Context Representation and Fusion: Advancements and Opportunities

Abstract

The acceptance and usability of context-aware systems have given them the edge of wide use in various domains and has also attracted the attention of researchers in the area of context-aware computing. Making user context information available to such systems is the center of attention. However, there is very little emphasis given to the process of context representation and context fusion which are integral parts of context-aware systems. Context representation and fusion facilitate in recognizing the dependency/relationship of one data source on another to extract a better understanding of user context. The problem is more critical when data is emerging from heterogeneous sources of diverse nature like sensors, user profiles, and social interactions and also at different timestamps. Both the processes of context representation and fusion are followed in one way or another; however, they are not discussed explicitly for the realization of context-aware systems. In other words most of the context-aware systems underestimate the importance context representation and fusion. This research has explicitly focused on the importance of both the processes of context representation and fusion and has streamlined their existence in the overall architecture of context-aware systems’ design and development. Various applications of context representation and fusion in context-aware systems are also highlighted in this research. A detailed review on both the processes is provided in this research with their applications. Future research directions (challenges) are also highlighted which needs proper attention for the purpose of achieving the goal of realizing context-aware systems.

Study of Context Modelling Criteria in Information Retrieval

“…As the authors Khattak et al (2014), we agree that before proceeding to the reasoning phase, context aware components and their related information have to be fused and merged [33], but how? In which extent?…”

“…In addition, a possible hybridization can be considered in certain cases. The detailed study of those models is out of the scope of this paper, however, valuable information can be found in [26,33,35]. Moreover, in [32 and 40] an interesting overview of context representation types and the different usages of context models during the operation of a context-aware application is given.…”

“…Likewise, while modeling and designing the context, we shouldregardless of the model-take into account some requirements. A review of some related work in the literature [8,[25][26][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] reveals over 50 different requirements. Table 1 summarizes these requirements; grouped in a categorization adapted from [34,[38][39][40].…”

Architectural QoS pattern to guarantee the expected quality of services at runtime for context-aware adaptation application

“…Errors can occur in context modelling, data acquisition, aggregation of data or inference. Masood argued in [12]: "Context-aware information fusion is based on data received from a number of sources. (2) Some sensors may give false readings.…”

Particle Swarm Optimization and Dempster Shafer Approach to Achieve Internet of Things Context Fusion Using Quality of Context

“…It is also required to increase the confidence of the fused context to bring new information and to give a complete view of the environment. As stated in [2], fusion of context information forms a unified picture or [3] a situation as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts.…”