The Context Gap: An Essential Challenge to Context-Aware Computing

The Context Gap: An Essential Challenge to Context-Aware Computing is title of the Ph.D. dissertation of Louise Barkhuus (december 2004). She proposes that one of the problems of context-aware computing is the ‘context gap,’ the gap between a sensor-derived technical representation of a context, and the social perception of a context. The context gap is inevitable and inherent in that it cannot be bridged; human context can only be represented technologically to a limited extent.

I set out to explore not only whether the context gap exists but also what contributes to it and what consequences this might have.

She conducted 3 case studies to examine the context gap (with embodied interaction as theoretical framework). The first case study identifies four types of context information that are important to users, and analyzes how the context gap is manifested in this situation. The second study investigates the context gap through three levels of interaction: personalization, passive context-aware computing and active context-aware computing. The third study explores the premises and social structures in the environment and traced the context gap from both the human and the technology side.

4 design rules can be drawn from the case studies:

• Let users describe their context
• Let users define the actions from given sensor information
• Inform users of the implication of their use of the technology
• Reevaluate the applications after some time of use

Louise concludes by emphasizing that

the context gap is found to be an inevitable challenge to context-aware computing, which needs to be addressed in order to continue the goal towards supplying users with a smooth and appropriate interaction by way of context-aware computing.

Relation to my thesis: I aim at analyzing the discrepancy between what a group of users need and what technology is capable of in collaborative context. Louis shows that this type of discrepancies is one of the cause of the context gap described by this thesis. The consequences of the context gap created by discrepancies between how the users lead their lives and the functioning of the potential technology, the users simply did not use the service. Another consequence of the context gap is the lack of perceived usefulness by the systems

Unless it (the context gap) is acknowledged, in the early stages of design, we run the risk of developing inappropriate context-aware computing as seen throughout this dissertation.