A CONTEXT-AWARE PLATFORM TO SUPPORT MOBILE USERS WITH PERSONALIZED SERVICES

The emergence of ubiquitous computing, enabled by the availability of portable devices and advances in (wireless) networking technologies, has increased the need for personalized and adaptive services in mobile environments. Users are not anymore only using computing facilities on their desktop machines in a relatively predefined office environment, but they require having access to various services as they move from one location to another, from one device to another and from one network to another. This paper presents a context-aware platform for supporting mobile users with personalized services. The platform is capable of handling different types of context sources (e.g. sensors, readers, agents), offers sophisticated mechanisms in matching the mobile user's preferences with services that are available at the visited location, and provides these services in personalized and adaptive manner to the user conditions. As a proof of concept, we deployed an e-tourism prototype on top of the platform that assists tourists during their travels by providing them with context sensitive services about nearby points of interests.