Sentient processes - process-based applications in pervasive computing

Abstract

Users' tasks are typically a sequence of steps. Today, the goal of pervasive computing applications - to support users in their tasks by using context information - is only partially met as applications supported by current infrastructures focus on individual steps instead of supporting the coordination of the whole sequence. In this paper, we present an approach for supporting multi-step user tasks by using a process-based application model, called sentient processes. Along with the model, the paper introduces the design of an execution engine for such processes