Active Folders: A Metaphor for Developing and Interacting with Context-Aware Applications

Query by Browsing (QBB) is a relationally complete paradigm for creating Visual Query Language (VQL)s. It has been adapted successfully for use on handheld devices in the form of the Chiromancer interface, thus placing considerable search capabilities at the fingertips of mobile users. In this paper we describe an enhancement to the QBB paradigm to accommodate continuous queries through the use of active folders, i.e. folders whose contents are constantly updated. We thus demonstrate how such continuous queries coupled with a suitable context-describing database schema can be used to support a variety of context-aware application scenarios. A prototype architecture and context schema are described as are the extensions to the QBB paradigm and the additions to the Chiromancer interface needed to support these scenarios.