SpatialAgents: integrating user mobility and program mobility in ubiquitous computing environments
Ichiro Satoh · Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing · 2003
Abstract This paper presents a framework for the building of context‐aware applications in ubiquitous and mobile computing settings. The framework provides people, places, and things with computational functionalities to support and annotate them. It is unique among existing systems because the functionalities are implemented by mobile agents. Using location‐tracking systems, this framework can navigate mobile agents to stationary or mobile computers near the locations of the entities and places to which the agents are attached, even when the locations change. The framework provides a way for mobile agents to follow their users as they move about and to adhere to places as virtual Post‐its. A prototype implementation of the framework has been built on a Java‐based mobile agent system and tested with several practical applications, including follow‐me applications and a user navigational assistance system. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.