Using Semantic Web Services for Context-Aware Applications

One way of overcoming the challenges associated with mobile and pervasive computing environments involves providing users with higher levels of automation. This in turn requires capturing the context within which the user operates. In this paper, we describe ongoing research aimed leveraging Semantic Web Services in support of context awareness. This includes modeling sources of contextual information as web services that can be automatically discovered and accessed by agents that assist the user with different sets of tasks. By automatically discovering and accessing a variety of external web services, these agents can automatically develop and execute simple plans to assist the user (e.g. ordering a pizza, organizing an evening out, etc.). This research is being conducted in the context of myCampus, a prototype semantic web environment to enhance everyday campus life at Carnegie Mellon University.