Note: [] Corresponding author: Bin Guo, Anzai & Imai Lab., Department
of Information & Computer Science, Keio University, Hiyoshi 3-14-1,
Kohoku-Ku, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan. Tel.: +81 45 560 1070 Ext. 43242; Fax: +81
45 560 1064; E-mail: bingo@ayu.ics.keio.ac.jp
Abstract: A new system named Home-Explorer that searches and finds physical
artifacts in a smart indoor environment is proposed. The view on which it is
based is artifact-centered and uses sensors attached to the everyday artifacts
(called smart objects) in the real world. This paper makes two main
contributions: First, it addresses, the robustness of the embedded sensors,
which is seldom discussed in previous smart artifact research. Because sensors
may sometimes be broken or fail to work under certain conditions, smart objects
become hidden ones. However, current systems provide no mechanism to detect and
manage objects when this problem occurs. Second, there is no common context
infrastructure for building smart artifact systems, which makes it difficult
for separately developed applications to interact with each other and uneasy
for them to share and reuse knowledge. Unlike previous systems, Home-Explorer
builds on an ontology-based knowledge infrastructure named Sixth-Sense, which
makes it easy for the system to interact with other applications or agents also
based on this ontology. The hidden object problem is also reflected in our
ontology, which enables Home-Explorer to deal with both smart objects and
hidden objects. A set of rules for deducing an object's status or location
information and for locating hidden objects are described and evaluated.
