Coping with variability of location sensing in large-scale ubicomp environments

Abstract

The work addresses the problem of coping with a diversity of location tracking techniques available in ubiquitous computing environments. We investigate how this diversity can be embedded in the environment in a way that typical difficulties coming from using location-awareness are hidden. We present an approach to improve location-awareness of these environments by means of integrating the knowledge about different location systems into an existing framework for designing pervasive environments in the form of an ontology. Emerging challenges are also discussed in the context of continuous and smooth communication.