The Context Toolkit
A toolkit for context-aware applications
Anind K. Dey (dey [AT] cs.berkeley.edu)
Alan Newberger (alann [AT] cs.berkeley.edu)
On this page:
The Context Toolkit aims at facilitating the development and deployment of
context-aware applications.
By context, we mean environmental information that is part of an
application's operating environment and that can be sensed by the application.
The Context Toolkit consists of context widgets and a distributed infrastructure
that hosts the widgets. Context widgets are software components
that provide applications with access to context information while hiding
the details of context sensing.
In the same way GUI widgets insulate applications from some presentation
concerns, context widgets insulate applications from context acquisition
concerns.
To summarize, the services of the Context Toolkit are:
- encapsulation of sensors
- access to context data through a network API
- abstraction of context data through interpreters
- sharing of context data through a distributed infrastructure
- storage of context data, including history
- basic access control for privacy protection
The Context Toolkit is available through Sourceforge. Through our
Sourceforge project page you can
obtain the latest distribution, and
access our code repository via anonymous CVS.
The Context Toolkit has a user's guide.
This contains a tutorial, an installation
guide and source
code documentation. Also, visit the project
forums, hosted on Sourceforge, for questions and answers from other CTK developers
and users.
A number of applications/projects have been built/augmented with the Context
Toolkit, including:
Applications
- an information display that shows a user standing in front of it, a URL related to the research group that they are in
- Dummbo, an augmented whiteboard. More information here
- a context-aware mailing list that only sends an incoming email to those people who are currently in the building
- a Conference Assistant that aids users when attending a conference. More information here
- CybreMinder, a context-aware system that supports the creation, delivery, and handling of reminders. More information here
- a series of demonstration applications for the Aware Home, including the Smart Intercom
- Augmented Wheelchair, a context-aware communication system that uses context to improve word prediction for mobile and speech-impaired users. More information here and here
Contributed Components
- Designer Support for Context Monitoring and Control
(pdf)
Alan Newberger, Anind Dey
Intel Research Berkeley Technical Report IRB-TR-03-017.
- Stuck in the Middle: The Challenges of User-Centered Design and Evaluation for Middleware
(abstract,
pdf)
Keith Edwards, Victoria Bellotti, Anind K. Dey and Mark Newman
Proceedings of the 2003 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2003), Fort Lauderdale, FL, April 5-10, 2003.
- Distributed Mediation of Ambiguous Context in Aware Environments
(abstract,
pdf)
Anind K. Dey, Jennifer Mankoff, Gregory D. Abowd and Scott Carter
Proceedings of the 15th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2002), Paris, France, October 28-30, 2002. pp. 121-130.
- Stuck in the Middle: Bridging the Gap Between Design, Evaluation, and Middleware
(pdf)
Keith Edwards, Victoria Belotti, Anind K. Dey and Mark Newman
Intel Research Berkeley Technical Report IRB-TR-02-013. Submitted to Designing Interactive Systems (DIS 2002), July 2002.
- A Conceptual Framework and a Toolkit for Supporting the Rapid Prototyping of Context-Aware Applications
(abstract,
pdf)
Anind K. Dey, Daniel Salber and Gregory D. Abowd
Anchor article of a special issue on context-aware computing in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Journal, Volume 16 (2-4), 2001, pp. 97-166.
- The Family Intercom: Developing a Context-Aware Audio Communication System
(abstract,
pdf)
Kris Nagel, Cory D. Kidd, Thomas I'Connell, Anind K. Dey and Gregory D. Abowd
Proceedings of Ubicomp 2001, Atlanta, GA, September 30 - October 2, 2001. pp. 176-183.
- Understanding and Using Context
(pdf)
Anind K. Dey
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Journal, Volume 5 (1), 2001, pp. 4-7.
- Providing Architectural Support for Building Context-Aware Applications
(abstract, pdf,
postscript)
Anind K. Dey.
PhD thesis, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, December 2000.
- Distributed and Disappearing User Interfaces in Ubiquitous Computing
(pdf,
postscript)
Anind K. Dey, Peter Ljundstrand and Albrecht Schmidt, Workshop Organizers.
Workshop
abstract in the Proceedings of the 2001 Conference on Human Factors
in Computing Systems (CHI 2001),
Seattle, WA, March 31 - April 5, 2001.
- Distributed Mediation of Imperfectly Sensed Context in Aware Environments
(abstract,
pdf,
postscript)
Anind K. Dey, Jen Mankoff and Gregory D. Abowd.
GVU Technical Report GIT-GVU-00-14. Submitted to the 13th Annual ACM
Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST
2000), September 2000.
- CybreMinder: A Context-Aware System for Supporting Reminders
(abstract,
pdf,
postscript)
Anind K. Dey and Gregory D. Abowd
Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Handheld and Ubiquitous
Computing (HUC2K),
Bristol, UK, September 25-27, 2000. pp. 172-186.
- The Context Toolkit: Aiding the Development of Context-Aware Applications
(pdf,
postscript)
Anind K. Dey and Gregory D. Abowd
In the Workshop on
Software Engineering for Wearable and Pervasive Computing , Limerick,
Ireland, June 6, 2000.
- Enabling the Use of Context in Interactive Applications
(pdf,
postscript)
Anind K. Dey
Doctoral Consortium paper in the Proceedings of the 2000 Conference
on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI
2000), The Hague, The Netherlands, April 1-6, 2000, pp. 79-80.
- The What, Who, Where, When and How of Context-Awareness
(pdf,
postscript)
David R. Morse, Anind K. Dey and Stephen Armstrong, Workshop Organizers
Workshop abstract
in the Proceedings of the 2000 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems (CHI 2000),
The Hague, The Netherlands, April 1-6, 2000, p. 371.
- Proceedings of the CHI 2000 Workshop on "The What, Who, Where, When and How of Context Awareness"
(abstract and link to papers)
David R. Morse and Anind K. Dey, Workshop Organizers
GVU Technical Report GIT-GVU-00-18.
- Towards a Better Understanding of Context and Context-Awareness
(abstract,
pdf,
postscript)
Anind K. Dey and Gregory D. Abowd.
In the Workshop on
The What, Who, Where, When, and How of Context-Awareness, as part of the
2000 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI
2000), The Hague, The Netherlands, April 3, 2000. Also GVU Technical
Report GIT-GVU-99-22. Submitted to the 1st International Symposium on Handheld
and Ubiquitous Computing (HUC '99), June 1999.
- The Conference Assistant: Combining Context-Awareness with Wearable Computing
(abstract,
pdf,
postscript)
Anind K. Dey, Masayasu Futakawa, Daniel Salber and Gregory D. Abowd.
In the Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Wearable
Computers (ISWC '99), San Francisco,
CA, October 20-21, 1999. pp. 21-28.
- A Context-based Infrastructure for Smart Environments
(abstract,
pdf,
postscript)
Anind K. Dey, Daniel Salber and Gregory D. Abowd.
In the Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Managing
Interactions in Smart Environments (MANSE
'99), Dublin, Ireland, December 13-14, 1999. pp. 114-128.
- An Architecture To Support Context-Aware Applications
(abstract,
pdf,
postscript)
Anind K. Dey, Daniel Salber, Masayasu Futakawa and Gregory D. Abowd.
GVU Technical Report GIT-GVU-99-23. Submitted to the 12th Annual ACM
Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST
'99), June 1999.
- Towards a Better Understanding of Context and Context-Awareness
Gregory D. Abowd and Anind K. Dey, Panel Moderators
(pdf,
postscript)
Panel at the 1st International Symposium on Handheld and Ubiquitous
Computing (HUC '99). Panelists
are: Peter Brown (University of Kent at Canterbury), Nigel Davies (University
of Lancaster), Pete Steggles (AT&T Laboratories, Cambridge) and Mark
Smith (HP Laboratories, Palo Alto). September 27-29, 1999. pp. 304-307.
- The Context Toolkit: Aiding the Development of Context-Enabled Applications
(HTML,
pdf)
Daniel Salber, Anind K. Dey and Gregory D. Abowd.
In the Proceedings of the 1999 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems (CHI '99),
Pittsburgh, PA, May 15-20, 1999. pp. 434-441.
- Designing for Ubiquitous Computing: A Case Study in Context Sensing
(abstract,
pdf,
postscript)
Daniel Salber, Anind K. Dey, Rob J. Orr and Gregory D. Abowd.
GVU Technical Report GIT-GVU-99-29. Submitted to the 1999 Conference
on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI
'99), July 1999.
- The Design and Use of a Generic Context Server
(pdf)
Daniel Salber and Gregory D. Abowd.
In the Proceedings of the Perceptual User Interfaces Workshop (PUI
'98), San Francisco, CA, November 5-6, 1998. pp. 63-66.
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