IS_A: Integrated Semantic Access in Situated Operations

IS_A: Integrated Semantic Access in Situated Operations

The IS_A project deals with complex mobile operations in the construction and petroleum industries. With the growing availability of wireless networks and sophisticated mobile devices, it is now possible to provide online access to vast amounts of information independently of location and time. For mobile operations, however, it is important to limit the information flow to only the most relevant parts, as both the devices and the nature of mobile work prevents the user from browsing through large amounts of data. A particular challenge of construction and petroleum processes is the need to integrate and relate information of any format and any formality and access this integrated, relevant information on an ad hoc basis.

The main objective is to enable organizations to run their knowledge-intensive geographically dispersed operations more efficiently by providing a semantic integrated framework for situated multi-modal knowledge access.

Semantic Web technologies and standard information retrieval models will be used to provide a semantic framework for managing multi-modal information and help users in their mobile operations. The project will investigate ways of extending semantic technologies to model the users’ entire mobile work context, including his work process and spatio-temporal coordinates. It will then work out strategies for retrieving information, composing information and reason about information to satisfy the information needs explicitly stated by the users or implicitly given by his changing work context. All multi-modal information is given semantic annotations that allow the system to combine text, drawings, audio and other media in the information provided to the users.

IS_A is linked to several industrial standardization initiatives and intends to bring the standardization work further by providing methods for building wireless intelligent semantic applications that make use of these ontological standards.

The project includes one software vendor, one combined software vendor/end user and one end user organization. In close collaboration with the industrial partners, IS_A will develop prototypes that demonstrate how situated access of multi-modal information can be realized and used in operations relevant to the end-users in the project.

Objectives

The main objective is to enable organizations to run their knowledge-intensive geographically dispersed operations more efficiently by providing a semantic integrated framework for situated multi-modal knowledge access. Specifically, the objectives of the project will be achieved through the following research tasks: