skip to main content
research-article

A smart web service based on the context of things

Published:03 February 2012Publication History
Skip Abstract Section

Abstract

Combining the Semantic Web and the Ubiquitous Web, Web 3.0 is for things. The Semantic Web enables human knowledge to be machine-readable and the Ubiquitous Web allows Web services to serve any thing, forming a bridge between the virtual world and the real world. By using context, Web services can become smarter—that is, aware of the target things' or applications' physical environments, or situations and respond proactively and intelligently. Existing methods for implementing context-aware Web services on Web 2.0 mainly enumerate different implementations corresponding to different attribute values of the context, in order to improve the Quality of Services (QoS). However, things in the physical world are extremely diverse, which poses new problems for Web services: it is difficult to unify the context of things and to implement a flexible smart Web service for things. This article proposes a novel smart Web service based on the context of things, which is implemented using a REpresentational State Transfer for Things (Thing-REST) style, to tackle the two problems. In a smart Web service, the user's description (semantic context) and sensor reports (sensing context) are two channels for acquiring the context of things which are then employed by ontology services to make the context of things machine-readable. With guidance of domain knowledge services, event detection services can analyze things' needs particularly, well through the context of things. We then propose a Thing-REST style to manage the context of things and user context, and to mashup Web services through three structures (i.e., chain, select, and merge) to implement smart Web services. A smart plant watering-service application demonstrates the effectiveness of our method.

References

  1. Abowd, G. D. e. a. 2002. The computer for the 21st century. IEEE Pervas. Comput. 1, 3, 22--23. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  2. Avraham, S. e. a. 2008. The plant ontology database: A community resource for plant structure and developmental stages controlled vocabulary and annotations. Nucleic Acids Res. 36, 449--454.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  3. Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, J., and Lassila, O. 2001. The semantic web. Sci. Amer. 284, 5, 34--43.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  4. Bio-ontoloty. 2011. Open biological and biomedical ontologies. http://www.obofoundry.org/.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  5. Castellani, A. P., Bui, N., Casari, P., Rossi, M., Shelby, Z., and Zorzi, M. 2010. Architecture and protocols for the internet of things: A case study. In Proceedings of the 1st IEEE International Workshop the Web of Things.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  6. Ceri, S., Daniel, F., Facca, F. M., and Matera, M. 2007. Model-driven engineering of active context-awareness. World Wide Web J. 10, 4, 387--413. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  7. Ceri, S., Daniel, F., Matera, M., and Facca, F. M. 2007. Model-driven development of context-aware web applications. ACM Trans. Inter. Tech. 7, 1, 1--33. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  8. Chandrasekaran, B. 1986. Generic tasks in knowledge-based reasoning: high level building blocks for expert system design. IEEE Expert 1, 3, 23--30.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  9. Chen, G. and Kotz, D. 2000. A survey of context-aware mobile computing research. Tech. rep. TR2000381, Computer Science Department, Dartmouth. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  10. de Souza, L. M. S., Spiess, P., and Guinard, D. 2008. Socrades: A web service-based shop floor integration infrastructure. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Internet of Things. 50--67. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  11. Dengler, S., Awad, A., and Dressler, F. 2007. Sensor/actuator networks in smart homes for supporting elderly and handicapped people. In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops. 863--868. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  12. Dey, A. K. and Abowd, G. D. 1999. Towards a better understanding of context and context-awareness. Tech. rep. GIT-GVU-99-22, GVU Center, Georgia Institute of Technology.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  13. Dey, A. K. and Mankoff, J. 2005. Designing mediation for context-aware applications. ACM Trans. Comp.-Hum. Interact. 12, 1, 53--80. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  14. Dickerson, R., Lu, J. K., and Whitehouse, K. 2008. Stream feeds an abstraction for the world wide sensor web. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Internet of Things. 360--375. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  15. Drytkiewicz, W., Radusch, I., Arbanowski, S., and Popescu-Zeletin, R. 2005. prest: A rest-based protocol for pervasive systems. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Mobile, AdHoc and Sensor Systems.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  16. Fensel, D. and Bussler, C. 2002. The web service modeling framework wsmf. Elec. Commerce Res. J. 1, 2, 113--137.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  17. Fielding, R. T. 2000. Architectural style and the designs of network-based software architectures. Ph.D., University of California Irvine. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  18. Gruber, T. 1995. Toward principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing. Int. J. Hum.-Comp. Stud. 43, 5--6, 907--928. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  19. Guinard, D., Trifa, V., Pham, T., and Liechti, O. 2009. Towards physical mashups in the web of things. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Networked Sensing Systems. 1--4. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  20. Hao, Y., Zhang, Y., and Cao, J. 2010. Web services discovery and rank: An information retrieval approach. Fut. Gen. Comp. Syst. 26, 8, 1053--1062. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  21. Haryanto, R. 2005. Context-awareness in smart homes to support independent living. M.S. thesis, University of Technology, Sydney.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  22. Horrocks, I. 2008. Ontologies and the semantic web. Comm. ACM 51, 12, 58--67. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  23. Ivanova, M. and Ivanova, T. 2009. Web 2.0 and web 3.0 environments: Possibilities for authoring and knowledge representation. Revista de Informatica Sociala 12, 7--21.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  24. Kopecky, J., Gomadam, K., and T., V. 2008. hrest: An html microformat for describing restful web services. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  25. Lorenzo, G. D., Hacid, H., and Paik, H. 2009. Data integration in mashups. ACM SIGMOD Record 38, 1. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  26. Lu, R. and Jin, Z. 2002. Formal ontology: Foundation of domain knowledge sharing and reusing. J. Comp. Sci. Tech. 17, 5, 535--548. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  27. Luckenbach, T., Gober, P., Arbanowski, S., Kotsopoulos, A., and Kim, K. 2005. Tinyrest—a protocol for integrating sensor networks into the internet. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Real-World Wireless Sensor Networks.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  28. Manes 2001. Enabling open, interoperable, and smart web services. http://www.w3.org/2001/03/WSWS-popa/paper29.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  29. Mark, W. 1991. The computer for the 21st century. Sci. Amer. 265, 94--104.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  30. Muehlen, M. Z., Nickerson, J. V., and Swenson, K. D. 2005. Developing web services choreography standards—the case of rest vs. soap. Decis. Sup. Sys. 40, 9--29. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  31. OntolotyLookup. Ontology lookup service. http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ontology-lookup/, 2011.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  32. Pahl, C., Bandara, K. Y., and Wang, M. 2009. Context constraint integration and validation in dynamic web service compositions. In Enabling Context-Aware Web Services: Methods, Architectures, and Technologies, Q. Sheng, J. Yu, and S. Dustdar, Eds.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  33. Rasch, K., Li, F., Sehic, S., Ayani, R., and Dustdar, S. 2011. Context-driven personalized service discovery in pervasive environments. World Wide Web J. 14, 4, 295--319. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  34. Sheng, Q. Z. and Benatallah, B. 2005. Contextuml: A uml-based modeling language for model-driven context-aware web service development. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Mobile Business. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  35. Sheng, Q. Z., Pohlenz, S., Yu, J., Wong, H. S., Ngu, A. H. H., and Maamar, Z. 2009. Contextserv: A platform for rapid and flexible development of context-aware web services. In Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Software Engineering. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  36. Sheng, Q. Z. e. a. 2008. Ws3—international workshop on context-enabled source and service selection, integration and adaptation. In Proceedings of the 17th International World Wide Web Conference. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  37. Sheth, A. P., Gomadam, K., and Lathem, J. 2007. Sa-rest: Semantically interoperable and easier-to-use services and mashups. IEEE Intern. Comput. 11, 6, 91--94. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  38. Sommer, S., Scholz, A., Buckl, C., Kemper, A., Knoll, A., Heuer, J., and Schmitt, A. 2009. Towards the internet of things: Integration of web services and field level devices. In Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Future Internet of Things and Services—Embedded Web Services for Pervasive Devices.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  39. Swenson, K. D. 2005. Workflow and web service standards. Bus. Proc. Manage. J. 11, 3, 218--223.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  40. Volz, R. 2004. Web ontology reasoning with logic databases. Ph.D., Institute AIFB, University of Karlsruhe.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  41. Wayne 2007. Tim Berners-Lee's web of people. Online Journalism Review. 12/04/07. http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/071204wayne/.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  42. Web3.0 2008. Web 3.0. http://webuser.hs-furtwangen.de/~heindl/ebte-08ss-web-20-uphakorntanakit.pdf.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  43. Wilde, E. 2007. Putting things to rest. Tech. Rep. UCB iSchool Report 2007-015, University of California Berkeley.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  44. Yu, J., Sheng, Q. Z., Liao, K., and Wong, H. S. 2009. Model-driven development of context-aware web services. In Enabling Context-Aware Web Services: Methods, Architectures, and Technologies, Q. Sheng, J. Yu, and S. Dustdar, Eds.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  45. Zeeb, E., Bobek, A., Bohn, H., Priiter, S., Pohl, A., Krumm, H., Luck, I., Golatowski, F., and Timmermann, D. 2007. Ws4d: Soa-toolkits making embedded systems ready for web services. In Proceedings of Open Source Software and Productlines.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  46. Zhao, H. and Doshi, P. 2009. Towards automated restful web service composition. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Web Services. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library

Index Terms

  1. A smart web service based on the context of things

            Recommendations

            Comments

            Login options

            Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

            Sign in

            Full Access

            PDF Format

            View or Download as a PDF file.

            PDF

            eReader

            View online with eReader.

            eReader
            About Cookies On This Site

            We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.

            Learn more

            Got it!