Self-Extending Systems for Context-Aware Mobile Computing

In my thesis, I wish to address the problem of how to develop software for context-aware mobile computing that can adapt to constantly changing requirements at run time. By context-aware mobile computing, I understand a mode of computing characterized by three features. First, the user is involved with tasks in the real world such as navigation, car repair, building design or control of complex systems. Second, the system assists the user with these tasks by providing appropriate information, facilitating collaboration and controlling machines. And third, the system is ubiquitous, i.e. it combines stationary resources such as databases, cameras for position tracking and projection screens with mobile resources such as handhelds, wearable computers and head-mounted displays. Examples include a pedestrian campus navigation system (Figure 1a, [2]), a wearable computer assisting a mechanic repairing a broken-down car [13], a system for architectural design and visualization on a building site [1] or a collaborative multimodal