Running Head: CONTEXT IN MOBILE COMPUTING 1

Context in Mobile Computing

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Context in Mobile Computing

In recent decades, there have been rapid advances in mobile computing, such as context

awareness, integrated sensor technologies and a wide range of wired and wireless practices. Most

of the modern mobile computing systems can use context to provide appropriate information and

services to the user, where relevance depends on the user's task (Zheng et al., 2016). The purpose

of having mobile computing systems that are context-aware is to offer the various services at a

reasonable development cost and with simple reconfiguration. That being said, it is important to

discuss context awareness in mobile computing. This paper will discuss context as it applies to

mobile computing and the various ways in which context has been used. Besides, the paper will

describe sensor fusion as it applies to context and suggests new ways of using context.

Context as it applies to Mobile Computing

The concept of context has been explored by a number of researchers. Musumba and

Nyongesa (2013) argue that context encompasses location, characteristics of neighboring users

or objects and the consequent changes. Talipov et al. (2015) refer to context as location,

environment attributes, time and the identities of neighboring users. According to Riboni (2015),

context involves the user's feelings, concentration, location, date and time, and the objects in the

user's environment. Based on these definitions, it is notable that the most important aspects of

context are user location, the user's environment, and the objects near the user. Additionally, it

can be said that context is subject to the constantly shifting execution environment. Even though

the notion of context comprises the understandings of a scenario, much of the effort within the

mobile computing community takes a bottom-up methodology to context.

In mobile computing, context involves the understanding of the physical environment and

how the implicit input influences the behavior of an application. It encompasses three forms of

the environment – computing environment, user environment and the physical environment

(Vinh & Suzuki, 2013). Through the concept of context, these environments are able to interact

constantly. The information in the computing and physical environments of mobile devices

generates a context for interaction between users and devices. Since the current mobile devices

process a wide range of data, context help in controlling the ways users interact with the

ubiquitous environment based on their repetitive tasks (Zheng et al., 2016). For instance, a

context-aware mobile system can detect that a user never uses his or her phone while at work,

and hence all the calls or messages are directed to the user's voicemail when they are working.

Use of Context

The purpose of context-awareness is to determine what the user is attempting to do when

interacting with applications and systems. Without the context, it can be challenging to

determine the user's objective. The context cues are used to inform an application on the best

way to enhance user-application interaction. As such, context awareness signifies a standardized

framework of input, enabling almost all applications to be regarded more or less context-aware

as they interact with the users (Talipov et al., 2015). There is still a contentious argument as to

whether context should only encompass automatically generated information or should comprise

physically acquired information. While the context would be generated automatically in an ideal

setting, it depends on the user input in real-life scenarios (Schmidt et al., 1999). This means that

the context can only be physically generated in a real-life scenario.

Emmanouilidis et al. (2013) advocate three basic applications of context in applications

and systems. These include the presentation of information and services, implementation of
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services and storage of information. Context can enable the user to acquire the information and

services provided by the various mobile computing systems. At the same time, it can suggest

suitable options for actions to the user. For example, the context-aware mobile device can guide

the user to a specific location on a map and perhaps propose neighboring objects or sites,

presenting an alternative of services nearby, sensing and providing input or output information

for specific users and notifying the neighboring users.

As far as the implementation of services is concerned, context is used to initiate

commands or reconfigure the system on behalf of the user based on the changes in the

environment. For instance, a user's desktop environment can be transferred from one workstation

to another. Other examples include a scenario whereby the camera captures a picture when a

biometric sensor is used or a situation where a car navigation system redirects the driver once the

car makes a wrong turn. With regards to the storage and retrieval of information, context enables

applications to capture the relevant information (Musumba & Nyongesa, 2013). For example, a

user interface in a conference may provide the speeches or notes based on the users who were

there, when the conference happened and the location of the conference. Another instance can be

a scenario where a system in Zoo may tag information asked by the user based on their location

and time.

Sensor Fusion as it applies to Context

Today, mobile computing applications and systems frequently use sensor fusion. As Pan

and Zhu (2015) define it, sensor fusion is the combination of data from multiple sensors to

acquire a more precise depiction of the sensor's environment. Through the use of multiple

sensors, it is possible to gain rich data from which suitable context can be inferred with

reasonably less computation. Each sensor has to contribute to generating the entire depiction,
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which means that pre-processing of sensor data will be more intensive. Besides, each sensor

controls the information about all sensors that bring about the context information, the time used

to distinguish the context information, and all actions in the system during the update of context

information (Stojanovic, 2009). Further, the sensors will report its accessibility to the appropriate

sensor fusion mediator.

The first sensor to report in the system may initiate the process of updating the

information. However, the sensor fusion mediator will take actions as regards the time and

process of updating the system (Subramanya & Yi, 2007). This is achieved by selecting some

sensors that initiate the actions. Differentiating the context starts with the sensors raising an

update; it then begins to request information from all available sources in the sensor list. If there

is a change in the sensor configuration, it is updated in the sensor and modifies the approximated

duration required to update the context information (Zheng et al., 2016). Using the information

from multiple sensors, context makes applications more strong to the influence of system

configuration change. The context simplifies artificial intelligence algorithms to acquire data that

can generate high-level context information.

New ways of using Context

With mobile computing devices streamlining the user-application interaction, context-

awareness can be used in more diverse ways. Understanding the user's location and the

subsequent actions will enable the creation of attentive applications that monitor what one do and

react repeatedly (Noh et al., 2012). Every appliance in the house will recognize the actions of the

user, perhaps based on their body and diverse attributes in the environment. The context may be

used to enable minimal interaction; potentially enabling an environment where users and systems

interact effectively. Nonetheless, the key challenge here is to create aspects that enable context to
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automatically correct wrong selections made by the system, hence, making the user feel in

control.

In addition, the optical attribute of the user has not been utilized on context (Zheng et al.,

2016). It should be noted that the visual changes as users engage in specific activities reveal

much information about the activities. Likewise, specific locations and environments influence

visual characteristics. Use of context to enhance visual capabilities could enable a proper

understanding of the processes in real-world settings (Stojanovic, 2009). This might lead to an

extension of the current idea of context with a cognitive aspect, with the creation of cognitive-

aware systems that simplify user interaction. Even as the sensor-equipped computing devices

advance human perception, there is a need to extend the uses of context in enhancing mobile

computing technology. This is the best means to change the way people live and how they

interact with mobile applications.

References

Emmanouilidis, C., Koutsiamanis, R., & Tasidou, A. (2013). Mobile guides: Taxonomy of

architectures, context awareness, technologies and applications. Journal of Network and

Computer Applications, 36(1), 103-125.

Musumba, G., & Nyongesa, H. (2013). Context awareness in mobile computing: A

review. International Journal of Machine Learning and Applications, 2(1).

Noh, H., Lee, J., Oh, S., Hwang, K., & Cho, S. (2012). Exploiting indoor location and mobile

information for context-awareness service. Information Processing &

Management, 48(1), 1-12.

Pan, Z., & Zhu, J. (2015). Context Awareness on Mobile Devices. Applied Mechanics and

Materials, 743(3), 742-747.

Riboni, D. (2015). Context-Aware Pervasive Interfaces. IEEE Internet Computing, 19(4), 68-72.

Schmidt, A., Beigl, M., & Gellersen, H. (1999). There is more to context than

location. Computers & Graphics, 23(6), 893-901.

Stojanovic, D. (2009). Context-aware mobile and ubiquitous computing for enhanced usability:

Adaptive technologies and applications. Hershey PA: Information Science Reference.

Subramanya, S., & Yi, B. (2007). Enhancing the User Experience in Mobile

Phones. Computer, 40(12), 114-117.

Talipov, E., Chon, Y., & Cha, H. (2015). User context-based data delivery in opportunistic

smartphone networks. Pervasive and Mobile Computing, 17(5), 122-138.

Vinh, P., & Suzuki, J. (2013). Special Issue on Context-Awareness of Mobile Systems: Models,

Algorithms and Applications. Mobile Networks and Applications, 18(3), 389-390.

Zheng, M., Cheng, S., & Xu, Q. (2016). Context-Based Mobile User Interface. Journal of

Computer and Communications, 04(09), 1-9.