Building a COVID-Safe Navigation App Using a Meta-Model Based Context Server

Sensors (Basel). 2022 Dec 15;22(24):9890. doi: 10.3390/s22249890.

Abstract

Building context-aware applications is an already widely researched topic. It is our belief that context awareness has the potential to supplement the Internet of Things, when a suitable methodology including supporting tools will ease the development of context-aware applications. We believe that a meta-model based approach can be key to achieving this goal. In this paper, we present our meta-model based methodology, which allows us to define and build application-specific context models and the integration of sensor data without any programming. We describe how that methodology is applied with the implementation of a relatively simple context-aware COVID-safe navigation app. The outcome showed that programmers with no experience in context-awareness were able to understand the concepts easily and were able to effectively use it after receiving a short training. Therefore, context-awareness is able to be implemented within a short amount of time. We conclude that this can also be the case for the development of other context-aware applications, which have the same context-awareness characteristics. We have also identified further optimization potential, which we will discuss at the conclusion of this article.

Keywords: context awareness; context query language; development methodology; internet of things; meta model.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Humans
  • Mobile Applications*

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.