Edgardo Avilés-López

Along with the advent of the Web 2.0 came a rich ecosystem of application services allowing developers to use the functionality provided by Web applications into their own customized solutions. This, together with the current developments on the Internet of Things are laying the foundations of new IP-based smart environments in which applications and services are combined to support users in ways not possible before. Recently, most of the research has focused on improving the networking… Show more

Along with the advent of the Web 2.0 came a rich ecosystem of application services allowing developers to use the functionality provided by Web applications into their own customized solutions. This, together with the current developments on the Internet of Things are laying the foundations of new IP-based smart environments in which applications and services are combined to support users in ways not possible before. Recently, most of the research has focused on improving the networking capabilities of the Internet of Things infrastructure and in enabling the access to the following generation of services. However, there are two more issues that need to be attended. First, how data and functionality provided by services on these smart environments would be modeled in order to facilitate abstraction and composition, and second, how users are intended to interact with the environments in order to make applications support their particular needs. In this article, we present a framework and an user-interaction model for Internet of Things applications based on the technologies of the modern Web as a solution proposal for both issues. We start by describing the elements of the framework, and then discuss the user-interaction model by using a case-of-study scenario illustrating the capabilities of our contributions. Show less

Ambient Assisted Living is a research area which has emerged to assist individuals in performing their everyday activities with the help of ambient intelligence technology. To accomplish this, technological aspects such as context acquisition, device integration, networking, and social aspects such as accessibility, usability, privacy, and others, play an important role. These aspects become crucial when assisting the elderly, because they present very specific and demanding requirements. In… Show more

Ambient Assisted Living is a research area which has emerged to assist individuals in performing their everyday activities with the help of ambient intelligence technology. To accomplish this, technological aspects such as context acquisition, device integration, networking, and social aspects such as accessibility, usability, privacy, and others, play an important role. These aspects become crucial when assisting the elderly, because they present very specific and demanding requirements. In this paper, we present work in some application scenarios conducted within our research group, focused on supporting the elderly. The implementation of these scenarios is possible through the use of our proposed technological infrastructure consisting of two main parts: (1) a physical platform constituted by sensors, actuators, RFID tags, and other devices, and (2) a software platform providing Web services with basic blocks such as voice recognition, indoor localization, and others, that can be composed to construct more sophisticated services. Show less

As the population ages worldwide, more and more efforts are being made toward providing the best conditions possible for our elders. In these efforts, technology plays a very prominent role. We present our proposal for ambient-assisted living spaces where an underlying sensorial infrastructure, coupled with sentient visors, can aid individuals in many daily tasks that promote a safer and healthier lifestyle. We also discuss some scenarios based on our contributions that serves as a showcase of… Show more

As the population ages worldwide, more and more efforts are being made toward providing the best conditions possible for our elders. In these efforts, technology plays a very prominent role. We present our proposal for ambient-assisted living spaces where an underlying sensorial infrastructure, coupled with sentient visors, can aid individuals in many daily tasks that promote a safer and healthier lifestyle. We also discuss some scenarios based on our contributions that serves as a showcase of what can be accomplished. Show less

The current Web 2.0 stage of the Internet provided the basis for web-based communities and services aimed at collaboration and information sharing. Furthermore, Internet is now an application platform in which Web applications can be integrated to provide augmented services that could bring the basis for ubiquitous computing scenarios. Recently, the concept of mashups has been used to refer to applications built upon the integration and combination of public Web API's and data sources… Show more

The current Web 2.0 stage of the Internet provided the basis for web-based communities and services aimed at collaboration and information sharing. Furthermore, Internet is now an application platform in which Web applications can be integrated to provide augmented services that could bring the basis for ubiquitous computing scenarios. Recently, the concept of mashups has been used to refer to applications built upon the integration and combination of public Web API's and data sources. Ubiquitous computing mashups go further by combining the functionality of both software and hardware components in an attempt to exploit computation and services provided by everyday objects. Typically, developing a mashup requires highly specialized knowledge in many topics (such as using different programming interfaces and languages). This problem is greatly magnified in developing mashups of both physical and digital services due to the various integration and communication issues. We exemplify these concepts through the use of UbiSOA Editor, a system that allows the creation of ubiquitous computing mashups through simple activities such as dragging and dropping graphical representations of the involved services in a desired scenario. Then we talk about the planning and execution of a sample scenario as a showcase of what can be easily accomplished. Show less

Wireless sensor networks provide the means for gathering vast amounts of data from physical phenomena, and as such they are being used for applications such as precision agriculture, habitat monitoring, and others. However, there is a need to provide higher level abstractions for the development of applications, since accessing the data from wireless sensor networks currently implies dealing with very low-level constructs. We propose TinySOA, a service-oriented architecture that allows… Show more

Wireless sensor networks provide the means for gathering vast amounts of data from physical phenomena, and as such they are being used for applications such as precision agriculture, habitat monitoring, and others. However, there is a need to provide higher level abstractions for the development of applications, since accessing the data from wireless sensor networks currently implies dealing with very low-level constructs. We propose TinySOA, a service-oriented architecture that allows programmers to access wireless sensor networks from their applications by using a simple service-oriented API via the language of their choice. We show an implementation of TinySOA and the results of an experiment where programmers developed an application that exemplifies how easy Internet applications can integrate sensor networks. Show less

Many infrastructural elements required to make pervasive computing a reality are now in place: some have been tested in the labs, while others are already commercially available. However, the integration of these elements to create ubiquitous applications is still a daunting task, as the developers have to delve into the low-level details of each of them. With this in mind, we present UbiSOA, a service-oriented architecture and middleware that allows developers to integrate RFID tags, wireless… Show more

Many infrastructural elements required to make pervasive computing a reality are now in place: some have been tested in the labs, while others are already commercially available. However, the integration of these elements to create ubiquitous applications is still a daunting task, as the developers have to delve into the low-level details of each of them. With this in mind, we present UbiSOA, a service-oriented architecture and middleware that allows developers to integrate RFID tags, wireless sensor networks, and other elements, into ubiquitous applications through the well-known service-oriented paradigm, using the language of their choice. Show less

The emergence of wireless sensor networks (WSN) and RFID technology are starting to make the ubiquitous computing vision a reality, as they provide the means to obtain information about physical phenomena and entities. However, there is a great need for higher abstraction levels, as the integration of these technologies into current ubiquitous computing systems is still primitive. This problem is addressed by TinySOA, a service-oriented architecture that allows programmers to build their… Show more

The emergence of wireless sensor networks (WSN) and RFID technology are starting to make the ubiquitous computing vision a reality, as they provide the means to obtain information about physical phenomena and entities. However, there is a great need for higher abstraction levels, as the integration of these technologies into current ubiquitous computing systems is still primitive. This problem is addressed by TinySOA, a service-oriented architecture that allows programmers to build their applications by using a simple API provided by language independent Web services. TinySOA contributes to the development of ubiquitous computing applications by facilitating the means to obtain primary context mainly through WSN and RFID. We describe the development of an application using our implementation into a production line scenario. Show less

The computing grid no longer encompasses only traditional computers to perform coordinated tasks, as also low-end devices are now considered active members of the envisioned pervasive grid. Wireless sensor networks play an important role in this vision, since they provide the means for gathering vast amounts of data from physical phenomena. However, the current integration of wireless sensor networks and the grid is still primitive; one important aspect in this integration is providing… Show more

The computing grid no longer encompasses only traditional computers to perform coordinated tasks, as also low-end devices are now considered active members of the envisioned pervasive grid. Wireless sensor networks play an important role in this vision, since they provide the means for gathering vast amounts of data from physical phenomena. However, the current integration of wireless sensor networks and the grid is still primitive; one important aspect in this integration is providing higher-level abstractions for the development of applications, since accessing the data from wireless sensor networks currently implies dealing with very low-level constructs. We propose TinySOA, a service-oriented architecture that allows programmers to access wireless sensor networks from their applications by using a simple service-oriented API via the language of their choice. We show an implementation of TinySOA and some sample applications developed with it that exemplify how easy grid applications can integrate sensor networks. Show less