Organizing Contextual Data in Context Aware Systems

Abstract

Context aware systems strive to facilitate better usability through advanced devices, interfaces and systems in day to day activities. These systems offer smart service discovery, delivery and adaptation all based on the current context. A context aware system must gather the context prior to context inference. This gathered context is then stored in a tagged, platform independent format using Extensible Markup Language (XML) or Web Ontology Language (OWL). The hierarchy is enforced for fast lookup and contextual data organization. Researchers have proposed and implemented different contextual data organizations a large number of which has been reviewed in this chapter. The chapter also identifies the tactics of contextual data organizations as evident in the literature. A qualitative comparison of these structures is also carried out to provide reference to future research.