A Context-Aware Middleware for Context Modeling and Reasoning: A Case-Study in Smart Cultural Spaces

Abstract

The proliferation of smart things and the subsequent emergence of the Internet of Things has motivated the deployment of intelligent spaces that provide automated services to users. Context-awareness refers to the ability of the system to be aware of the virtual and physical environment, allowing more efficient personalization. Context modeling and reasoning are two important aspects of context-aware computing, since they enable the representation of contextual data and inference of high-level, meaningful information. Context-awareness middleware systems integrate context modeling and reasoning, providing abstraction and supporting heterogeneous context streams. In this work, such a context-awareness middleware system is presented, which integrates a proposed context model based on the adaptation and combination of the most prominent context categorization schemata. A hybrid reasoning procedure, which combines multiple techniques, is also proposed and integrated. The proposed system was evaluated in a real-case-scenario cultural space, which supports preventive conservation. The evaluation showed that the proposed system efficiently addressed both conceptual aspects, through means of representation and reasoning, and implementation aspects, through means of performance.