WO2007006721A1

WO2007006721A1 - Method for generating software applications for supplying contextualized services and system for implementing said method

Info

Publication number: WO2007006721A1
Application number: PCT/EP2006/063967
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ahmed Lbath
Original assignee: Ahmed Lbath
Priority date: 2005-07-08
Filing date: 2006-07-06
Publication date: 2007-01-18
Also published as: FR2888444A1; FR2888444B1

Abstract

The invention concerns a method for automatically generating software applications to supply to a mobile terminal at least one contextualized service. The inventive method includes the following steps: analyzing the use contexts of said terminal, deducing from said analysis one or more services adapted to the analyzed contexts, searching for a combination of software components adapted to manage access of said terminal to at least one of said services, automatically generating a topological model for executing at least one of the software components.

Description

METHOD FOR GENERATING SOFTWARE OF CONTEXTUALIZED SERVICE PROVIDING APPLICATIONS AND ENABLING SYSTEM

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROCESS

DESCRIPTION

TECHNICAL AREA

The invention relates to a method for automatically generating an application software for providing a mobile terminal with access to at least one contextualized service. The invention also relates to a system for implementing the method, an application software stored on a medium and intended, when executed, to provide a mobile terminal access to at least one contextualized service. The invention also relates to a software architecture supporting said application software.

STATE OF THE PRIOR ART

The increasing increase in the transmission rate via terminals, such as mobile phones, PDAs (Portable Digital Agenda) or laptops, allows users of these terminals to receive a growing range of mobile services (data, voice, video ...). These services can be provided on request of the terminal user (pull mode) or suggested to the latter according to his profile (push mode).

In the first case, the user makes a request that is analyzed and transmitted to one or multiple servers that can provide the requested service. In the second case, services are suggested to the terminal user according to his profile. A third mode of service provision consists in taking into account the context in which the user of the terminal is located. In this mode, a context can be defined by the location, the identification of people and / or objects that are close to the user and the changes of such objects. It can also be defined by any information used to describe a situation of an entity representing a person, place, or object. The techniques implemented in this third mode of service provision essentially take into account fixed, predefined parameters essentially relating to the user of the terminal. These parameters are usually statistically defined by analyzing user behaviors to establish typical profiles used to target the services to be provided.

A disadvantage of these techniques is that they do not adapt to changing service delivery application requirements.

Thus, a first example of application may consist in providing a motorist with the list of the closest restaurants according to his position. A second example of application may be to provide a physician with information relating to a particular type of patient in a particular hospital. function, for example, the profile of the doctor, the terminal at his disposal and possibly parameters selected by the doctor (degree of urgency, type of intervention to be performed ...). The realization of these two applications requires a significant development time and multidisciplinary skills.

In the methods of the prior art, each application must be developed independently, taking into account a specific technological environment (reception apparatus, communication protocol, ....). Also, these methods do not allow to adapt to the type of application envisaged.

In addition, the lack of standards governing the provision of contextualized mobile services leads developers of these applications to develop "proprietary" programs thus limiting their interoperability with systems using heterogeneous databases, in different locations, under different networks, and with different qualities of service.

The object of the invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art by automatically generating software applications contextualized service delivery taking into account changes in application requirements that take into account not only the profile of the user but also the technological context in which a service can be provided. This context is defined in particular by the following parameters: - the operating system, the processor equipping the terminal,

the memory available in the terminal,

- the network interfaces,

- the peripheral equipment connected to the terminal, - the communication protocols used,

- the bandwidth available at a given moment,

- the battery level of the terminal, etc.

These parameters can be provided by the user or detected by intelligent modules equipping the terminal.

A second object of the invention is to improve the quality of software applications intended to generate contextualized services.

Another object of the invention is to provide a software tool facilitating cooperation between the various actors involved in the service provisioning process, (GIS editors

(Geographic information system), telecommunications operators, specialized computer service companies (IT services companies).

STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION

For this purpose, the invention recommends a method for automatic generation of an application software for providing a mobile terminal with access to at least one contextualized service comprising the following steps:

analyze the contexts of use of said terminal,

- deduce from said analysis one or more services adapted to the contexts analyzed, search a combination of software components adapted to manage the access of said terminal to at least one of said services,

automatically generating a topological model for executing said software components.

According to the invention, the topological model for executing said software components is generated from the analysis of the services, contexts and predefined rules and said software components are extracted from one or more predefined program libraries arranged locally in the terminal. or arranged in remote servers.

The method according to the invention furthermore comprises the following preliminary steps: a) specifying at least one service to be provided to a user of the terminal, b) specifying a set of basic service delivery contexts, c) associating with each elementary context with less a basic rule governing the provision of at least one service among the services specified in this basic context.

Preferably, an elementary context comprises in particular the following parameters: the geographical position of the terminal,

- the moment of use of the terminal,

- the profile of the user of the terminal,

- the type of devices connected to the terminal,

- the type of communication protocols used by the terminal,

- physical contexts outside the terminal. According to one characteristic of the invention, each parameter is associated with an elementary rule, and each combination of parameters is associated with a combination of elementary rules governing access to the services.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the generation of the topological execution model comprises the following steps:

express the specifications of the services, contexts and rules in a data format exploitable by said software components,

- memorize the formats obtained in a database,

- generate a software architecture independent of the technologies implemented to access the service.

In an implementation variant of the method according to the invention, said software architecture automatically adapts to changing the context of use of said mobile terminal.

The invention also relates to an application software stored on a recording medium and capable of being executed on a mobile terminal to provide said terminal access to at least one contextualized service.

This application software includes:

a module for analyzing the ^spatio¬ temporal and technological contexts of use of said terminal, an inference module intended to determine from said analysis one or more services adapted to the contexts analyzed,

a search module for a combination of software components adapted to manage the access of said terminal to at least one of said services,

a module for automatically generating a topological model for executing said software components. This software further comprises a module for translating said spatio-temporal and technological contexts into a formal memory language that can be used by said software components.

The invention is implemented in a system comprising:

at least one library of basic software components,

at least one library of models of combinations of said elementary software components, a module for acquiring specifications relating to the spatio-temporal and technological contexts of use of the mobile terminal,

a module for storing said specifications; a module for generating a logical architecture for executing at least one of the combinations of predefined software components;

a module for generating a physical architecture for executing said combination of software components. The invention further relates to an architecture comprising:

a first layer intended to manage the acquisition of information relating to the spatio-temporal and technological contexts of use of the terminal,

a second layer intended to analyze the information acquired,

a third layer intended to search for a combination of software components adapted to manage the access of said terminal to at least one of said services,

a fourth layer intended to automatically generate a topological model for executing said software components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the invention will emerge from the description which follows, taken by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the appended figures in which:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a system according to the invention,

FIG. 2 represents a flowchart schematically illustrating the essential steps of the method according to the invention,

FIG. 3 represents a flowchart illustrating a preferred embodiment of the method according to the invention,

FIG. 4 represents an example of application of the method according to the invention, FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the implementation of the method according to the invention in the application of FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PARTICULAR EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 represents a system for generating an application software for providing a mobile terminal with access to at least one contextualized service comprising a central coordination module 1, a library 2 of software components elementary, a library 4 of combinations of models of said basic software components, an acquisition module 6 specifications relating to the space-time and technological context of use of the mobile terminal, a storage module 8 of said specifications, a generation module 10 a logical architecture for executing at least one of the predefined software component combinations, a module for generating a physical architecture 12 for executing said combination of software components.

The acquisition module 6 provides the interface of the system with users such as, for example, application designers to access contextualized services or experts specialized in specific fields such as, for example, geographical information system designers. or designers of medical or tourist information systems. This module receives the specifications provided by the user and generates a descriptive file of these specifications. The storage module 8 is intended to store the translated specifications files in an intermediate data format so that they can be used by the modules of software architecture generations.

The logical architecture generation module 10 communicates with the storage module 8, the physical architecture generation module 12, the library of elementary software components 2 and with the model library 4. This module 10 receives the translated specifications of the storage module 8, identifies a model in the library of models 4 or combines basic software components of library 2 to create a new model, instantiates the model chosen or created and provides a software architecture taking into account the contexts and rules defined in the specifications.

Note that the basic software components of library 2 can be parameterizable or auto-adaptive.

Note also that the models generated by combination of elementary components are stored in the storage module 8 and can be reused as is if the terminal and the user of this terminal are in the context or the combination of elementary contexts from which these models were generated.

The module 12 for generating a physical architecture receives the specifications relating to the technological environment of use of the terminal, such as, for example, the different languages of the terminal. client-side and server-side programming, the communication protocols supported by the terminal, the different types of hardware involved (cell phones, laptops, PDAs ...), and automatically generates a software architecture by arranging the appropriate basic software components. The architecture thus generated is sensitive to the context of use of the terminal.

Figure 2 schematically illustrates the essential steps to allow the system of Figure 1 to automatically generate application software for providing a mobile terminal access to a contextualized service.

Step 20 consists of formally defining specifications that will be used by the module 10 to generate a logical architecture model. These specifications essentially concern the services to be offered and the basic contexts in which one or more services are likely to be offered. In an exemplary embodiment, the specifications define in particular:

- geographical parameters,

- time parameters,

- user profiles, - technical contexts of use of the terminal (type of peripheral equipment, type of network supported, type of connections supported ...), rules to deduce one or more services for a basic context or a combination basic contexts and / or a request from the user, physical contexts outside the terminal such as, for example, weather conditions,

functional constraints such as, for example, restrictions on communications. In step 22, the central coordination module 1 analyzes the specifications defined in step 20 and provides the result of this analysis to the logical architecture generation module 10 which generates (step 24) a logical architecture model taking the services and the basic contexts as well as the context / service rules defined in step 20. The software architecture thus generated comprises references of software components whose combination is likely to be used (step 26) by the module. physical architecture generation system 12 for generating a physical architecture comprising a combination of the referenced software components.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a preferred embodiment of the method of FIG. 2.

In this embodiment, before being analyzed by the module 10, the specifications defined in step 20 are translated in step 30 in an intermediate memory language. The translated specifications are then stored in the storage module 8.

As can be seen in this figure, the step 24 comprises a first substep 32 consisting in searching for software components to be combined in the library 2 or a combination model 4 of software components in the library 4. combination of software components or the model found will constitute the software architecture sensitive to the specifications of the terminal's technological environment. Indeed, this architecture is composed of references to software components whose calculation parameters are the characteristic elements of this technological context. These parameters can be either measured by sensitive elements integrated into the terminal, such as for example a thermometer, a clock, or provided to the terminal by external devices, such as for example a positioning device (GPS, for Global Positioning System). The acquisition of these parameters enables the module 12 to generate (in step 34) the physical architecture comprising the referenced software components.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of providing services to a user 40 equipped with a mobile terminal in a space divided into three zones, zone 1, zone 2 and zone 3 respectively comprising a service manager 42, 44 and 46. The terminal of the user 40 is equipped with an intelligent module 48 for managing the processing that must be executed in the terminal to access the available services. These treatments include: - the management of the HMI (for Human Machine Interface)

- the acquisition of the spatial context (by GPS for example),

- the acquisition of the temporal context (date and time),

- the acquisition of the physical context (temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, ...), the acquisition of the technical context (type of equipment, technical characteristics of display, type of processors, type of memory, etc.),

- the acquisition of the user profile, - the acquisition of the mobility status of the terminal,

- the acquisition of the mobility parameters (speed, trajectory, direction of movement, ...).

The module 48 communicates with a server-side proxy server 49 on one or more machines and which is intended to collect the contextual information as well as any request requests (pull mode) and to transmit this information in particular to a management module 50 context and to a service management module 52 (see FIG. 5).

The context management module 50 includes software capable of deriving from the rules of basic contexts, depending on the context of use and, possibly, depending on the service request expressed by the user, the list of services likely to to be provided to the user.

The service management module 52 includes software capable of breaking down the services available in basic services, searching for the addresses of the services in a local service directory or requesting these addresses from other servers.

Figure 5 schematically illustrates the interaction between the elements 48, 49, 50, 52 to provide a contextualized service to the user. The module 48 provides the proxy server 49 (arrow 60) information on the context of use of the terminal and possibly a service request. The proxy server 49 transmits (arrow 62) the information on the context to the module 50. The latter determines the list of services that may be provided to the user and transmits (arrow 64) this list to the proxy server 49. The proxy server 49 transmits this list to the module 52 (arrow 66) which searches the addresses of the servers likely to provide these services and transmits (arrow 68) the list of addresses found to the proxy server 49. The proxy server 49 transmits (arrow 70) the list of addresses received at module 48. The latter connects to the addresses indicated in the list to receive the available services.

Claims

A method for generating an application software for providing a mobile terminal with access to at least one contextualized service, characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

analyze the contexts of use of said terminal,

- deduce from said analysis one or more services adapted to the contexts analyzed,

search a combination of software components adapted to manage the access of said terminal to at least one of said services,

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises the following preliminary steps: a) specify at least one service to be provided to a user of the terminal, b) specify a set of basic service delivery contexts, c) associate with each elementary context at least one elementary rule governing the provision of at least one of the services specified in this basic context.

3. Method according to claim 2, wherein an elementary context comprises in particular the following parameters: - the geographical position of the terminal,

- the moment of use of the terminal,

- the profile of the user of the terminal,

- the type of devices connected to the terminal, - the type of communication protocols used by the terminal.

- physical contexts outside the terminal.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each parameter is associated with a rule, and each combination of parameters is associated with a combination of basic rules governing access to services.

The method of claim 1, wherein said software components are extracted from one or more predefined program libraries.

The method of claim 5, wherein said libraries are distributed in one or more remote servers.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said libraries are stored in the terminal.

The method of claim 1, wherein the topological model executing said software components is generated from the analysis of predefined services, contexts and rules.

The method of claim 8, wherein the generation of the topological execution model comprises the following steps:

- memorize the formats obtained in a database,

The method of claim 8, wherein said software architecture automatically adapts to changing the context of use of said mobile terminal.

11. Application software stored in a recording medium and capable of being executed on a mobile terminal to provide said terminal with access to at least one contextualized service, characterized in that it comprises:

- an analysis module contexts ^¬ spatio temporal and technology of use of said terminal, - a module of inference for determining from said one or more analysis services adapted to the analyzed contexts,

a search module for a combination of software components adapted to manage the access of said terminal to at least one of said services, a module for automatic generation of a topological model execution of said software components.

12. Application software according to claim 11, characterized in that it further comprises a translation module contexts spatio ^¬ time of use of said terminal in a formal language operable by said storing software components.

13. System for generating an application software for providing a mobile terminal with access to at least one contextualized service, characterized in that it comprises:

a central coordination module (1)

a library (2) of basic software components,

a library (4) of models of combinations of said elementary software components,

a module (6) for acquiring specifications relating to the spatio-temporal and technological context of use of the mobile terminal,

a module (8) for storing said specifications,

a module (10) for generating a logical architecture for executing at least one of the predefined software component combinations,

a module (12) for generating a physical architecture for executing said combination of software components.

14. Software architecture for providing a mobile terminal with access to a contextualized service, characterized in that it comprises: a first layer intended to manage the acquisition of information relating to the spatio-temporal and technological context of use of the terminal; ,

a second layer intended to analyze the information acquired,

a third layer intended to search for a combination of software components adapted to manage the access of said terminal to at least one of said services, a fourth layer intended to automatically generate an execution topological model of said software components.