Contents Abstract CAPNET Program Briefl y Use Case driven research process Use cases CAPNET innovation process Architecture Architecture Taxonomy

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2 2 Contents Abstract CAPNET Program Briefly Use Case driven research process Use cases CAPNET innovation process Architecture Architecture Taxonomy Connectivity Management Service discovery Context Awareness Adaptive Content Techniques Adaptive User Interfaces RFA Model

3 Abstract 2 In recent years, the concept of pervasiveness has gained a great deal of attention from the viewpoints of mobility, networking and services. To extend this, pervasive networking aims to abstract, or hide, the processing and networking infrastructure from the user. Until recently, however, much of this work has not been realized due to the unavailability of key enablers, truly ubiquitous connectivity and suitable content adaptation techniques. Connectivity is becoming a reality with new short-range radio systems, wireless local area networks and packetbased cellular telephone systems. Adaptation provides the main techniques to realize active, user-monitoring and context-aware services. The wide range of properties and a large numbers of nodes in a large-scale pervasive network introduce a number of challenges for inter-operability, such as compatibility and important research issues related to programmability, ad hoc composition, media scaling, security and privacy, to name a few. The ad-hoc nature of these environments, however, renders many of the traditional network service and management techniques used to address these issues ineffective, if not totally unfeasible. Clearly, the pervasive connectivity research needs to consider the overall management, privacy and authentication issues from an entirely new point of view: the fact that services are constructed on-the-fly, the surrounding space is extremely rich, and users dynamically change preferences (according to e.g. time, schedule, location, proximity, space) alone sets these requirements. One of the key goals of the CAPNET research is to address issues related to intelligent, dynamic scaling and interoperability of capabilities in mobile environments, where services are exploited through the mobile telephony-based device, in the present network sub-space, where nodes are able to adapt to context parameters, such as time, location or situation. The problem of modeling these in a way that facilitates smooth processing and delivery of the context information is one of the major challenges of pervasive networking. As many of the nodes in a pervasive network process digital media such as audio or video as their service, media adaptation, compressed domain management and transcoding technologies will be essential. Similarly, the challenges lie in constructing mobile applications, ready for on-the-fly construction. Current application techniques and structures cannot cope with pervasive networking, when requirements are demanding capabilities such as roaming or instant integration, and the device has only a limited capacity to offer, with limited resources to be used as a gateway between environments. Finally, providing the necessary contextual information for the applications brings considerable challenges. The key problems in this area are recognising context from the available information and autonomously discovering how an application should be adapted to context.

4 2 CAPNET Program Briefly CAPNET Context-aware Pervasive Networking program focuses on basic and applied research as well as innovating new business initiative. Collaboratively, this approach creates a solid foundation for technology development, new areas of business and mobile services of next generations. CAPNET program focuses on context-aware mobile technologies for ubiquitous computing. The program consists of four major segments, which are the basis for developing new services. The segments are 1) diversity management in pervasive networking, 2) adaptive software structures, ) adaptive content techniques and ) adaptive user interface techniques. The project focuses on services that are accessible and maintainable using mobile devices and rapidly integrating All-IP hybrid network technologies. This kind of information and communications technology and mobile services together form one of the most promising business fields in the near future. As the end user environment becomes more technical, it brings new challenges for the integration of technologies, as well as for providing intelligent easy-to-use services and adapting them automatically according to the needs of businesses and consumers. This requires special technology, which can be utilised globally for example in the fields of service discovery, contextual service enablers, very light technical architectures, ambient service configuration and adaptive mobile user interfaces. Three research groups from the University of Oulu participate in the research program: MediaTeam and Intelligent Systems from the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, as well as Human Computer Interaction group from the Department of Information Processing Science. Thus the extensive program includes a multi-disciplinary group of researchers from within the university. Also two foreign research institutes participate in the research: Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland (USA) and the University of Linköping (Sweden). The CAPNET program includes partnership by prominent domestic and foreign businesses in the field: CCC, Hantro, IBM, Nokia and Sonera. The above-mentioned businesses and research groups in the University of Oulu are part of Mobile Forum, which operates on an open-community basis, with the purpose of creating a top-level international framework for the development of mobile technologies, services, and new forms of business. The first phase of the CAPNET program is launched with funding by the NETS program of the National Technology Agency and business partners. USE CASE #1: Know your whereabouts After one week... I m going to teach my phone my habits. Looks cool! Marie buys a new phone. She is showing it to her friend Susie. The device has learnt where Marie likes to visit and what she does.

5 Use Case Driven Research Process 2 As the ultimate goal of ubiquitous computing is to seamlessly connect our analogue human world with the digital computer world, the starting point of ubiquitous applications and infrastructures should be in actual usage and human behaviour. Computers should be able to learn how humans interact and behave, while humans should be able to be unaware of how the computers operate. In CAPNET, we have adopted a use case driven research approach to ensure that real human needs are the driving force for the technology development. We derive our research problems and technology requirements from actual usage needs and scenarios arising from real human needs. The use case process begins with use case identification. We generate ideas of how everyday life could be supported by the means of ubiquitous computing. The ideas can be derived from observations, trend analysis, or performance-based design methods. The use case idea is then refined into a coherent use case description, for which we have generated a set of document templates and documentation guides. After describing and planning how technology could be used in a ubiquitous manner in the selected use case, we evaluate and analyse the use cases in order to identify the ones, which provide us with the best basis for further research. Finally, based on analysis work, we select some basic use cases. After this, we can use the set of selected use cases as a starting point for deriving requirements and research problems for CAPNET technology creation. Use Cases At the first use case generation round, we generated use case scenarios to form a foundation for our architecture and technology development work. The purpose of these basic scenarios is to focus our research work and provide practical requirements and justification for design decisions. The Know Your Whereabouts use case applies a routine learning approach in teaching a device, e.g. a mobile phone, automatic actions that it could perform on the basis of the context data. The device silently monitors user behaviour, and when it has collected enough material for making reliable predictions about user behaviour, it can ask the user to verify if the rules generated are valid and if they should be used for automatic adaptation of the user interface in the future. Your phone is beeping. Look, it remembers! Marie gives names to positions. Marie leaves to work, surprised that her phone helped her not to be late.

6 2 The Lunch Assistant use case scenario uses context data to provide the user with information about services available. For example, the device knows the location of the user and the time of day, and uses this information for providing the user lunch menus from nearby restaurants at lunchtime. The user can then select where he or she would like to have lunch and what he or she would like to have, and make an order. When the user arrives at the restaurant, the lunch and a free seat are waiting for him or her. The Shopping use case scenario helps the user to keep track of information about items, for example when he or she considers buying something. The user can store prices, material information and other details when visiting shops, and compare different products afterwards, for example at home. Some of this data can be stored as a Wish List, i.e. a list for purchases to be made in the future. The user can also access wish lists composed by other persons, and use those for buying for example a wedding present. The Wellbeing use case is related to monitoring the physical activities of the user. The application can use the sensor information collected by various sensors, such as heart rate monitor, blood pressure monitor or accelerator sensor, and use this data to monitor the user s physical activity and condition. The application can use this information for making suggestions about a training programme, or send the information to a personal trainer or doctor for further processing. USE CASE #2: Lunch assistant The HotStone use case provides the user with means for transmitting emotional messages through a mobile device. HotStone can be configured for warming itself up, when your partner thinks about you and squeezes his or her HotStone for indicating that to you. The HotStone can alternatively be configured to warm up context-sensitively, for example if you are using a dating service and a matching date is walking nearby. The Machine to Machine use case deals with ad-hoc networking of devices. The user could access services near by only by accessing the space where the services are available. This could be used, for example, in meeting room for the meeting participants to swap files with each others, or to show slide show material through a projector. The environment would take care of networking the devices with each others, and would not require any manual configurations from the users. Brad will join me. Let s see what they have today... Joe is registered customer at two of his favourite restaurants near the office. Near noon, lunch menus are delivered to Joe s mobile device. The list includes today s special offers and free table available.

7 CAPNET Innovation Process what is it? why is it possible? is it doable? use case ideas use case drafts use case analysis use case acceptance 2 use case review review in technology expert group list of desired features dream functionality classify features according to CAPNET architecture map selected features to technology candidates perform E2E check and technology consistency review in steering group review classifications of features accept features to CAPNET architecture framework perform research to find optimum solution review in scientific forums select UBI-enabling features? chart architecture impacts? technologies needed? Fifteen minutes later... Sounds delicious... I hope you like my special offer of today. From his office, Joe browses information from the two restaurants and chooses one of them. He makes an order and reserves a table there at convenient time. Joe enters the restaurant with Brad. Lunch is nearly ready for them to enjoy.

8 2 Architecture The CAPNET architecture forms the basis for implementing context-aware and pervasive systems and their components. It will be utilized in the CAPNET program in integrating research results into applications. The application area considered in CAPNET sets demanding requirements for the architecture. The application has to be decomposed between the networked devices and the user s terminal. The part of the application running in the terminal has to be light. Furthermore, the architecture has to be platform-independent and support the existing technologies. Finally, the architecture needs to support dynamic application partitioning. The CAPNET architecture is decomposed into CAPNET Runtime Environments (CREs). Each device contains a CRE. The minimum hardware and software requirements for the runtime environment are kept modest. Each CRE contains a number of engines. Engines are the basic entities of a CAPNET system, each being specialized in producing a certain type of facility: service discovery, user interface, context recognition, media processing, connectivity management, component management, database access, etc. The function of an engine is decomposed further into components. An application is composed of application logic and engines producing the required function. The engines are located in the mobile terminal and the networked devices. A simple application consists of application logic and a single engine, both in the mobile terminal. At the other end of the continuum, engines in the terminal and the network form a hierarchy, the application requesting services from some engines, which in turn request services from other engines. USE CASE #: Wishlist Now we have taken all the pictures of the things we wish to have. Let s send them to the Bridal registry. Jack and Jill are going to get married. They are window-shopping. Mobile phone takes the barcode out of the picture, sends it to server at shop using short range radio connectivity.

9 Architecture Taxonomy 2 1. Direct Engine-Application Connection Local / Mobile Environment 2. Local Domain of Networked Engines Local / Mobile Environment. Hybrid Domains of Networked Engines Local Hosted Environment Local / Mobile Environment Local Hosted Environment Remote Hosted Environment Let s check that they all are there. Look how nice things they wish to have for a present! All information is in the stores server. Kate and John are thinking of what they could buy for a wedding gift.

10 2 Connectivity Management Connectivity is becoming a reality with new short-range radio systems, wireless local area networks and packetbased cellular telephone systems. However, effective management of these diverse connection resources within a fully integrated environment is far from maturity. Pervasive wireless networks are characterized by a variety of wireless overlay access networks of different technologies. Network connectivity with varying quality of service must be offered anytime and anywhere in pervasive space. The various wireless access networks in pervasive environment introduce a number of challenges for mobility management. Connectivity management focuses primarily on mobility techniques needed to access services offered through pervasive smart spaces, where spatial proximity, available computing and processing power, storages, sensors, locators and other resources are constantly changing. Connectivity management technology optimises adaptive networking of diverse wireless connectivity in ubiquitous environment. The main emphasis is on pervasive networking enabled by the adaptibility of multiple connectivity, and its various wireless network resources include harmonious coexistence, seamless interconnection, and efficient interoperation. Connectivity management facilitates the administration of multiple network connections so that diverse communication resources available in the zoning smart space can form wireless connections in a simultaneous, collaborative, or complementary fashion. Various network interfaces in a mobile device can be dynamically selected and corporately utilized, to realize the goal of pervasive access to various network resources and applications. The paradigm of pervasive networking based on multi-connectivity requires new models and methods both at architecture level and in several layers of the conventional protocol stack. Key research problems, e.g. mobile ad hoc connectivity, smart environment construction, protocol adaptability, seamless roaming, and connectivity adaptation, are to be addressed for realizing the visions of pervasive networking. USE CASE #: Shopping These are not good quality. These are good... Tom is looking for a new pair of pants for his son Mark. He is not sure that these are the right pants. He takes a photo of them. The photo goes to phones memory, and the phone sends photo and barcode to server.

11 Service discovery 2 Service discovery is a crucial part of applications working in pervasive environment. The aim is to enable the connecting and integrating diverse networked equipment and applications to form a seamless unity. The use of services and devices that are distributed to the environment and network should be simplified by allowing them to be discovered, configured and used by other devices and services with a minimum of manual effort. Common agreements have to be defined in terms of application level discovery and access protocols. Moreover, the protocols must function reliably in adhoc style wireless networked environments. Also, the methods for selecting appropriate services according to user s profile and context are emphasised when dealing with pervasive environment with numerous services, especially as the set of available services will change according to spatial and temporal location. The amount of protocols for service discovery is ever increasing. Some rely on centralised information servers and registers while others use a distributed approach with pull or push methodology. One of the problems with pervasive services is how to deal with the diversity of service discovery protocols. Moreover, if several protocols and methods are supported, the information that is accessed via them has to be merged and handled somehow. There are plenty of different kinds of situations when service discovery is needed. One of the most apparent cases is the need to find services that are currently available and nearby. For example when a user arrives at a meeting room he may want to use a printer, data projector, and other devices located in the room with his or her mobile device. The ad hoc discovery of these devices and connections to them may be managed through methods such as Bluetooth or WLAN. Another service discovery case occurs when there is a need to find services that are currently available, but not necessarily in the proximity. Examples include the need to find services that are near a hotel where the user is going to stay while travelling in the future, or the need to find information about stock quotes. So-called semantic web technologies address the problem of finding appropriate services through WWW. One demanding research problem on service discovery is how automatic machine-to-machine service discovery is managed. Software components may need to locate other available software components and services through the networked environment. Combining service discovery with dynamic software environment and context awareness will pose a challenging research issue. One week later... Nice, these are exactly the pants Mark wanted. Look, now the pants are on sale! Tom gets an on-sale notification later on. Tom pays them with his mobile phone and picks them later on.

12 2 Context Awareness Pervasive software needs to gain intelligence in terms of understanding its immediate environment, associated entities and occurring events. Furthermore, in order to manage unexpected, temporal or entirely new tasks within its present eco-system, the software and its services must possess certain properties to be autonomously configurable and adapt to the changes in the immediate environment. To be able to configure itself autonomously and to adapt to the situation at hand, the pervasive software needs methods for recognising the context and methods for learning regularities in the user s behaviour. With these methods, the software can obtain the necessary contextual information, recognise the important contexts, adapt the user s profile and even learn rules for adapting the application to context (i.e. rules for context-aware personalization). Instead of functioning in predefined, deterministic ways, the ad hoc software can use information of the current situational context. This information is exploited for example in guiding the construction of an application from software components in an on-the-fly manner. Services appear more intelligent, and can carry out more profiled, focused tasks that are of immediate interest to the present user and environment. Novel software techniques and models must be developed to exploit the paradigm of context-aware computing. In context-aware computing, research problems are related to e.g. contextual information gathering and context recognition, presentation of contextual information and context criteria, routine learning, quality of service of context information, managing context information database and diverse exploitation of situational awareness. USE CASE #: Wellbeing Now I can really start extreming... Tom downloads an exercise planning program written in Java. The application automatically finds and recognizes the various health monitoring gadgets which Tom is wearing.

13 Adaptive Content Techniques 2 Pervasive computing aims to give users the perception of being immersed in an environment where they have seamless access to a potentially endless array of services. The users operate within these environments and communicate with a smart space via wireless devices that operate quickly, efficiently, securely and effortlessly to exchange information and access services. In order to enrich interaction between users and their environment, current scenarios involve the ability to deliver multimedia in response to an information need. Advertisements, descriptions of products and guided tours etc. can be streamed directly to the user. In addition, there is a category of ubiquitous services that would benefit greatly from the ability for the user to provide visual input as supplemental. Images and video can be captured by the users and shared with others, for example as part of a shopping application where users want to get feedback on purchases from others. The environment can even use arrays of sensors for detection, recognition and monitoring to provide customized services. For such services, the requirements for real-time performance, adaptation and intelligent management of multimedia information services and the network required to deliver such services are clear. In CAPNET, we are developing a set of advanced media services that will allow users and their applications to make use of multimedia content. We will provide critical technologies for emerging personal pervasiveness in traditional environments including the ability to obtain, process and deliver visual information (images and video), from traditional environments to services that require them, and the ability to deliver visual content back to the user in response to an information need. Providing such services will facilitate the development of applications that enhance the core goal of enriching the users environment. While Tom is climbing, the application monitors the details of Tom s condition. The application automatically develops a near-term fitness plan appropriate for Tom given his current physical condition.

14 2 Adaptive User Interfaces Adaptive user interfaces provide us with means for giving the application the possibility to learn how its user behaves, instead of the traditional approach, where the user needs to learn how the application operates. The same service or application should be available for children who have not yet learned how to read, people speaking different languages, old people who have problems in hearing, etc. The ubiquitous environments need to be designed so that the same services are available for people using different kinds and types of devices in environments, which provide different levels of capabilities (e.g. networks or sensors). As the amount of information provided for us by the smart networked devices will increase, adaptive user interfaces can act as filters between information and the user, saving us from information overload. The smart interface can provide the user with the needed information in a proper situation and context. It can also modify its own operation according to the needs of the user. However, the limits of adaptive systems have not yet been clearly defined. An application with an adaptive user interface does not necessarily give us a more satisfied user. The user might as well feel confused, unsure, and even distressed, if he or she cannot understand why the application changed its appearance and behaviour. If the application makes false assumptions, thus adapting to a wrong situation, the user very easily loses his or her trust for the system. Therefore, in addition to developing more accurate and precise adaptation techniques, we also need to study where the adaptation will result in higher user satisfaction and better efficiency of the user interface. In CAPNET, we will concentrate on smart adaptability, i.e. how the user interface adapts itself according to the use context. Additionally, we will try to define situations where this type of adaptability is most efficient. USE CASE #: The HotStone I wish Brandi and I had more time together. Brandi is home alone, preparing her lecture for tomorrow. Her husband, Tom, is working late again. Tom feels lonely, he presses his HotStone.

15 I ime. RFA Model 2 The CAPNET program is the first occasion for application of the so-called RFA (Research Focus Area) model. Programs applying the model focus on strictly defined areas of technology, with the purpose of developing promising future applications in close cooperation with research groups and institutes, as well as related businesses and financiers. Application of the model signifies particular concentration on basic research, on the basis of which applied research and demonstrations are created. The RFA model is flexible, allowing new projects and partners to be added to programs even after their launch. The programs usually last from to years. The goal with the RFA model is to reduce the amount of administrative work involved with research projects until now, and to leave enough time for the research itself. The more and the longer it is possible to concentrate on a certain research area, the better is the quality of the results. A precisely defined research area and a sufficiently long duration of the program create good possibilities for networking between the different parties. This is not only a question of making contacts, but also an opportunity to deepen the cooperation as necessary. A close cooperation may lead to the possibility of launching new projects swiftly and easily within a program. The RFA organisation is divided into four groups: in addition to the traditional management and research groups, the model contains the groups of technology experts and application and business experts. The technology experts group closely supervises the progress of research. Application and business experts ensure that research results are quickly and effectively transferred to the use of both information and telecommunications industry and the companies utilising technology. The RFA model offers three different levels of partnership. Now also small companies and businesses that utilise the technology being developed have better opportunities to participate in research program faster and more inexpensively than before. The model is meant to provide continuity, of which all parties can benefit. Another aim is to commit different players to the goals of the program. How sweet. I ll give him a call. Brandi feels her own HotStone warming up......she knows that Tom is thinking about her.

16 Contacts Marika Leskelä Program Manager + 2 Jaakko Sauvola Program Director jaakko.sauvola@ee.oulu.fi