Personalized Information Retrieval Framework

In this paper, we propose a framework of personalized information retrieval system for a wearer (a person who is equipped with a wearable computer) in ubiquitous computing environments. In ubiquitous computing environments, personalized information retrieval is indispensable for a wearer because desired or undesired information will be flooded around the wearer. Although there have been many research activities on information retrieval in wearable computing and/or ubiquitous computing environments, personalization has not been recognized significantly. Accordingly, all the retrieved information is exposed to the wearer regardless of his/her situations or conditions. In this regard, the proposed framework enables a wearer to retrieve the personalized information from objects. In the proposed framework, we exploit user’s context as a fundamental element in retrieving the personalized information. The proposed framework consists of two conceptual stages (object selection and information presentation) and each stage includes several components. In order to measure the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we introduce a measuring method and also realize a prototyping system for personalized information retrieval. Thus, we believe that the proposed personalized information retrieval framework is to leverage human-computer interactions for a wearer in ubiquitous computing environments.