Context-aware application framework based on Open Service Gateway

In the era of information appliances, we need more context-aware and intelligent computing for the home than before. Today, there are many types of appliances and devices around us, as well as many middleware protocols for managing them. Many previous ubiquitous computing frameworks were based on specific operating systems or middleware protocols for containing and managing context information and registered services. This caused many problems, such as incompatibility, difficulty of reuse and poor usability. In this paper, we propose a new approach for ubiquitous computing based on OSG (Open Services Gateway), which is a residential gateway standard from the OSGi (OSG Initiative). Almost all homes will be equipped with a residential gateway in the near future. Every application and control for home equipment would be accessed through the residential gateway. OSG is the most appropriate place for a context-aware computing framework to reside, because it is the access point for every user to contact or use any application. It can solve the problems of the previously-developed systems.