A Robust Mechanism for Categorizing Context-Aware Applications into Generations

The hunt to categorize context-aware applications has been a prevalent issue to developers of context-aware applications. The previous categorizations were based on the functions of the applications. These mechanisms yielded limited results since many applications could not be categorized. This paper categorizes applications into four generations based on developmental trends through a literature survey. The first generation applications focused on data acquisition and used hardware sensors. The second generation applications focused on knowledge acquisition and used software sensors, semantic language and ontology-based modelling languages. The third generation applications focused on intelligent reasoning and used mechanisms to handle information uncertainty. The fourth generation applications deprecate cumbersome ruleset implementations and focus on artificial intelligence whilst taking into consideration the effect of the dynamics of users’ background and preference on contextual information. The study demonstrated that when applications, methods or technologies can be categorized over some time, it is better to classify them into generations.