Model 48
3.3.1 Ontology 49
3.3.2 Ontology description language 50
3.3.3 Spatial-temporal context model 54
3.3.4 Ontology-based model development tools 59
3.3.4.1 The Protégé editor 60
3.3.4.2 Jena 61
3.4 Conclusion 62
4 Context-aware Middleware in

Ambient Intelligence 63

4.1 Introduction 63
4.2 Street and Store Marketing Scenario (SSM) 64
4.3 Context-aware Middleware 65
4.3.1 Low layer: Enterprise Service Bus 66
6 Tao Xu, Thèse en Informatique / 2013, Ecole Centrale de Lyon
Sommaire
4.3.2 High layer: The versatile context interpreter 69
4.3.2.1 Context Aggregator 70
4.3.2.2 Context Knowledge Base 71
4.3.2.3 Context Query Engine 75
4.3.2.4 Context Inference Engine 79
4.3.3 Context-aware middleware behavior workflow 81
4.4 Conclusion 83
5 The Intelligent Inference Engine 85

5.1 Introduction 85
5.2 Context and Activity Context Recognition 87
5.3 The Intelligent Inference Engine 89
5.3.1 Basic Structure of the Intelligent Inference Engine 90
5.3.1.1 The basic module 90
5.3.1.2 The intelligent module 92
5.3.1.2.1 Rules 92
5.3.1.2.2 Decision Tree (DT) 95
5.3.1.2.3 Hidden Markov Model (HMM) 97
5.3.2 Organization of Three Algorithms 101
5.3.3 The Invoking Mechanism 102
5.4 Conclusion 105
6 Implementations and Analysis 107

6.1 Introduction 107
6.2 General process for building a context-aware application 108
6.2.1 Context Modeling 108
6.2.2 Middleware Configuration 108
6.2.3 Application Development 109
6.3 Scenario and Implementation 110
6.3.1 Bus Stop Scenario 110
Tao Xu, Thèse en Informatique / 2013, Ecole Centrale de Lyon 7
6.3.1.1 Implementation Process 111
6.3.1.1.1 Step one: Context Modeling 111
6.3.1.1.2 Step Two: Middleware Configuration 114
6.2.1.1.2.1 Context Aggregator Configuration 115
6.2.1.1.2.2 Context inference engine configuration 118
6.3.1.1.3 Step Three: Application Development 119
6.2.1.1.3.1 Training and setting rules for Reasoners 119
Setting rules for Reasoners 119
Training Reasoner 120
6.3.1.1.3.2 Define expressive query 124
6.3.2 Domestic Activity Application 125
6.4 Analysis and Summary 129
6.5 Conclusions 131
7 Conclusion and Future work 133

7.1 Introduction 133
7.2 Contributions 133
7.3 Future works 134
7.4 Conclusions 136
Bibliographie 137

Publications 147

8 Tao Xu, Thèse en Informatique / 2013, Ecole Centrale de Lyon
1 Introduction
1.1 Ubiquitous computing
1.2 Context-aware computing
1.2.1 Definition of context
1.2.2 What is context awareness?
1.3 Challenges in context-aware computing
1.4 Context-aware System
1.5 Research Contributions
1.6 Organization of the dissertation

1.1 Ubiquitous Computing

“The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They
weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are in-
distinguishable from it.”

Mark Weiser

Almost 20 years ago, Marc Weiser viewed the prospect of computing in the
21st century, and proposed the pioneering notion of ubiquitous computing,
also known as pervasive computing. The essence of Weiser’s vision is that
mobile and embedded processors can communicate with each other and the
surrounding infrastructure, seamlessly coordinating their operation to pro-
vide support for a wide variety of everyday work practices (Krumm, 2009).
When we review the history of computer developments, we find
that it encompasses three eras. The first era is the era of mainframe com-
puters beginning in the 1950s. Few users share one mainframe computer at
the same time. The second era is the era of personal computers. The emer-
gence of the first consumer computers (Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair & IBM
5100) marked a personal computer revolution throughout the world. Due to
the rapid development of hardware and software technologies and the sharp
decline in size and price of computers, use of personal computers became
widespread. One user owns and uses one personal computer.

Tao Xu, Thèse en Informatique / 2013, Ecole Centrale de Lyon 9
Figure 1.1 Three computer development eras

Ubiquitous computing is considered as the third era following on
from mainframe computers and personal computers. According to Moore’s
Law: “the computer power available on a chip doubles every two years”,
chips will become much smaller and cheaper in the future. Chips can be
embedded in everything, not only computers, smartphones and tablets, but
also in objects of daily use such as glasses and watches. The numerous
computing devices become integrated into everyday life. Thus one user
owns and uses many computers (computing devices).
Ubiquitous computing (often abbreviated to “ubicomp”) refers to
the concept of “every-where” computing. It aims at a heterogeneous set of
devices, including invisible computers embedded in everyday objects such
as cars and furniture, mobile devices such as personal digital assistants
(PDAs) and smart phones, personal devices such as laptops, and very large
devices such as wall-sized displays and tabletop computers situated in the
environments and buildings we inhabit (Krumm, 2009). On the other hand,
ubiquitous computing strives to make computing and communication trans-
parent to users. Thus, Weiser also viewed ubiquitous computing as “The
coming age of calm technology”.
Because of its attractive prospect, Ubiquitous Computing drew
the attention of the science community right from the start. According to
statistics, almost all prestigious universities conducted research on Ubiqui-
tous Computing.

 CMU proposed a ubiquitous computing project Aura (Sousa et al., 2002)
providing each user with an invisible halo of computing and information
services that persists regardless of location. This focuses on the design and
development of pervasive computing middleware and its applications.

10 Tao Xu, Thèse en Informatique / 2013, Ecole Centrale de Lyon