SCOUT is a mobile application development framework, which supports the development of mobile applications that are aware of the user's context (e.g., profile, device characteristics, ..), his current (physical) environment, and the people, objects and places in it. By exploiting this knowledge on the user and his environment, such applications are able to provide personalized information and services to the user. SCOUT supports different sensing technologies to become aware of the user's surrounding environment (and the physical entities in it), and is primarily based on Web technologies for communication and data acquisition, and Semantic Web technologies for integrating and enriching the knowledge present in the decentralized data sources.
This project investigates distribution in querying on ontology-based data stored in a distributed collection of Semantic Web systems. With the data not being stored in a single repository, but being offered through a network of connected repositories, we come one step closer to a true Web-like platform for information sharing. Obviously, the querying and retrieval of data from that network needs to take the aspect of distribution into account without losing the benefits of the formal grounding for dealing with ontology-based information.
QuTi is a research project performed in the context of iBrussels, a research project on Wi-Fi Architecture financed by the Brussels Capital-Region and supervised by Centrum voor Informatica voor het Brussels Gewest (CIBG). In QuTi, WISE developed a framework that provides real-time information on queue-sensitive events. QuTi relies on existing detection technologies to monitor crowds and measure bustle, and delivers this time-sensitive information real-time through a Web site and a mobile application. Based on this real-time information, visitors can decide when is the best time to visit.
The framework has been applied to measure the traffic in the student restaurant of the VUB.