Management of Heterogeneous Profiles in Context-Aware Adaptive Information System

Context-awareness is a fundamental aspect of the ubiquitous computing paradigm. In this framework, a relevant problem that has received little attention is the large heterogeneity of formats used to express a context information: text files in ad-hoc format, HTTP header, XML files over specific DTD’s, RDF, CC/PP and so on. So many applications meet difficulties in interpreting and integrating context information coming from different sources. In this paper we propose an approach to this problem. We first present a general architecture for context-aware adaptation that is able to take into account different coordinates of adaptation. We then show how, in this framework, external profiles are dynamically captured and translated into a uniform common representation that is used by the system to meet the requirements of adaptation. We also present a prototype application that implements the proposed approach.