Automated and interactive composition of ubiquitous applications
Oleg Davidyuk · 2012
Application composition refers to the creation of applications by using Web Services and resources such as mobile devices, displays, and various augmented everyday objects as building blocks. This approach is especially useful for ubiquitous applications which focus on supporting users' needs and everyday activities. This thesis proposes to compose these applications by choosing the appropriate set of resources and services and their configuration as dictated by the users themselves, together with their needs and other contexts. This thesis studies automated and interactive application composition. The first approach enables the system to act upon users' needs and intentions, while the second enables users themselves to specify their needs and achieve their goals. The research was carried out by designing, implementing and evaluating eight prototypes for automated and interactive application composition. The evaluation methods used included performance analysis and user experiments. The main results include (1) the design and implementation of automated composition mechanisms which rely on evolutionary computing and genetic algorithms, (2) a detailed performance analysis of these mechanisms using synthesized datasets and in a real networking environment; (3) the design and implementation of interactive application composition prototypes which rely on graphical and physical (i.e. touch-based) user interfaces for mobile devices and utilize various contexts; (4) an evaluation of these prototypes in a series of user experiments. The evaluation studied the following issues: users' attitudes towards an automated composition system which makes decisions on their behalf; users' attitudes towards a context-aware composition interface; and the issue of balancing user control and system autonomy.