Presentation given at EICS 2017, 9th ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, Lisbon, Portugal, June 2017 ABSTRACT: Context awareness plays an important role in recent smart environments and embedded interactions. In order to increase user satisfaction and acceptance, these context-aware solutions should be controllable by end users. Over the last few years we have therefore seen an emerging trend towards visual programming tools for context-aware applications based on simple "IF this THEN that" rules. However, existing solutions often do not support the simple reuse of the "this" part in order to define more sophisticated rules. Given that the desired level of control varies among individuals, we propose a unified multi-layered context modelling approach distinguishing between end users, expert users and programmers. Our Context Modelling Toolkit (CMT) consists of the necessary context modelling concepts and offers a rule-based context processing engine. We further illustrate how end users and expert users might interact with the CMT framework. Finally, we highlight some advantages of our Context Modelling Toolkit by discussing a number of use cases. Paper: https://www.academia.edu/33265122/The_Context_Modelling_Toolkit_A_Unified_Multi_layered_Context_Modelling_Approach

1. Sandra Trullemans
Lars Van Holsbeeke
Beat Signer
The Context Modelling Toolkit:
A Unified Multi-layered Context
Modelling Approach
Sandra.Trullemans@vub.be
WEB & INFORMATION
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

2. End User Control of Smart Homes
End User

3. Related Work
Jigsaw – Humble et al.
ICAP – Dey et al.
Ghiani et al.

4. IF situation THEN action
IF THENI Sleep
IF THENMessage in meeting
Situation
Situation

5. Where We Can do Better
• Sensor-level knowledge required
• Hard for complex situations
• Trade-off between control and automation
CollaborationReusing Situations

6. Multi-layered Modelling Approach
End User Expert User Programmer

7. Context Modelling
+
Reusing Situations Templates

8. Reusing Situations
IF THEN
I Sleep
IF THEN
I Sleep
Situation
Situation

9. Situation Rules
IF THEN
I Sleep
IF THEN
Situation
Situation
I Sleep

10. Context Modelling
+
Reusing Situations Templates

11. Templates
IF THENSomeone is Sleeping
A Time A Bed A Room A State
Situation
Expert User

12. Filling In a Template
IF THEN
Someone is Sleeping
A Time A Bed A Room A State20:00 Her Bed Her Bedroom OFF
End User

13. Multi-Layered Context Modelling
Facts Actions
Situations
Rules
Tool Rule
Templates
Filled in
Template
Situations
End User
Expert User
Programmer

14. Context Modelling Toolkit - CMT
Programmer

15. Client-Server Interactions

16. Creation of a Template
Expert User

17. The IF side of a Situation Rule
Expert User

18. A New Situation on the THEN side
Expert User

19. Filling In a Template
End User

20. Filling In a Template
End User

21. Reusing Templates
End User

22. Making Context Rules
End User

23. Lessons Learned
• Importance of intelligibility

24. Context Modelling Toolkit (CMT)
End User Expert User Programmer
CollaborationReusing Situations

25. References
• Sandra Trullemans, Lars Van Holsbeeke and Beat
Signer, The Context Modelling Toolkit: A Unified
Multi-Layered Context Modelling Approach,
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer
Interaction (PACMHCI), 1(1), June 2017, presented at
EICS 2017, 9th ACM SIGCHI Symposium on
Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, Lisbon,
Portugal, June 2017
– http://beatsigner.com/publications/trullemans_EICS2017.pdf