A Smart Decisional Cognitive System based on Self-adaptability of
Web Services to the Context
Faîçal
Felhi
1
, Marwa Ayadi
2,3
and Jalel Akaichi
1
1
BESTMOD Laboratory, High Institute of Management, Tunis University, Tunis, Tunisia
2
InterVPNC Laboratory, FSJEGJ Jandouba, Janbouba University, Jandouba, Tunisia
3
UEVE University, IBISC Laboratory, Paris, France
Keywords: Cognitive Stimulation, Pervasive Smart System, Web Services, Workflow, Context Awareness,
Self-Adaptability.
Abstract: Memory loss or cognitive stimulation application for handicapped people is the subject of a recent field of
studies in a information systems. In this way, Web services are a solution for the integration of distributed
information systems, autonomous, heterogeneous and auto adaptable to the context. In this paper, we are
interested in defining a new solution for a smart and decisional cognitive system based on self-adaptability
of Web services to the context and showing this solution by a case study.
1 INTRODUCTION
Cognitive stimulation (Emilie et al., 2007) key many
parts in a person who suffers from a loss of
autonomy such as Psycho-Social, Cognitive and
Functional. It strengthens motivation and verbal and
nonverbal communication. It also keeps the residual
cognitive resources and optimal autonomy and
optimize cognitive functioning (memory, language,
attention,..) and social (motivation, sociability)
preserved by exploiting the capabilities of patients.
System information must meet some specific
constraints surrounding context adaptation in the
case of ubiquitous computing (Weiser, 1993).
Computing applications now operate in a variety of
new settings; for example, embedded in cars or
wearable devices. They use information about their
context to respond and adapt to changes in the
computing environment. They are, in short,
increasingly context aware. Considerable approaches
related to adaptability with different modes of
implementation such as: Aspect Oriented
Programming (Kiczales et al., 1997). This aspect
used by various platforms on the goal to adapt the
Web service (WS, 2004) to the context dynamic
changes of environment. Web services, like any
other middleware technologies, aim to provide
mechanisms to bridge heterogeneous platforms,
allowing data to flow across various programs. The
Web services technology looks very similar to what
most middleware technologies looks like. The
emergence of Web services as a model for
integrating heterogeneous Web information has
opened up new possibilities of interaction and
adaptability to context when offered more potential
for interoperability. However, from a set of
requirements on SOA (Service Oriented
Architecture) (Curbera et al., 2008), and to provide
self adaptation to the context of Web services, we
need to integrate more generic connector that takes
into account all ambient or distant events. The SOA
offer great flexibility that is a great ability to
functional and technical changes. Moreover, this
type of architecture is most often used as Web
services support, which provide the flexibility and
interoperability expected, that is the ability to
communicate between heterogeneous systems. The
application in such information systems that
incorporate SOA need to communicate across the
exchange software (middleware or platforms). These
middleware are the source of our work. It is on them
that will think the same expectations in terms of
flexibility, interoperability and adaptability
Be advised that papers in a technically unsuitable
form will be returned for retyping. After returned the
manuscript must be appropriately modified.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: In
Section 2, we present our solution for a smart
decisional cognitive system. In section 3 we present
our approach for a context meta-model for a self
310
Felhi F., Ayadi M. and Akaichi J..
A Smart Decisional Cognitive System based on Self-adaptability of Web Services to the Context.
DOI: 10.5220/0005523203100316
In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science (CLOSER-2015), pages 310-316
ISBN: 978-989-758-104-5
Copyright
c
2015 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
adaptability of SOA. In Section 4, we review
previous research on context awareness and
adaptability of Web services. Finally, we summarize
our work and discuss future research in Section 5.
2 SMART CONITIVE SYSTEM
2.1 Architecture
Our smart cognitive system helps doctors and
memory handicapped person workers to evaluate
state of patient and use a new event related to patient
and help them to refresh her cognitive memory in a
short time.
In Figure 1, we presented our architecture
general solution for pervasive decisional and smart
cognitive system. This architecture represents the
different tools and components necessary that helps
a doctor to evaluate and treat the condition of a
patient has memory loss.
Figure 1: Smart cognitive system.
Our system is based on a workflow; this
workflow can test a request from a doctor by a rules
engine that will transform the requests in the form of
rules. Our system can also give and automatically
generate Web services that represent different
functionality of the test used by a doctor to evaluate
memory state of patient and host under a registry
“Cognitive Services”. The personal information for
each patient is provided by the middleware stored in
a “Data Base” for subsequent needs state.
Under WComp we have integrated a rule engine
that can provide management rules that deal with
business logic. The rules engine can communicate
with a workflow engine, which helps optimize and
evolution of these assemblies separating the events
produced by the components defined in an
application WComp.
2.2 Modelling
Figure 2: System modelling.
By using our meta model of context, Figure 2
represent the model of our solution to help doctors to
invoke web services related a new event related to
personal information of patient. This model
represents many equipment and resources used in
ambient space.
2.3 Implementation
We chose to implement a decision support for
patients who have memory loss. Our smart system is
a set of ordered tests and uses personal information
for patients, such as privacy in its ambient space,
these contacts, these family, and every time we
introduce events that can refresh his memory.
Thereafter, and end testing stages, the doctor can see
the score as a percentage of correct answers.
Figure 3: Color recognition.
ASmartDecisionalCognitiveSystembasedonSelf-adaptabilityofWebServicestotheContext
311
This result helps him to the decision on the patient’s
condition and assesses his memory.
In Figure 3, we present a first step of test. This
step is color recognition, when the patient must
know the color presented.
In Figure 4, we present a Final step of test. This
step is face familial recognition, when the patient
must know the person in her family or her friend.
Figure 4: Face familial recognition.
In Figure 5, we show the end result percentage
test, accurate answers. This result gives an idea of
the patient's memory status and helps the doctor
decide whether to continue treatment taken by the
patient.
Figure 5: Decision result.
3 SELF-ADAPTABILITY OF WEB
SERVICES TO THE CONTEXT
3.1 Architecture
In Figure 6, we presented our research results based
on the needs in terms of self adaptability of service
oriented architecture to the context. Our architecture
Figure 6: System architecture.
is based on objects or components to make the
dynamic reconfiguration of components using more
advanced mechanisms. It qualifies the distribution of
applications across multiple servers and not the
increase in service levels. There is a distributed
architecture whose purpose is to deliver services to
their audience and they will be accessible from any
types of clients. Security and administration are
offered by this system in treating the business logic
from the workflow and rules.
Contextual resource discovery is the use of
context data to discover other resources within the
same context. The invocation of distant and ambient
services is also permitted by this architecture using
technologies dedicated to each type of invocation.
3.2 Context Awareness Modelling
This model (Figure 7) shows the different entities
involved in consideration of context. Contextual
view consists of several entities of contexts such as
the environment (time, location, climate, etc...),
mobility profile of the actor (all information that can
specify the actor, age, gender these studies, the
leisure ...) computing entity at large (especially with
mobile device such as a laptop, PDA, phone, etc...)
etc…
All the information related to the three
dimensions can also be shared by other mobile
applications. Our meta model identifies and adds the
most relevant and generic contextual entities that
will be held in account in modeling any mobile and
context aware application. This context metamodel
CLOSER2015-5thInternationalConferenceonCloudComputingandServicesScience
312
consists of six generic contextual entities and four
deduced entities specific to a category of mobile
applications. The class “ContextView” groups all
contextual entities involved in a given application. It
is identified by name attribute and has two types of
relation: the aggregation “involves” and the
association “belongsTo”. The first relation expresses
that a given “ContextView” is composed of many
“ContextEntity” that are involved in a context-aware
application. The second relation “belongsTo”
expresses the use of historical context information.
A given context entity may have participated in
different context views. This information can be
helpful in the design of future context views. The
second generic entity of the meta model is the
“ContextEntity”. As we see on the figure bellow, it
is specialized in three generic entities: Actor,
Computational Entity and Environnement. Actor
may be a person or another object that has a state
and profile. It evolves in an environment and uses
computational devices to invoke services. With the
Computational entity, the computational device is
used by the actor to access the services and to
capture contextual information from the
environment.
Figure 7: Context awareness meta-model.
Usually, a mobile device is used in context aware
mobile applications, and can obtain information
concerning the type of device it is (PDA, laptop,
cellular phone…), the application, the network, etc.
The environment is constituted of all the information
surrounding the actor and its computational device
that can be relevant for the application. It includes
different categories of information as :(i) Spatial
context information can be location, city, building,
(ii) Temporal context information comprises time,
date, season, (iii) Climate can be temperature, type
of weather…. The last entity is a profile. We are
convinced this entity is important in any user
centered context aware application. In fact, profile is
strongly attached to the actor and contains the
information that describes it. An actor can have a
dynamic and/or a static profile.
The static profile gathers information relevant for
any mobile context-aware application. It can be the
“date of birth”, “name” or “sex”. On the opposite,
dynamic profile includes customized information
depending on the specific type of application and/or
the actor. It can be goals, preferences, intentions,
desires, constraints, etc.
4 STATE OF THE ART
Cognitive stimulation techniques are represented in
the form of applications that offer exercises and
activities to improve and develop cognition of a
person with a loss of autonomy, which needs a
refresh and stimulate his memory.
Several studies show the cognitive stimulation in
several technical and several forms. The Creasoft
group (CREASOFT, 2014) gave us several
applications. PRESCO is a program that focuses on
memory, attention, language, visual spatial and
executive functions. Tvneurones and Words and
head travel are an applications in games form at
different levels. They can stimulate the evocation to
work the lack of the word, vocabulary and memory
strategies proposed by various. MonAgenda
Memory is a personal book; proposes adapted
agendas and cognitive stimulation games. Allows
the elderly and / or disoriented to keep his schedule
and play regularly in cognitive stimulation activities.
The context awareness (Monfort & Felhi, 2010a,
2010b; Monfort et al., 2010) of such applications is
the subject of a recent field of studies in pervasive
computing called: context-aware systems. In
(Monfort & Hammoudi, 2010, 2009; Vale &
Hammoudi, 2008), authors define context-awareness
as the ability of a program or device to sense or
capture various states of its environment and itself.
Referring to these latter definitions a context-aware
application must have the ability to capture the
necessary contextual entities from its environment,
use them to adapt its behavior (run time
environment) and finally present available services
to the user. In (Gu et al., 2005), the authors
introduce another definition in which they insist on
the use of context and the relevance of context
ASmartDecisionalCognitiveSystembasedonSelf-adaptabilityofWebServicestotheContext
313
information. The authors consider a system is
context-aware if it uses context to provide relevant
information and/or services to the user, where
relevance depends on the user’s task. In (Emanuele
& Koetter, 2007), the authors considered context is
any information that can be used to characterize the
situation of an entity. An entity is a person, place, or
object that is considered relevant to the interaction
between a user and an application, including the user
and applications themselves. The authors give a
general definition that can be used in a wide range of
context-aware applications. In (Winograd, 2001) the
author approves this definition and claims that it
covers all proposed works in context. However he
considers it as a general definition that does not limit
a context. Thus he proposes his own definition in
which he limits a context in a set of information,
which is structured and shared. It evolves and is
used for interpretation. We stress that the notion of
hierarchy (structure) of context introduced by
(Winograd, 2001) is important. The definition
proposed in (Chen & Kotz, 2000) also presents the
context as hierarchically organized. In this work the
authors differentiate between environmental
information that determines the behavior of mobile
applications and that which is relevant to the
application. They thus define the context as the set
of environmental states and settings that either
determines an application's behavior or in which an
application event occurs and is interesting to the
user.
Web service is the best fitted technology for
implementing Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)
offering flexibility and interoperability. WSs provide
a minimalist mechanism to interconnect different
applications. But one fundamental point is the
importance of the WSDL (Web Services Description
Language) (WSDL, 2007) being the exact interface
of the system. WSDL is responsible for the message
payload, itself described with the equally famous
protocol SOAP (Object Access Protocol) (SOAP,
2007), while data structures are explained by XML
(eXtended Markup Language) (XML, 2012). Very
often, WS are stored in UDDI (Universal
Description Discovery and Integration) (UDDI,
2004) registry.
Many approaches treat the adaptability of SOA
in joining with Web services, to context. Charfi and
al. approach (Charfi & Mezini, 2004) propose a
framework that provides support for middleware
BPEL (Business Process Execution Language)
(BPEL, 2003) engines. The authors apply the
concepts of deployment descriptor and container for
the Web service composition. Ferraz Tomaz and al.
approach (Ferraz et al., 2006) proposed a tool for
weaving aspects for a simple adaptability of the Web
services, implementing aspects of the services as
loosely coupled, where aspects are woven
dynamically. In this approach, aspects are
themselves Web services, thus they are independent
of languages and platforms. Mehdi Ben Hmida
approach (Ben Hmida et al., 2006) extended the
solution proposed by (Ferraz et al., 2006) to specify
BPEL processes adaptable, that is to say, the
adaptability of complex services. Hence the need to
extend the semantic aspects and Web services,
which resulted in the ASW (Aspect Service
Weaver). Aspects are themselves loosely coupled
Web services, they are independent of languages and
platforms, but, this approach has limitations.
Adaptation to context is not taken into account,
that is to say, if an event occurred during a search on
a Web service, this approach does not take into
account this event. In the other approaches we find
those based on context adaptation (Garlan et al.,
2002; Biegel and Cahill, 2004; Anastasopoulos et
al., 2006; Roman and Islam, 2004). The ambient
computing encourages the proliferation of associated
devices. We cited WComp approach (Tigli et al.,
2009a, 2009b, 2009c) which represents the
implementation of experimental models for
lightweight components for service composition
SLCA (Service Lightweight Component
Architecture) which enables the design of ambient
computing applications by assembling software
components, orchestrating access to services through
infrastructure devices from ambient. WComp
supports protocols such as UPnP (Universal Plug
and Play) (UPnP, 2012) and Web services, allowing
components through the proxy to interact with them.
To promote adaptation to context WComp uses
Aspect Assembly paradigm. Aspect Assemblies can
either be selected by a user or fired by a context
adaptation process. It uses a weaver that allows
adding and or suppressing components. With this
architecture WComp allows: i) managing devices
heterogeneity and dynamic discovering by using
UPnP, ii) events driven interactions with devices, iii)
managing dynamic devices connection and
disconnection (dynamic re configuration on run
time) in infrastructure.
In our research work (Felhi & Akaichi, 2012a,
2012b, 2013a, 2013b), we presented a proposal to a
self-adaptable SOA to the context based on
workflow (Workflow, 2006) by presenting the
functional and technical architecture of our
approach. In this architecture we have given
different features in terms of the needs of self-
CLOSER2015-5thInternationalConferenceonCloudComputingandServicesScience
314
adaptability offered by the integration of workflow,
which allows the management rules (Rules, 2010)
and a kind of security and administration of Web
services. This solution which can offer management
rules that deal with business logic. Business logic
can help in the development and optimization of
these assemblies separating the events produced by
the components of Web services.
4 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE
WORKS
In this paper we have shown the interest of self
adaptability of SOA based on workflow since it
often involves multiple heterogeneous systems, and
in particular for cognitive decisional and smart
system. We proposed our solution helps doctors and
memory handicapped person workers to evaluate
state of patient and use a new event related to patient
and help them to refresh her cognitive memory in a
short time.
We hope in our future work enhance our
approaches another application domain..
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank everyone.
REFERENCES
Emilie W., Inge C. K., Jocelyne D. R., Pia G., Florence
M., Fériel B., Aurore R., Martha D. S., & Anne S. R.
(2007). Cognitive stimulation intervention for elders
with mild cognitive impairment compared with normal
aged subjects: preliminary results. Aging Clinical and
Experimental Research. Volume 19, Issue 4, pp 316-
322.
Weiser M. (1993). Some Computer Science Issues in
Ubiquitous Computing. Communications of the ACM.
Volume 36, no. 7, pp. 75–84.
Kiczales G., Lamping J., Maeda C., & Lopes C. (1997).
Aspect-oriented programming. Proceedings European
Conference on Object-Oriented Programming
(ECOOP’97). volume 1241, pp 220–242. Springer-
Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, and New York.
WS Retrieved (2004), from http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-
arch/.
Curbera F., Khalaf R., & Mukhi N. Quality of Service in
SOA Environments. An Overview and Research
Agenda (Quality of Service in SOA-Umgebungen). it -
Information Technology. 50(2): 99-107, 2008.
CREASOFT Retrieved (2014), from:
http://www.editions-creasoft.com/
Monfort, V., & Felhi, F. (2010). Context Aware
Management Platform to Invoke remote or local e
Learning Services Application to Navigation and
Fishing Simulator. International Symposium on
Ambient Intelligence, ISAMI'10 Publisher. Special
Volume in Advances in Intelligent and Soft
Computing (Springer), Guimarães, Portugal.
Monfort, V., & Felhi, F. (2010). A contextual approach to
invoke intelligent house Services: an application to
help physically handicapped persons. 1rst
International Workshop on Recent Trends in SOA
Based Information Systems in conjonction with ICEI.
Funchal Madeira, Portugal.
Monfort, V., Khemaja, M., Ammari, N., & Felhi, F.
(2010). Using SaaS and Cloud computing For "On
Demand" E Learning Services: Application to
Navigation and Fishing Simulator. 10th IEEE
International Conference on Advanced Learning
Technologies, Sousse, Tunisia.
Vale, S., & Hammoudi, S. (2008). Context-aware Model
Driven Development by Parameterized
Transformation, Proceedings of MDISIS.
Monfort, V., & Hammoudi, S. (2010). When
Parameterized MDD Supports Aspect Based SOA.
IJEBR International Journal of E-Business Research.
Monfort, V., & Hammoudi, S. (2009). Towards Adaptable
SOA: Model Driven Development, Context and
Aspect. The 7th International Conference on Service
Oriented Computing, Stockholm, Sweden.
Gu, T., Pung, H., & Zhang, D. Q. (2005), A service-
oriented middleware for building context-aware
services, Journal of Network and Computer
Applications, 28 1-18.
Emanuele, J., & Koetter, L. (2007). Workflow
opportunities and challenges in healthcare. BPM &
Workflow Handbook.
Winograd, T. (2001). Architectures for context. Human-
Computer Interaction (HCI) 16(2-4), 401-419.
Chen, G., & Kotz, D. (2000). A survey of context-aware
mobile computing research. Technical Report (ACM),
Dept. of Computer Science, Dartmouth College.
WSDL. Retrieved (2007), from http://www.w3.org/TR/
wsdl20/.
SOAP. Retrieved (2007), from http://www.w3.org/TR
/SOAP .
XML. Retrieved (2012), from http://www.w3.org/XML/.
UDDI. Retrieved (2004), from http://www.uddi.org/pubs
/uddi_ v3.htm.
Charfi, A., & Mezini, M. (2004). Aspect-Oriented Web
Service Composition with AO4BPEL. 2nd European
Conference on Web Services (ECOWS) Publisher.
Volume 3250 of LNCS, Springer, pp. 168-182.
BPEL. Retrieved (2003), from http://www6.software.ibm
.com/software/developer/library/ws-bpel.pdf.
Ferraz Tomaz, R., Ben Hmida, M., M., & Monfort, V.
(2006). Concrete Solutions for Web Services
Adaptability Using Policies and Aspects. JDIM -
Journal of Digital Information Management.
Publisher.
ASmartDecisionalCognitiveSystembasedonSelf-adaptabilityofWebServicestotheContext
315
Ben Hmida, M., M., Ferraz Tomaz, R., F., & Monfort, V.
(2006). Applying AOP concepts to increase Web
services flexibility. Journal of Digital Information
Management (JDIM) Publisher.
Garlan, D., Siewiorek, D. P., Smailagic, A., & Steenkiste,
P. (2002). Aura: Toward distraction free pervasive
computing. IEEE Pervasive Computing. Publisher.
Biegel, G., & Cahill, V. (2004). A framework for
developing mobile, context-aware applications. 2nd
IEEE Conference on Pervasive Computing and
Communication. pp.361–365.
Anastasopoulos, M., Klus, H., Koch, J., Niebuhr, D., &
Werkman, E. (2006). DoAmI – a middleware platform
facilitating re-configuration in ubiquitous systems.
System Support for Ubiquitous Computing Workshop,
At the 8th Annual Conference on Ubiquitous
Computing (Ubicomp) Publisher.
Roman, M., & Islam, N. (2004). Dynamically
programmable and reconfigurable middleware
services. Middleware, Springer Publisher. Volume
3231 in LNCS, pp. 372–396.
Tigli, J. Y., Lavirotte, S., Rey, G., Hourdin, V., & Riveill,
M. (2009). Lightweight Service Oriented Architecture
for Pervasive Computing. IJCSI International Journal
of Computer Science Issues. Volume 4, No. 1, ISSN
(Online): 1694-0784, ISSN (Print): 1694-0814.
Tigli, J. Y., Lavirotte, S., Rey, G., Hourdin, V., & Riveill,
M. (2009). Context-aware Authorization in Highly
Dynamic Environments. IJCSI International Journal
of Computer Science Issues. Volume 4, No. 1,, ISSN
(Online): 1694-0784, ISSN (Print): 1694-0814.
Tigli, J. Y., Lavirotte, S., Rey, G., Hourdin, V., Cheung-
Foo-Wo D., Callegari, E., & Riveill, M. (2009).
WComp Middleware for Ubiquitous Computing:
Aspects and Composite Event-based Web Services.
Annals of Telecommunications. Volume 64, n° 3-4, pp
197. ISSN 0003-4347.
UPNP. Retrieved (2012), from http://www.upnp.org/.
Felhi, F., & Akaichi, J. (2012). Adaptation of Web
services to the context based on workflow: Approach
for self-adaptation of service-oriented architectures to
the context. International Journal of Web & Semantic
Technology (IJWesT). Volume3, No.4, Publisher.
Felhi, F., & Akaichi, J. (2012). Towards the self-
adaptability of Service-Oriented Architectures to the
context based on workflow. International Journal of
Advanced Computer Science and Applications
(IJACSA). Volume3, No.12, Publisher.
Felhi, F., & Akaichi, J. (2013). Self-adaptability of SOA
to the context based on workflow in a e-Healthcare
monitoring system. International Conference on Web
and Information Technologies (ICWIT'13).
Hammamet, Tunisia.
Felhi, F., & Akaichi, J. (2013). Pervasive e-healthcare
system based on self-adaptability of SOA to the
context. IEEE International Conference on
Information Technology & e-Services (ICITeS’ 2013).
Sousse, Tunisia.
Workflow Retrieved (2006), from, http://www.bpmbul
letin.com/2006/06/21/difference-entre-workflow-et-
moteur-de-regle/.
Rules Retrieved (2010), from, http://www.vdocsoftware
.com/vdoc/easysite/InVDOC2010/news/innovation/agi
lite-regles-metiers.
CLOSER2015-5thInternationalConferenceonCloudComputingandServicesScience
316
