Hyperlocal Context

A machine-readable representation—of our reality.

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A digital snapshot of who/what is where/how,
Hyperlocal Context is a machine-readable,
real-time contextual representation
of a physical space and its occupants.

Why hyperlocal context?

If the Internet of Things is defined as:

enabl[ing] computers to observe, identify and understand the world—without the limitations of human-entered data.

then hyperlocal context is a web-standard means for computers to represent and exchange their understanding of the physical world. Hyperlocal context is derived by processing a real-time stream of ambient data.

Ambient Data

Establishing hyperlocal context

Hyperlocal context is effectively a graph:

  • nodes are radio-identifiable devices (i.e. physical things)
  • edges are radio decodings (i.e. proximity)
  • each node may include hyperlinks to additional data (i.e. digital twins)

Representing hyperlocal context

The graph is represented as a list of devices

"devices": {
    "{id}/{type}": { ... },

    "{id}/{type}": {
        "nearest": [ ... ],
        "dynamb": { ... },
        "statid": { ... },
        "url": "https://...",
        "tags": [ ... ],
        "directory": "a:b:c",
        "position": [ x, y, z ]
    }

    "{id}/{type}": { ... }
}

Ordered list of peer devices by proximity, as estimated by signal strength ( rssi), represented as an array of objects, each with the following structure:

{
    "device": "{id}/{type}",
    "rssi": -72
}

Each item in the list represents an edge in the graph, connecting device{id}/{type} to device{id}/{type} in the list of devices.

  •  where

dynamic ambient data represented as standard properties* including:

*as processed by advlib
batteryPercentage
heartRate
illuminance
isButtonPressed
temperature
  •  how

static identifier data represented as standard properties* including:

*as processed by advlib
appearance
deviceIds
name
uri
uuids
  •  what

Hyperlink to a digital twin, expected to be represented in the form of JSON-LD & Schema.org.

The url is either retrieved by looking up statid identifiers in the Sniffypedia index, or associated with the specific device by chickadee.

  •  what
  •  who
  •  where

List of semantic tags associated with the device, represented as an array of strings.

The tags are associated with the specific device by chickadee.

  •  what
  •  who
  •  where

Hierarchical semantic description of location, represented as a colon-separated string.

The directory is associated with the specific device by chickadee.

  •  where

Coordinate-based position represented as an array in either the form [ x, y ] or [ x, y, z ].

The position is either retrieved from the device's payloads by advlib, or associated with the specific device by chickadee.

  •  where

Developers, developers, developers!

Our cheatsheet details the underlying data structures.

Co-located RFID Systems Unite!

Learn more by browsing the tutorial we presented at the IEEE RFID 2019 conference.

Download

Exchanging hyperlocal context

Hyperlocal context can be shared among the occupants of a space in either machine-readable or human-readable form, facilitating mutual discovery and information exchange. As such, hyperlocal context augments real-time human-scale interactions as a spontaneous and collective source of contextual feedback.

The science of hyperlocal context

IEEE IoP 2017
Towards collective hyperlocal contextual awareness among heterogeneous RFID systems

Jeffrey Dungen, Juan Pinazo (reelyActive)

PDF IEEE Xplore

IIKI 2013
Hyperlocal Context to Facilitate an Internet of Things Understanding of the World

Jeffrey Dungen, Pier-Olivier Genest (reelyActive)

PDF

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