Context-aware applications for a Pocket PC

Sammanfattning: With the rapid development of technology for context awareness, pervasive computing is releasing people from their traditional desktops. Since mobile devices feature portability and are (nearly) always connected, people tend to carry them wherever they go. Hence, devices such as cellular phones and Pocket PCs are the most suitable platforms for developing context aware applications which users will utilize in their daily life. For these context aware systems, using this context information not only improves the user experience of ubiquitous computing, but also lets the system know who you are or what you have. More importantly, the device can know where you are and predict what you might like to do, thus simplifying many of the user’s interactions with devices and other people around them. This thesis project involves the design, implementation and evaluation of a context aware application, based upon a Pocket PC, that can remind the user of tasks when the user approaches the relevant location for this task. The application interacts with a context aware infrastructure by using the SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) protocol, receives context information for the user described using XML. A number of new tags, based upon a new XML schema, have been introduced for this task. This context aware mechanism enables the user to receive any form of information updated by the context server. In this thesis, updates to this information are driven by changes in the user’s location. Additionally, by using the existing calendar application on the Pocket PC, the user can experience location based reminders without learning how to use a new user interface.