A Portal for Interacting with Context-aware Ubiquitous Systems

1. A Portal for Interacting with Context-aware Ubiquitous Systems Don Cruickshank David De Roure Grid Based Medical Devices for Everyday Health Equator / MIAS

2. Users • Interactive access to live and stored information (e.g. visualised, excel) collected from • Wearable devices • Sensor networks • e.g. medics and patients • e.g. pervasive support desk • e.g. pollution-sensing cyclists (uploading) Equator MIAS

3. Medical jacket sensors • ECG trace • Heart rate monitor • Blood Glucose monitor • Accelerometers • GPS location Equator MIAS

4. Scenario • Natural language interaction – clinician over a phone “look at Tom” “Tom’s patient ID is 12345. He is wearing a jacket. His data is archived.” “Look at jacket on Tom” “His blood pressure and heart rate are monitored.” “Look inside archive” … Equator MIAS

5. Personal device interface Equator MIAS

6. Requirements • Natural language interface • Configurable ‘experience’ for different users • Patient, clinician, support, administrator • Carrying spatial information • 2D/3D spatial, i.e. Cartesian coordinates • Logical, i.e. symbolic • Remote access, multiuser, distributed • Support for collaboration (or integration with collaborative tools) Equator MIAS

7. MUD benefits • Open source • Scriptable using a general purpose programming language (LPC) • Rich support for network protocols, e.g. FTP, HTTP, POP3 • Standard clients available • Modern clients have graphics and sound capability • Trend towards HTML and CSS • Supports a variety of Intermud protocols Equator MIAS

8. Enhancements • Location description • All objects carry coords and may have relational positioning • Currently using z-axis aligned polygons to represent area • Span array algorithm used for large geographic areas • Authentication, authorisation • Access control and domain model exist • PKI can be integrated • WS-Security? Equator MIAS

9. Location in a Pervasive Environment • To allow data to be combined, a common model is required • Have defined an ontology to model locations within a building • Not designed from spatial perspective, type and purpose more important • Hierarchical notion of locations and inter-linked sub-spaces Equator MIAS

10. A MUD map of the labs Equator MIAS

11. Uncertainty in location • We have to take location information from a variety of sources • GPS • Bluetooth proximity • Ultrasonic pingers • Which one do we trust when we have conflicting information? • We can choose one we think is better • We can merge the contexts – e.g. create a specialised location that has the features of all relevant locations • We can duplicate the users and populate the separate areas with those people • When a location technology is known to be false, that context is removed (or the false user model is destructed) • Some operations may be high risk enough to utilise a certainty factor from the location information system Equator MIAS

12. MUD technologies • LPC based MUDs (aka LPMuds) allow for real time reconfiguration of live systems • Location is a strong contextual feature of MUDs • Jim is located at 1500m west and 30m south of a named reference point • “Harry is sitting at the table.” • Roles feature strongly in staffing a MUD • Authorisation is dependent on domain memberships • Individual privileges • Staff members are often only known within the MUD domain • Object trails are commonly used for administrative purposes • Record of previous locations / owners • Recording the manner in which objects have moved • Objects can be tagged with special information that only staff can see • Units that are known to be buggy can be labelled by support staff and that information is carried wherever that object goes • Objects can react to events in the environment • E.g. when the child walks near the tree, a sound is played out of a loudspeaker nearby Equator MIAS

13. Conclusion • Able to tailor the information flow to personal devices dependent on context • Real-time maintenance of the system possible by medics and administrators, each with specific access rights • Uncertainty in location information is not straightforward Equator MIAS