Context-Aware Middleware and Intelligent Agents for Smart Environments

The present article issues the latest research and development in context-aware middleware and intelligent agents for smart environments. Smart environments-smart homes, smart offices, smart schools, and so on-represent advanced communication and computing environments featuring continually evolving everyday objects for nonexpert users. Smart environments have rapidly emerged as an exciting new paradigm that tends to include different research fields such as ubiquitous, pervasive, and grid computing. Such environments aim to provide computing and communication services in a far more convenient, seamless, and enjoyable way. Users will be able to easily, conveniently, and remotely access and control all information and appliances in their environment, using various services resulting from the integrated cooperation of possibly heterogeneous communication-enabled objects. However, realizing the services´ advantages will require appropriate middleware support to facilitate context-dependent intelligent agents, thus leveraging cost-effective design and implementation of smart-environment applications.