Adapting applications in handheld devices using fuzzy context information

Context-aware devices are able to take advantage of fusing sensory and application specific information to provide proper information on a situation, for more flexible services, and adaptive user interfaces (UI). It is characteristic for handheld devices and their users that they are continuously moving in several simultaneous fuzzy contexts. The dynamic environment sets special requirements for usability and acceptance of context-aware applications. Context-aware applications must be able to operate sensibly even if the context recognition is not 100% reliable and there are multiple contexts present at the same time. We present an approach for controlling context-aware applications in the case of multiple fuzzy contexts. This work has several potential applications in the area of adaptive UI application control. Our study is focused on the adaptation of applications representing information in handheld devices. The design of controllers and experiments with real context data from user scenarios are presented. Experimental results show that the proposed approach enhances the capability of adapting information representation in a handheld device. User reactions indicate that they accept application adaptation in many situations while insisting on retaining the most control over their device. Moreover, user feedback indicates that abrupt adaptations and instability should be avoided in the application control. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.