Practical Web-Based Smart Spaces

Mobile devices are evolving into hubs of content and context information. Many research projects have shown the potential for new pervasive computing applications. This article shows how Web and resource-based smart spaces can support pervasive applications in a wide variety of devices. A framework that employs a resource-based HTTP style for pervasive services called Representational State Transfer (REST) can enable easy mashup of applications. This framework has several important features. First, a flexible access control mechanism on top of the OpenID and OAuth protocols provides security and access control in heterogeneous, dynamic environments. Second, a search engine can collaborate with existing service and network discovery mechanisms to find resources on the basis of their indoor location. Finally, an emerging W3C standard, Delivery Context: Client Interfaces (DCCI), facilitates sharing information within a device in an interoperable fashion.