SimCon: Simulated Context Sources for the Rapid Evaluation of Context-Aware Entities using Virtual Reality

This paper describes the Platform For User Centric Design and Evaluation of Context-Aware Systems for rapid evaluation of context-aware entities using Virtual Reality. Specifically it details an experimental evaluation of the SimCon (Simulated Context) Tool Set for configuring and placing simulated context sources within a virtual environment. As a basis for this work, a high level model of the stages of context flow is described. Location tracking context sources are identified as the most appropriate for simulation within the virtual environment. Simulated context sources are modelled using the sensor modelling language (sensorML). We evaluate both the accuracy of the context simulations against their real world counterparts and the effort involved in placing and configuring simulated context sources. We show that for early rapid evaluation of context-aware entities which use location, there are savings in both time and effort using this approach that are of benefit to context-aware entity developers. Author