Context Aware Cell Phone

Asim Smailagic and Dan Siewiorek, Human Computer Interaction Institute

The SenSay (or The Phone with a Mind) is a context aware cell phone which is aware of its user's state and surroundings, and modifies its behavior based on this information. It adapts to dynamically changing environmental and physiological states. The SenSay phone can provide the remote caller feedback on the current context of the person being called. Examples of physical context information include location, orientation, the identities of nearby persons, locally observable objects and actions, and emotional and physiological state. A set of sensors is used to provide this information, including accelerometers, digital compass, camera, microphone, biometrics, light, temperature, etc. Activity context may already be maintained by an application such as schedules, personal calendars, address books, and to-do lists. A user's state can be the one of following: uninterruptible, idle, high activity, and normal. A decision module uses a set of rules and manages the state machine. For example, the phone can make suggestions to users when they are idle, confirm late calls to restricted numbers, alert the user when calls received during a 'busy' state, determine whether to ring or to silently forward the call to voice mail, manipulate vibration, ringer, phone alerts, etc. The students can also start and build on an iPhone as a mobile platform.