Skip to main content
Log in

Towards a flexible middleware for context-aware pervasive and wearable systems

  • Special Issue - Review
  • Published:
Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Ambient intelligence and wearable computing call for innovative hardware and software technologies, including a highly capable, flexible and efficient middleware, allowing for the reuse of existing pervasive applications when developing new ones. In the considered application domain, middleware should also support self-management, interoperability among different platforms, efficient communications, and context awareness. In the on-going “everything is networked” scenario scalability appears as a very important issue, for which the peer-to-peer (P2P) paradigm emerges as an appealing solution for connecting software components in an overlay network, allowing for efficient and balanced data distribution mechanisms. In this paper, we illustrate how all these concepts can be placed into a theoretical tool, called networked autonomic machine (NAM), implemented into a NAM-based middleware, and evaluated against practical problems of pervasive computing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Amoretti M, Copelli S, Wientapper F, Furfari F, Lenzi S, Chessa S (2011) Sensor data fusion for activity monitoring in the persona ambient assisted living project. Springer Int J Ambient Intell Hum Comp (in press)

  2. Baldoni R, Marchetti C, Virgillito A, Vitenberg R (2005) Content-based publish-subscribe over structured overlay networks. In: Proceedings of the 25th IEEE international conference on distributed computing systems (ICDCS), IEEE, Columbus, pp 437–446

  3. Cabri G, De Mola F, Ferrari L, Leonardi L, Quitadamo R, Zambonelli F (2008) The LAICA project: an ad-hoc middleware to support ambient intelligence. IOS Press Multiag Grid Syst 4(3):235–247

    Google Scholar 

  4. Denti E, Omicini A, Ricci A (2005) Multi-paradigm java-prolog integration in tuProlog. Sci Comput Program 57(2):217–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Devescovi D, Di Nitto E, Dubois D, Mirandola R (2007) Self-organization algorithms for autonomic systems in the SelfLet approach. In: Proceedings of the 1st international conference on autonomic computing and communication systems, ICST, Rome, pp 1–10

  6. Eisenhauer M, Rosengren P, Antolin P (2009) A development platform for integrating wireless devices and sensors into ambient intelligence systems. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Int’l workshop on wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks (IWWAN), IEEE, Rome, pp 1–3

  7. Fides-Valero A, Freddi M, Furfari M, Tazari MR (2008) The PERSONA Framework for Supporting Context-Awareness in Open Distributed Systems. In: Aarts E, Crowley JL, de Ruyter B, Gerhäuser H, Pflaum A, Schmidt J, Wichert R (eds) Proceedings of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) 2008, Nurnberg, Germany, pp 91–108

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Fuentes L, Gamez N, Sanchez P (2009) Managing variability of ambient intelligence middleware. IGI Global Int J Ambient Comp Intell 1(1):64–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Jaroucheh Z, Liu X, Smith S (2009) A perspective on middleware-oriented context-aware pervasive systems. In: Proceedings of the 33rd annual IEEE international computer software and applications conference, IEEE, Seattle, pp 249–254

  10. Jeong YS, Song EH, Chae GB, Hong M, Park DS (2010) Large-scale middleware for ubiquitous sensor networks. IEEE Intell Syst 25(2):48–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Klyne G, Carroll JJ (2004) Resource description framework (RDF): concepts and abstract syntax. W3C recommendation 10 February 2004

  12. Narayanaswami C (2006) Middleware for wearable computing. In: Bellavista P, Corradi A (eds) Handbook of mobile middleware, Auerbach Publications, pp 1169–1188

  13. Normann I, Putz W (2010) Ontologies and reasoning for ambient assisted living. In: AALiance conference, AALiance, Malaga

  14. Obrst L, Ceusters W, Mani I, Ray S, Smith B (2007) The evaluation of ontologies—toward improved semantic interoperability. In: Baker CJO, Cheung KH (eds) Semantic web: revolutionizing knowledge discovery in the life sciences. Springer, Berlin, pp 139–158

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ottino JM (2004) Engineering complex systems. NPG Nat 427:399

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Song Y, Moon S, Gyudong S, Park D (2007) mu-ware: a middleware framework for wearable computer and ubiquitous computing environments. In: PerCom workshops’07, fifth annual IEEE international conference on pervasive computing and communications workshops, IEEE, pp 455–460

  17. Stevens R, Goble CA, Bechhofer S (2000) Ontology-based knowledge representation for bioinformatics. Oxford Univ Press Brief Bioinf 1(4):398–414

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Stoica I, Morris R, Karger D, Kaashoek MF, Balakrishnan H (2001) Chord: a scalable peer-to-peer lookup service for internet applications. In: Proceedings of the conference on applications, technologies, architectures, and protocols for computer communications, ACM, San Diego, pp 149–160

  19. Tyson G, Grace P, Mauthe A, Kaune S (2008) The survival of the fittest: an evolutionary approach to deploying adaptive functionality in peer-to-peer systems. In: Proceedings of the 7th workshop on reflective and adaptive middleware, ACM, Leuven

  20. W3C, OWL 2 web ontology language. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-overview/. Accessed 30 April 2011

  21. Yu Z, Zhou X, Yu Z, Zhang D, Chin CY (2006) An OSGi-based Infrastructure for context-aware multimedia services. IEEE Comm Mag 44(10):136–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michele Amoretti.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Muro, M., Amoretti, M., Zanichelli, F. et al. Towards a flexible middleware for context-aware pervasive and wearable systems. Med Biol Eng Comput 50, 1127–1136 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-012-0905-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-012-0905-9

Keywords

Navigation