A Model-Based Approach to Supporting Configuration in Ubiquitous Systems

This paper presents an approach for representing, and providing computer support for, the configuration of interactive systems, particularly ubiquitous systems, that offers a flexible method for combining a wide range of configuration techniques. There are many existing techniques offering dynamic adaptation, ranging from fully automatic through context-sensitive to userdriven. We propose a model that unifies all of these techniques and offers a rich choice of ways of combining them, based on the concept of configuration possibilities, evaluation functions applicable to sets of these possibilities and approaches for parameterising the functions and combining the results. We present a concept demonstrator implementation of the model, designed for home care systems, and describe a set of use cases based on this prototype implementation that illustrate the power and flexibility of the approach.