A Conceptual Framework and a Toolkit for Supporting the Rapid Prototyping of Context-Aware Applications

Computing devices and applications are now used beyond the desktop, in diverse environments, and this trend toward ubiquitous computing is accelerating. One challenge that remains in this emerging research field is the ability to enhance the behavior of any application by informing it of the context of its use. By context, we refer to any information that characterizes a situation related to the interaction between humans, applications, and the surrounding environment. Context-aware applications promise richer and easier interaction, but the HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION, 2001, Volume 16, pp. 97–166 Copyright © 2001, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Anind Dey is a computer scientist with an interest in context-aware and ubiquitous computing; a recent Ph.D., he is a Senior Researcher with Intel Research in Berkeley, California. Gregory Abowd is a computer scientist with interests in HCI and software engineering challenges associated with ubiquitous computing; he is an Associate Professor in the College of Computing and GVU Center at Georgia Tech. Daniel Salber is a computer scientist with an interest in software engineering for context aware applications; he is a Research Associate in the Pervasive Computing Applications group at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.