Context aware systems

Pervasive and ubiquitous computing has developed a vision where the "computer" is no longer associated with the concept of a single device or a network of devices, but rather the entirety of situative services originating in a digital world, which are perceived through the physical world. It is expected that services with explicit user input and output will be replaced by a computing landscape sensing the physical world via a huge variety of sensors, and controlling it via a plethora of actuators. Applications and services will therefore have to be greatly based on the notions of context and knowledge, and will have to cope with highly dynamic environments and changing resources. "Context" refers to any information describing the situation of an entity, like a person, a thing or a place.This talk will outline challenges posed by the emerging new models of self-managing systems, i.e. systems able to autonomously become aware of their context, to self-describe their situation e.g. for spontaneous interaction, and to adapt in a self-organizing manner based on the available resources and its performance.