A Middleware-Based Application Framework for Active Space Applications

Ubiquitous computing challenges the conventional notion of a user logged into a personal computing device, whether it is a desktop, a laptop, or a digital assistant. When the physical environment of a user contains hundreds of networked computer devices each of which may be used to support one or more user applications, the notion of personal computing becomes inadequate. Further, when a group of users share such a physical environment, new forms of sharing, cooperation and collaboration are possible and mobile users may constantly change the computers with which they interact; we refer to these digitally augmented physical spaces as Active Spaces. We present in this paper an application framework that provides mechanisms to construct, run or adapt existing applications to ubiquitous computing environments. The framework binds applications to users, uses multiple devices simultaneously, and exploits resource management within the users' environment that reacts to context and mobility. Our research contributes to application mobility, partitioning and adaptation within device rich environments, and uses context-awareness to focus the resources of ubiquitous computing environments on the needs of users.