A Dynamic Approach to Dealing with User Preferences in a Pervasive System

User preferences have an important role to play in decision making in pervasive systems, and most systems incorporate some form of preferences, albeit that different forms and approaches are used in different implementations. It is generally accepted that user preferences need to be context-dependent, although the process of applying user preferences to personalize decision taking in the system tends to be treated as a static process that is carried out at the outset when a service is started and not referred to again unless the user specifically instructs a change. However, there are situations where a more dynamic approach to dealing with user preferences is called for. This has been investigated as part of the Daidalos pervasive system, and this paper reports on the approach used and implemented in this system.