An ontology-based approach supporting adaptive and context-aware information provision in ubiquitous mobility systems

Abstract

The vision in ubiquitous computing, context-aware computing and related fields conceives systems that surround us and adapt to diverse situations and settings. Since adaptation decisions affect the system's usability, measures need to be taken to preserve usability during adaptations. Concepts of ubiquitous computing are adopted in many application domains, for example in mobility. This thesis presents a novel approach towards an autonomous and context-aware usability assessment for the adaptation of interactive devices and modalities at runtime specifically in mobility systems. This approach introduces usability factors into context representation and allows usability to be integrated in context-aware adaptation processes. It focuses on proactive information provision in mobility and on the adaptation of output devices and modalities in mobility systems. This work introduces ontologies to model usability and usability qualities in context-aware ubiquitous systems as well as ontologies for the context of use for ubiquitous mobility systems. Based on these ontologies, this work introduces an approach to enable ubiquitous and context-aware systems to autonomously assess the usability of output devices and modalities and to adapt output to the context of use while preserving usability.