This presentation is about contextual computing and context awareness in software applications and an experimental project which we did in this area for the new Mary Idema Pew Library of Grand Valley State University using Estimote Beacon devices.

1. Context awareness &
Contextual Computing
Occupancy Monitoring of Mary Idema Pew
Library
Advisor Professor Engelsma
Sam Serpoosh
https://github.com/Sam-Serpoosh
https://linkedin.com/in/samserpoosh
http://masihjesus.wordpress.com
@masihjesus

2. Device sensors more
information

3. We collect big data
• What do we do with it?
• Recommendation Engines
• More relevant and useful content for each individual
• Better user experience and more value

4. What is missing?

5. Human-human VS
human-computer
Current Context & Situational Information

6. Context can be different

7. Hang out suggestion
WHERE???
PREVIOUS ACTS???
WHO???

8. What you’re looking at

9. Context depends on domain
• Based on the application
• Problem it is solving
• The Domain
“Any information that can be used in order to
describe the situation of an entity relevant to
interaction between user and the application is
considered Context.”

10. What can be improved on
campus?
• Looking for a book?
• Campus Tour Guide?

11. Campus tour app  kills social
Interaction

12. Meeting with library staff
• new books notification
while they’re passing by
different sections
• Traffic and
Occupancy Monitoring
In certain areas

13. Occupancy monitoring wins
• Library staff are more interested in occupancy
monitoring
• That’s an actual problem
• Students can get help on where is less crowded to
study/work

14. How to solve it
• Install Beacon devices in 3rd Floor Innovation Zone
& 4th Floor Study Room
• Add a traffic/occupancy monitoring feature to a
popular application which is used by majority of
students
• Collect and process traffic data and get real-time
information for those areas

15. Overall architecture

16. Client application
• Laker Mobile
• Used by Majority of Students
• Has a Library Section
• Need to make it more useful
• Add a context-aware background
service for monitoring traffic
activities (e.g. Enter, Exit)

17. ibeacon
• Wireless devices transmitting radio signals to smart
devices
• Devices can hear these signals (via BLE scanning)
• Communicate with beacons
• Estimate their proximity from them

18. Ibeacon (cont.)
• Introduced by Apple in iOS 7
• Core Location Library
• Works with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
• Proximity Calculation and Context Awareness

19. Main functionalities
• Region Monitoring
• Can detect Enter/Exit for a monitored region/area
• Region Change detection
• Beacon Ranging
• Can calculate the proximity to a certain beacon device
in a given region
• Proximity levels  Far, Near, Immediate, Unknown
• Identifiable through UUID, Major and Minor numbers

20. We used estimote beacons

21. Ruby on rails web server
• Receiving traffic data
• Returns traffic information in a given period in
conventional format: JSON, CSV
• Gives real-time information on population of
monitored areas
• Shows a heat map associated with monitored areas
• All the other BORING parts of a web service

22. Sample data
Submitted data from a client device looks like this

23. Sample data (cont.)
Areas population

24. Heat map

25. Overall workflow
Pretty Straightforward and Simple

26. Quick peak on Implementation
• CLBeaconManager From Core Location Library
• When a device enters a monitored area
• Certain callback gets invoked by beacon manager
• (void)beaconManager:(ESTBeaconManager*)didEnterRegion:(ESTBea
conRegion)
• Context-Aware logic of the application is here or
triggered here

27. Did enter region

28. Region monitoring &
beacon ranging
• Region Monitoring can happen both in background
and foreground
• Beacon Ranging can only happen when the
application is in foreground
• Proximity calculation
• Signal Strength calculation
• Solving the problem of overlapping areas

29. Frequency of ble scan
• Ranging happens quite frequently when application
is in foreground
• Almost every few seconds
• Region Monitoring depends on few things
Condition Max time to detect Range
Change
notifyEntryStateOnDisplay = YES
& Phone Awakened
1 second
notifyEntryStateOnDisplay = NO
& Phone Awakened
NEVER
Application is just running in
background
From few seconds up to 15
minutes

30. Subtleties on server
• Device is On border of a region
• Two subsequent traffic data can be submitted with
EXACT same time
• Which one do you consider in Area Population
calculation?

31. What we can find out?
• How long a users occupy a given area
• Enter at 9:00 AM
• Exit at 13 PM
• Taking a break or temporarily leaving the area
• Exit at 18:35
• Enter at 18:44
• Taking a break, Finding a book, meeting someone, etc.
• Just walking by a monitored area closely
• Enter at 17:35:07
• Exit at 17:35:40

32. Hourly population report

33. Closer look

34. Devices per day

35. Lessons learned
Apple users upgrade FAST

36. Lessons learned (CONT.)
• Dealing with new and unfamiliar technology
• Technical Side = Advertisement and Promoting
• ??A lot of unknowns, unfamiliar obstacles??
• Building a infrastructure, platform, framework
• Core logic is interchangeable

37. Lessons learned (cont.)
• Dealing with other organizations
• IT was worried about WiFi interference
• Bluetooth & WiFi  2.4 GHz frequency
• Students will face Internet connection problems

38. Wifi disconnects
• Could not connect to WiFi through my laptop???!!!
• Everything else was connected (iPhone, iPad, etc.)
• The conversation with IT hit me
• we have an Estimote beacon in our lab
• Stackoverflow to the rescue

39. Context matters
• Human-Human interaction is very effective at this
• We want the human-computer interaction to be
efficient and valuable
• recommending appropriate things, showing relevant
content
• Why not better? We know one more missing
piece of the puzzle
• Context is a Caved in Stone

40. Special thanks to
• Professor Jonathan Engelsma
• Carlos Rodriguez
• Kyle Felker
• Kristin Meyer
• Ehsan Valizadeh
• Davoud Qorashi
• All the students who used the application and
collaborated in this work

42. References
• Dey AK, Abowd GD. Towards a better understanding of context
and context-awareness. CHI’2000 Workshop on the
What, Who, Where, When, and How of Context-Awareness.
• Yin, Chuantao, Bertrand David, and Rene Chalon. "Use
your mobile computing devices to learn-Contextual mobile
learning system design and case studies."Computer
Science and Information Technology, 2009. ICCSIT 2009.
2nd IEEE International Conference on. IEEE, 2009.
• Prophet Kitchen application for Rubens House in Antwerp
Belgium. http://vimeo.com/84760383
• Estimote official website. http://estimote.com/
• API documentation of Estimote.
http://estimote.com/api/index.html

43. References (cont.)
• Estimote iOS SDK. https://github.com/Estimote/iOS-
SDK
• Apple documentation on CLBeaconManager.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentatio
n/CoreLocation/Reference/CLLocationManagerDele
gate_Protocol/CLLocationManagerDelegate/CLLoca
tionManagerDelegate.html -
//apple_ref/occ/intfm/CLLocationManagerDelegate/l
ocationManager:didEnterRegion:

44. References (cont.)
• Frequency of region monitoring and beacon ranging.
http://developer.radiusnetworks.com/2013/11/13/ibe
acon-monitoring-in-the-background-and-
foreground.html
• Estimote on coexistence of WiFi and Beacon
devices. https://community.estimote.com/hc/en-
us/articles/201186046-Do-Wi-Fi-Networks-Interfere-
with-Beacons-