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<article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
  <front>
    <journal-meta />
    <article-meta>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Context Modeling for Active Assistance</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group>
        <aff id="aff0">
          <label>0</label>
          <institution>Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt</institution>
          ,
          <addr-line>Klagenfurt</addr-line>
          ,
          <country country="AT">Austria</country>
        </aff>
      </contrib-group>
      <pub-date>
        <year>2011</year>
      </pub-date>
      <fpage>0000</fpage>
      <lpage>0002</lpage>
      <abstract>
        <p>Context awareness is the key to any active assistance system. The Human Behavior Monitoring and Support project (HBMS) applies a multilevel context modeling approach, aiming to achieve context readability, reuse, adaptability and interoperability. The HBMS-System is the resulting active assistance system, which is multiply deployable in different domains to support the behavior of users in situations referring to the user's own episodic knowledge. The HBMSSystem represents and preserves behavior and context knowledge in form of a Human Cognitive Model (HCM) expressed in a domain specific modeling language, called HCM-L. The first version of the HCM-L particularly focused on user behavior modeling. However, evaluations of first use case scenarios made clear that structural context elements like environment, spatiality and personal and social context have to be dealt in more detail. This paper summarizes the requirements for an extended HBMS context model and presents the advanced HCM-L at meta-level M2 also by giving examples on level M1.</p>
      </abstract>
      <kwd-group>
        <kwd>Domain Specific Conceptual Modeling Languages</kwd>
        <kwd>Context Modeling</kwd>
        <kwd>Active Assistance</kwd>
        <kwd>Human Behavior Modelling and Support</kwd>
      </kwd-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
  <body>
    <sec id="sec-1">
      <title>-</title>
      <p>
        The processing of context information gives humans the ability to adapt their behavior
to the world around [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1">1</xref>
        ]. Thus, the capability to acquire context information and to adapt
to a physiological and cognitive user context is very important for systems aiming to
actively assist users in situations of exhaustion, demands and excessive complexity. For
[
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref2">2</xref>
        ], “a system is context aware if it uses context to provide relevant information and/or
services to the user, where relevancy depends on the user’s task”.
      </p>
      <p>
        The nature, scale and complexity of context pose challenges, which [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref3">3</xref>
        ] assigned to
four phases of a context life cycle for context aware systems: (1) Context Acquisition,
sensing and capturing heterogeneous context information provided by physical
sensors/devices and virtual sources. (2) Context Modeling, extracting and maintaining
context of interest as models and classifying context entities and relationships between
these entities. (3) Context Reasoning, deducing new knowledge based on available
context. (4) Context Dissemination, distributing context information to the consuming
context aware services and triggering actions based on the context.
      </p>
      <p>
        These four phases have been a field of research for years in several areas like Smart
Homes, Semantic Web, Internet of Things, Pervasive Systems, Ambient Intelligence,
Ubiquitous Systems or Activity Recognition (e.g., [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref3">3</xref>
        ], [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref4">4</xref>
        ], and [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref5">5</xref>
        ]). They all aim to
acquire and utilize information pertaining to the physical world, to provide services
accordingly and to adapt to changing context information. Thus, context awareness is the
key to any active assistive system.
      </p>
      <p>
        The HBMS project1 applies a multilevel context modeling approach, aiming to
achieve context readability, reuse, adaptability and interoperability. In our first
approach [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref6">6</xref>
        ] the HBMS context model (CM) focused mainly on user behavior and
dynamics aspects. Structural context elements like the users environment, the spatial
environment as well as the users personal and social situation where only dealt basically.
However, use case evaluations2 showed, that a more advanced consideration of
structural context elements is necessary to be able to create models useful for the intended
active support. This paper summarizes the requirements for the HBMS CM and
presents our advanced HBMS context modeling approach at meta-level M2 giving also
examples at level M1.
      </p>
      <p>The paper is further structured as follows: section 2 presents the related HBMS
project, its meta-modeling approach and given benefits for stakeholders in general. Section
3 discusses the state of the art of context aware systems and CMs as well as
classifications of context. Section 4 defines the requirements for the HBMS CM. The advanced
HBMS CM is introduced in section 5 showing the advanced meta-model and giving
examples. The last section summarizes the results and gives an outlook on our future
research.
2</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-2">
      <title>The HBMS Project</title>
      <p>
        The HBMS Project started in 2011 with the aim to actively assist individuals in
activities of daily living and other situations using their own episodic knowledge. This user
knowledge is represented and preserved in HBMS in the HCM, the Human Cognitive
Model expressed in the domain specific modeling language HCM-L [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref6">6</xref>
        ]. HCM-L
consists of a few concepts to make it intuitively comprehensible to relevant stakeholders
of the active assisted living domain [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref8">8</xref>
        ]. HCM-L models are used in HBMS twofold: as
conceptual models for communication and validation purposes between users and
system engineers as well as machine readable context representations allowing context
retrieval, reasoning, interoperability and reuse.
      </p>
      <p>
        The 4-level model hierarchy Meta Object Facility (MOF) specification [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref7">7</xref>
        ] is widely
used in academia and practice for explaining the intension/extension relationships
between meta-models and models. Each model is based on a meta-model which is based
on a meta-meta-model. This stack is separated in four different abstraction levels: the
meta-meta-model (M3) (the most abstract one), the meta-model (M2), the model (M1)
and the application execution (M0). The HBMS multilevel context modeling approach
uses the advantages of MOF. HCM-L concepts are modeled in HBMS at a meta-level
(M2) building our HCM-L meta-model. HCM-L focuses on human behavior and its
surrounding context (‘things’ related to behavioral steps) and provides models which
1 funded by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung gGmbH, Heidelberg
2 see https://youtu.be/F_wPVzq8AqM
can be used as a knowledge base in the HBMS support system. The associated
HCML modeling tool has been developed using the meta-modeling platform ADOxx [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref9">9</xref>
        ].3
Based on the HCM, behavioral active assistance is provided to a user by the
HBMSSystem.
      </p>
      <p>
        The HBMS approach tries to overcome the weaknesses of existing context
modelling approaches: They store important user context only on application level (M0)
which leads to the problem that the models are not explicitly available for
communication purposes. Moreover, the HBMS approach provides:
• Benefits for developers:
─ Organization of context onto multiple abstraction levels: the HBMS approach
separates between meta-model, model and real world perspectives on user context
and boosts flexibility and readability of CMs.
─ Incorporation of user context models (M1) within the software logic of the
HBMS-System (Model Centered Architecture) as they represent an explicit
formal context construction and are understandable by a computer.
─ Interoperability between HCM-L models and external systems: Distribution of
context knowledge is possible via services for external systems (e.g., active
assistance environment components in a distributed system).
─ Domain independence: The proposed context meta-model is independent from
the domain; thus, model creation at (M1) can be easily done for other assistance
domains than the proposed one.
• Benefits for end users:
─ Easy context model creation and customizing: HCM-L enables defining CMs by
using an end user friendly notation, which allows users and stakeholders to easily
understand [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref8">8</xref>
        ] and refine their CMs (M1).
─ High readability: CM clusters allow the handling of complexity of large amounts
of context information; aggregated views on the context supports the integration
of information from different diagrams (realization of the principles ‘Complexity
Management’ and ‘Cognitive Integration’ by Moody [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref10">10</xref>
        ]).
• Benefits for relevant user groups &amp; systems:
─ Mediation of communication between stakeholders, system administrators,
administrators and the HBMS-System and also between different systems because
HCM-L models can be read and understood by both, humans and computers.
3
      </p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-3">
      <title>State of the Art</title>
      <p>
        Context models are used in heterogeneous context-aware application domains (e.g., in
Pervasive Environments [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref4">4</xref>
        ], for Business Processes [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref11">11</xref>
        ], for Geographic Information
Systems [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref12">12</xref>
        ] or in the Active and Assisted Living domain (AAL) [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref6">6</xref>
        ]). Having analyzed
different context definitions and classifications, Rey and Coutaz [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref13">13</xref>
        ] determine, that
there is no context without context. Consequently, the context and its notation should
be defined in terms of a purpose. The definition of context will be different, if there are
3 Free download at URL: http://www.openmodels.at/web/hcm-l
different purposes. Depending on the domain, different CMs fit best for a given purpose
(e.g., to satisfy information requirements, or to navigate somebody). Currently, (1)
there exists no standard for the specification of types of content that should be included
in CMs and in conclusion, (2) today’s context aware applications are still heterogeneous
in their CM approaches.
3.1
      </p>
      <sec id="sec-3-1">
        <title>Context Aware Systems and Context Models</title>
        <p>
          According to Hu et al. [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref14">14</xref>
          ] context-aware systems have traditionally been developed
using one of the following three context modeling approaches:
• Non application-level CMs, where all actions such as context acquisition,
processing, storing and reasoning are performed within system boundaries and the
system directly communicates with the underlying sensing system.
• Implicit CMs, where systems have their own CMs, tools/libraries are used for
processing context data which assist with gathering and pre-processing data but the
context is still bound to the system. Clearly, from the perspective of the particular
system, these CMs are explicit.
• Explicit CMs, where systems have their own CMs and use a shared context
management infrastructure to populate their models at runtime. Context acquisition and
context reasoning lie outside the system boundaries.
        </p>
        <p>In the first two approaches, it is the responsibility of the context-aware system to
acquire context data to handle faults and manage the context information and to perform
context reasoning and retrieval. These facts increase the size and complexity of the
application, the difficulty of implementation and reduce the possibility for context
sharing with other context-aware applications. The third approach is based on explicit CMs
allowing multiple context-aware systems to share a set of common context sources and
information limiting the burden on resource constrained context sources. However, as
different CMs fit best for a given purpose and no context standard is available, such
common context management is hardly achievable.</p>
        <p>In our opinion it is important for context aware systems to reflect at a conceptual
level, what type of information should be considered in their CM and to ensure that this
CM can easily be expressed, processed and shared. Thus, this paper focuses on an
implicit CM for the HBMS-System enabling interoperability between different systems via
a multilevel context modeling approach.
3.2</p>
      </sec>
      <sec id="sec-3-2">
        <title>Classification of Context</title>
        <p>A CM is needed in an active assisted system (a) to define and store context data capable
of being processed for machines and (b) for communication, customization and
validation purposes between users and system engineers. Because of the heterogeneity of
context information, context classification is an important step in context modeling to
discover context, to simplify context communication and customization, to infer
possible actions and information needs and to make CMs interoperable towards different
assistance systems.</p>
        <p>
          The term ‘context’ has been defined and worked on by many researchers. Barwise
uses the term ‘situation’ [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref15">15</xref>
          ] to describe context. Dey and Abowd [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref2">2</xref>
          ] see context as
“any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an entity. An entity
is a person, place or object that is considered relevant to the interaction between a user
and an application, including the user and applications themselves”. They identify
location, identity, time and activity as primary context types, and secondary context as
context that can be found using primary context types. Their definitions have been
adapted by the research community. Gwizdka [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref16">16</xref>
          ] extended the definition of context
from Schilit and Theimer [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref17">17</xref>
          ], and made a basic distinction between context that is
internal or external to the user. Internal context describes user states, which can be made
up of work context, personal events, communication context and emotional state of the
user. External context describes the state of the environment, which can be made up of
location, proximity to other objects, and temporal context. Petrelli [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref18">18</xref>
          ] classified
context in material and social circumstances. Material context refers to aspects such as the
place of use, the device or the available infrastructure, while social context is equally
important, related to aspects (being alone or not, who the others are) and personal traits
(attitudes, preferences or interests).
        </p>
        <p>
          [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref19">19</xref>
          ] propose to use Activity Theory to classify context. Activity Theory [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref20">20</xref>
          ] involves
observing the nature of human activities on three levels: The level of activity (the
overall process), the level of action (subtasks) and the level of operations that realize actions.
While activities are informed by need, individual actions each pursue a specific goal.
As the actions meet with success, the need of the overall activity is extinguished. In
order to put these actions into effect, individual operations are performed. Based on that
levels Kofod-Petersen and Cassens [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref19">19</xref>
          ] introduced a CM that focuses on mental and
physical information about the person (Personal Context), about what tasks a person is
doing and which goal she or he has (Task Context), social aspects like relations to
friends or relatives (Social Context), spatio-temporal information of situations
(SpatioTemporal Context) and a persons’ surroundings, such as things, services and
information accessed by the person (Environmental Context). All together they form the
User Context [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref19">19</xref>
          ]. This CM presents a subjective view on situations, as the experience
with a certain situation is personal. [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref21">21</xref>
          ] classify contexts into physical and virtual
contexts based on context sources. Physical contexts refer to contexts that can be
aggregated by sensing devices. Virtual contexts are contexts that are specified by users or
captured from user interactions, including user preferences, business processes, goals
and tasks. They enable context aware applications to be more adaptive.
        </p>
        <p>
          In addition to this context categorization schemes several more have been introduced
focusing on different perspectives. [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref3">3</xref>
          ] compares various categorization schemes and
their scopes. They share common characteristics but need to be combined together in
order to complement their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses.
        </p>
        <p>The above-mentioned approaches for contextual classification make an effort
towards creating a CM. Nevertheless, they are overlapping and mainly only textually
described.</p>
        <p>
          Since 2006 projects were carried out using an ontology-based model approach, to
represent user context for their assistance system or AAL middleware. A broad variety
of upper and domain ontologies, to classify context in assistive systems, have been
developed this way (e.g., SOUPA, CoBrA-Ont, CoDAMs, the Delivery Context
Ontology, mIO!, CONON, PiVON or the Situation Ontology). Beyond this user context
ontologies, specifications and ontologies have been developed to describe context and
environment where human activities occur (e.g., location ontologies like PlaceTime,
Time ontology, different user agent profile specifications like FOAF ontology, online
community specifications like the SIOC ontology and more [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref5">5</xref>
          ]). UniversAAL was
granted in 2010 with the mission of studying the results of promising previous projects
integrating them into a single, consolidated one. UniversAAL assumes ontologies to be
used for sharing context information between multiple applications using the
universAAL middleware. By referring to the same ontology, two or more applications using
the middleware can ensure, that context is being interpreted in the exact same way. But
universAAL does not define any context classification or common context ontology
itself but lets developers plug-in their own ontologies. As a support for ontology
development, universAAL offers only a collection of proposed ontologies4 and references
existing ontology design patterns5 to be reused or extended [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref22">22</xref>
          ].
        </p>
        <p>
          Almost every active assistance project or context middleware has defined its own
context classification, is reusing/extending existing ones or leaves that task open to
application developers at all. Therefore, context sharing and interoperability between
different systems, using the same context management infrastructure, is limited to
assuming a common context ontology. Furthermore, currently used approaches are not well
suited for communication and validation purposes between users and system engineers.
Although existent context ontologies like COCON can be mapped to M2 (upper context
ontologies, in fig. 1 marked in dark) and M1 (domain context ontologies, in fig. 1
marked in bright) [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref24">24</xref>
          ], their representation is too complex to use it for user
communication. Knowledge representing user behavior, environment, spatiality or profiles is not
4 e.g., https://github.com/universAAL/ontology/wiki/Physical-World
5 http://ontologydesignpatterns.org/wiki/Ontology:Main
covered by these ontologies at all. Important user context (e.g. about the structure and
equipment of a flat) is mostly stored only on application level M0 and is not available
as an explicit model that can be used for communication purposes with the user.
        </p>
        <p>In this paper we want to take care of these weaknesses and also cover user context
as M1 models in our HBMS context model approach based on a meta-model (M2).
4</p>
      </sec>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-4">
      <title>Requirements for HBMS Context Model</title>
      <p>As presented in section 2, there is no context without context and the requirements
regarding the CM of an active assistance system should be classified and defined in
terms of its purpose.</p>
      <p>The overall purpose of HBMS is to provide an active assistance system
(HBMSSystem) deployable in different domains supporting the behavior of according users in
situations referring to the user’s own episodic knowledge. Hence, the HBMS-System
can be useful in different domains (e.g. to assist elderly people (AAL), to assist people
working in production sectors or administration). Furthermore, we use models of
behavior and other context details (e.g., special context types, behavior aspects or
resources) for the purpose of communication among stakeholders, stakeholders and
system administrators, administrators and the HBMS-System and also between different
systems. Thereby a flexible context model has the purpose to customize the
HBMSSystem to domain specific application areas and their target groups.</p>
      <p>
        Considering this purpose, following requirements for HBMS CM can be defined:
(1) HBMS requires a modeling language, which enables the definition of computer
readable CMs that are usable as a knowledge base within a model based HBMS-System
architecture. (2) Produced CMs are expected to be understandable also by human
readers and so by relevant stakeholders of the AA domain [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref8">8</xref>
        ]. (3) HCM-L is expected to
enable modeling context flexibly and to focus on human behavior and related elements
(context).
      </p>
      <p>
        Moreover Bettini et al. [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref4">4</xref>
        ] propose to specify requirements for each domain specific
purpose in regard to heterogeneity, mobility, relationships and dependencies,
timeliness, imperfection, reasoning, usability of modelling formalisms and efficient context
provisioning. Nevertheless, some of these requirements have limited influence on the
HBMS CM itself and more on the HBMS-System working with the CM. Regarding
heterogeneity the HBMS-System has to handle a large variety of context information
sources differing in their update rate, the semantic level and flexibility: raw data from
sensors, that has to be interpreted before it is usable by the HBMS-System; information
about the user in a user profile, that changes rarely in correlation to the physical and
mental health of a person; mostly static spatial user information (floor plans with rooms,
doors, windows) and objects with often status changes like moveable objects (key,
phone, purse). The HBMS CM has to handle this heterogeneous data and the
HBMSSystem ensures to keep the models up-to-date.
      </p>
      <p>A CM must deal with imperfection like incorrect data, incomplete or even conflicting
information. The quality of context information may differ strongly. The
HBMSSystem needs to check and pre-process imperfect data before the context information
is processed in the HCM, in order to keep the models correct.</p>
      <p>There exist relationships and dependencies between context elements. HBMS has
to handle these relationships, which can include spatial information (like an object is
next to, or on another object) but also express dependencies (if objects are part of
another object, they only exist as a part and not standalone). Spatial changes of objects
are transitive to dependent objects. Furthermore, there exist relationships which are
dependent on the perspective: from one side of the room a table is in front of a chair, from
the other side the table is behind the chair.</p>
      <p>
        An active assistance system is always related with mobility. The assistance has to be
given in HBMS also via mobile devices based on information from the CM. Dependent
on current locations, support will adapt itself to the environment by selecting relevant
parts of information out of the CM with efficient context provisioning techniques.
Different context views ensure usability and easy access to relevant context clusters.
Context histories (sequences of behavior and different structural context states on M0) are
preserved in the HBMS-System. Timeliness for support is made available by the
HBMS-System by using efficient reasoning algorithms to provide the needed support
information in time [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref26">26</xref>
        ]. Powerful CMs provide reasoning mechanisms to support the
user and provide consistency verification (see [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref26">26</xref>
        ] for a comprehensive reasoning
approach, based on Answer Set Programming, and model to OWL transformation).
      </p>
      <p>
        The first HBMS CM approach focused with its version of HCM-L mainly on user
behavior and dynamics aspects [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref6">6</xref>
        ]. Structural context elements like the users
environment, the spatial environment as well as the users personal and social situation where
only dealt basically neglecting some of the requirements mentioned above. Thus, the
first prototype of the HBMS-System was able to handle basic CM elements and relevant
stakeholders had the possibility to communicate using the same modeling language.
The corresponding modelling procedure has been described in [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref25">25</xref>
        ]. However, use case
evaluations showed, that not all necessary context aspects could be modeled with the
available version of HCM-L at level M1 and a more advanced consideration of
structural context elements would be necessary to be able to create models useful for the
intended active support. In the following we introduce our advanced HBMS CM
reducing these weaknesses and present a new, advanced HCM-L version.
5
      </p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-5">
      <title>Advanced HBMS Context Model</title>
      <p>
        Based on context classification approaches and ontologies investigated in section 3.2,
fig. 2 maps the gained context knowledge and structures of the advanced HBMS CM
according to the MOF four-layer meta-modeling architecture [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref27">27</xref>
        ]. The advanced
HCM-L version is used in the following as the ‘notation concept’ to describe behavior,
personal and social, spatial and environmental aspects of user context at level M1.
The power of HCM-L in describing level M1 models is determined by its meta-model,
which is positioned at level M2. Thus, the HCM-L meta-model is a model of M1
models and specifies possible context abstractions in HBMS using HCM-L. Finally, M0
includes instances from the real world active assistance, like behavior instances, actual
context states or context history data. Fig. 3 shows a more detailed view on the
advanced HCM-L meta-model (M2) and the interconnections between the elements of its
four context clusters (1) Profile and social surrounding, (2) Behavior, (3) Environment
and (4) Spatiality of an assisted person.
The following subsections will detail this HCM-L meta-model clusters of user context
and show some examples of corresponding level M1 models. Additionally, the
interrelationships between the discussed user context clusters will be focused briefly.
The Environmental Context of a user covers the resources that (1) have a function in
operations of the assisted user or (2) are placed as equipment in the spatial context of
the user and participate in operations. Resources (see fig. 4) can be portable or not, have
looks, shapes and special types. Types are dependent on the M1 modeling domain and
are defined there according to domain suggestions (e.g., in the AAL domain:
cookingcleaning- or communication-devices as types for ‘device’; sleeping furniture, tables or
lights as types for ‘fixture’; food, drink or sanitary product as types for ‘item’). On
meta-model level we specialize a Resource to Device (on M1 e.g., dish washer, laptop,
vacuum cleaner, TV, remote control), Fixture (e.g., table, tub, bed, chair, wardrobe),
Application (e.g., online banking or hotel booking app) and Item (e.g., coat, umbrella,
keys, sugar, bag) to stay as domain independent as possible on M2. Resources can
belong together (e.g., TV and remote control) and can have a relative position to each
other (e.g., the remote is on the TV; the TV is in the living room; the key is under the
wardrobe). Relative positions can be changed on M0 during operation executions.
Resources offer functions (e.g., the device ‘vacuum cleaner’ offers the functions
‘switch on’, ‘clean’, ‘empty dust bag’). HCM-L enables modelling this “resource user
interface” as a set of Functions together with ‘abilities’ the user needs to handle and a
function user guide in form of text and media (textual description how to empty the
dust bag, video to demonstrate it, image to sketch necessary steps) used in Operations
(see section 5.5). In this form operating instructions of Devices can be integrated into
environmental CMs and can be used for active user assistance (by showing one
Operation after another).
The Personal and Social Context of a User (see fig. 5) covers (1) the Abilities that a
User holds together with the ‘level’ of ability fulfilment. This enables the description
of User Abilities concerning mobility, cognition and communication, conduct and
selfsufficiency in domestic and medicinal aspects (types as ‘atype’). Depending on the
domain on M1, a user can have additional User Properties (e.g., has a pet or a certain
medication in AAL). Besides this “user profile” the Personal and Social Context also
covers (2) the social surrounding of a user in form of Contact Persons (in the AAL
domain e.g., family members, friends, care persons or doctors). More properties for a
person can be flexibly added as Custom Property of Physical Thing.
The Spatial Context of a user covers the Location in which the user should be actively
assisted (see fig. 6). This could be a flat or a house in the AAL domain. A Location can
consist of several Areas (‘atype’, e.g., wet room, outdoor, living area, and pathway)
with a size and shape. The Areas are connected via Doorways (‘dtype’, e.g., lockable
door, opening, window) so that they form a kind of floorplan.
Each Area can be furnished with Equipment consisting of Devices and Fixture we
already know from the Environmental Context. So we can position the fridge, dish
washer, coffee machine, table, chair and oven as environment into the kitchen area of
a user’s flat location. Fig. 7 shows an example of such a Spatial CM in the AAL domain.
The Behavioral Context covers meta-modelling elements (M2) to describe abstracted
behavior of the assisted user, possible sequences of actions (Operations connected by
Flows) a person is doing under which conditions, which Goal is pursued and how other
context clusters are included. Dynamic conceptual models called Behavioral Unit
Models (BUMs) can be found as instances on M1. Behavioral context was focused in the
first version of HCM-L [
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref6">6</xref>
        ][
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref26">26</xref>
        ][
        <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref28">28</xref>
        ] and imbedded in the advanced HCM-L approach.
5.5
      </p>
      <sec id="sec-5-1">
        <title>Relations and dependencies between context elements</title>
        <p>Returning to the HCM-L meta-model overview in fig. 2, there are interconnections and
dependencies between all user context clusters. As Persons, Resources and Locations
are generalized to Physical Thing, their characteristics can be customized on demand
in dependence of the M1 level domain requirements. Resource Functions described in
environmental models can be used for user assistance in Operations described in
behavioural models. Devices and Fixture can be referenced and positioned as Equipment
in spatial CMs. All Physical Things can participate in Operations.</p>
        <p>
          Based on these interrelated M1-level CMs additional context knowledge, relevant
for situated active assistance, can be derived applying model-based or rule-based
reasoning approaches [
          <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref26">26</xref>
          ] (e.g., model based reasoning is used if the HBMS-System
assists a person on how to watch TV in the living room). The system is aware that the
required remote control is in the kitchen. Thus, it guides the person to pick up the
remote control in the kitchen first, before helping with the main activity. Rule based
reasoning comes into play if a fitting Behavioral Unit has to be deduced using information
about operation frequency, a calculated cost value (similarity of the current user profile
and other users) and information (e.g., the typical time an operation is performed).
6
        </p>
      </sec>
    </sec>
    <sec id="sec-6">
      <title>Conclusions and further research</title>
      <p>Natural language context classification models do not differentiate between abstraction
levels at all and are not computer readable. Conventional context ontologies for
assistance systems mix different context abstraction level data into one representation,
which is computer- but not end user-friendly. Their main purpose is to parameterize
assistance systems to stay interoperable. Specific user CMs, which are necessary to set
up an assistance system, are hidden from the end user on application data level M0.</p>
      <p>The major contribution of this paper was to introduce the advanced HBMS
multilevel context modelling approach, overcoming weaknesses of the first HBMS CM
approach. The basic context aspects have already been implemented in the HCM-L
Modeler, which is provided as our modeling tool. A new release fully implementing the
presented advanced HBMS CM is under development. Accordingly, the graphical
notation of new modeling concepts needs to be adapted and complemented as well as a
refinement of the procedure how to create models with the HCM-L. Evaluations with
end users on the readability of the graphical notation as well as on the necessary
completeness of the HBMS CM will complement this research.</p>
      <p>Future research will deal with a refinement of modelling human goals, the
investigation of relations between foundational ontologies and our meta-model, and the
process to come from an implicit HBMS CM to a more explicit one, which is better
reusable for other applications.</p>
    </sec>
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