Conflict Resolution in Collective Ubiquitous Context-Aware Applications

The context-aware computing is a research field that defines systems capable of adapting their behavior according to any relevant information about entities of interest. The ubiquitous computing is closely related to the use of contexts, since it aims to provide personalized, transparent and on-demand services. Ubiquitous systems are frequently shared among multiple users, which may lead to conflicts that occur due to individual profiles divergences and/or environment resources incompatibility. In such situations it is interesting to detect and solve those conflicts, considering what is better for the group but also being fair enough with each individual demand, whenever possible. This work presents the important concepts on the collective ubiquitous context-aware applications field. Furthermore, it proposes a novel methodology for conflicts detection and resolution that considers the trade-off between quality of services and resources consumption. A case study based on a collective tourist guide was implemented as a proof-of-study to the proposed methodology.