CollaborationBus: An Editor for the Easy Configuration of Ubiquitous Computing Environments

Early sensor-based infrastructures were often developed by experts with a thorough knowledge of base technology for sensing information, for processing the captured data, and for adapting the system's behaviour accordingly. In this paper we introduce the CollaborationBus application: a graphical editor that provides abstractions from base technology and thereby allows experts as well as non-experts to configure ubiquitous computing environments. By composing pipelines users can easily specify the information flows from selected sensors, via optional filters for processing the sensor data, to actuators changing the system behaviour according to their wishes. Users can compose pipelines for both home and work environments. An integrated sharing mechanism allows them to share their own compositions and to reuse and build upon others' compositions. Real-time visualisations help them understand the information flows through their pipelines. In this paper we present the concept and implementation of the CollaborationBus application

[1]  15th Euromicro International Conference on Parallel, Distributed and Network-Based Processing (PDP 2007), 7-9 February 2007, Naples, Italy , 2007, PDP.

[2]  Wei Hong,et al.  TinyDB: an acquisitional query processing system for sensor networks , 2005, TODS.

[3]  Tom Rodden,et al.  Between the dazzle of a new building and its eventual corpse: assembling the ubiquitous home , 2004, DIS '04.

[4]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  A study of preferences for sharing and privacy , 2005, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[5]  Hermann Engels.  Zur Anwendung der Richardson-Extrapolation auf die numerische Differentiation , 2005, Computing.

[6]  Scott R. Klemmer,et al.  Papier-Mache: toolkit support for tangible input , 2004, CHI.

[7]  Steven J. DeRose,et al.  XML Path Language (XPath) , 1999 .

[8]  Anind K. Dey,et al.  a CAPpella: programming by demonstration of context-aware applications , 2004, CHI.

[9]  Frank Vahid,et al.  First results with eBlocks: embedded systems building blocks , 2003, First IEEE/ACM/IFIP International Conference on Hardware/ Software Codesign and Systems Synthesis (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8721).

[10]  Saul Greenberg,et al.  Phidgets: easy development of physical interfaces through physical widgets , 2001, UIST '01.

[11]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Toward Understanding Preferences for Sharing and Privacy , 2004 .

[12]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  The context toolkit: aiding the development of context-enabled applications , 1999, CHI '99.

[13]  Tipster Se Cm.  Architecture Overview , 1996, TIPSTER.

[14]  Hui Lei,et al.  Composing pervasive data using iQL , 2002, Proceedings Fourth IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications.

[15]  Mani B. Srivastava,et al.  SensorSim: a simulation framework for sensor networks , 2000, MSWIM '00.

[16]  Tom Rodden,et al.  "Playing with the Bits" User-Configuration of Ubiquitous Domestic Environments , 2003, UbiComp.

[17]  Hyuk Lim,et al.  J-Sim: a simulation environment for wireless sensor networks , 2005, 38th Annual Simulation Symposium.

[18]  Tom Gross,et al.  Sens-ation: a service-oriented platform for developing sensor-based infrastructures , 2006, Int. J. Internet Protoc. Technol..

[19]  Yang Zhao,et al.  Modeling of sensor nets in Ptolemy II , 2004, Third International Symposium on Information Processing in Sensor Networks, 2004. IPSN 2004.

[20]  Panos Markopoulos,et al.  An editing tool that manages device associations in an in-home environment , 2004, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[21]  Frank Vahid,et al.  A logic block enabling logic configuration by non-experts in sensor networks , 2005, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[22]  Jonathan Trevor,et al.  Personalizing shared ubiquitous devices , 2004, INTR.

[23]  Sanna Talja,et al.  Information sharing in academic communities: Types and levels of collaboration in information seeking and use. , 2002 .

[24]  Sándor P. Fekete,et al.  SpyGlass: a wireless sensor network visualizer , 2005, SIGBED.

[25]  Timothy Sohn,et al.  iCAP: an informal tool for interactive prototyping of context-aware applications , 2003, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[26]  C. M. Sperberg-McQueen,et al.  Extensible Markup Language (XML) , 1997, World Wide Web J..

[27]  Sunil K. Sarin,et al.  Data sharing in group work , 1986, TOIS.

[28]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  A system for simulation, emulation, and deployment of heterogeneous sensor networks , 2004, SenSys '04.