Building an End-User Programming Framework for the Internet-of-Things

新兴的物联网（IoT）基础设施为构建集成物、服务和人的网络的系统提供了前所未有的机会。系统边界的扩展，从环境和个人传感器、通信工具、移动和无处不在的计算设备中捕获数据，定义了传感基板的急剧增加，可以用作构建下一代计算系统的基础。然而，这种基板的异构和分布式特性为在物联网上开发系统引入了新的需求。设计、编程或管理这些新环境需要隐喻、接口和交互策略，以支持程序员构建物联网系统。此外，许多物联网应用场景需要更高的个性化和情境化。尽管以用户为中心的设计方法非常成熟和流行，但是软件开发人员在设计时预测用户的需求是越来越成问题的。在许多情况下，应该允许终端用户自己（领域专家或消费者）创建和调整系统以适应他们的偏好。本项目旨在为物联网构建端到端的软件开发环境，以支持最终用户的编程任务。该项目的一个核心目标是使最终用户能够使用自然语言命令、语义搜索和可视化的组合来构建物联网应用程序。所建议的编程环境是建立在模式无关的数据环境的概念之上的，在这种环境中，最终用户从底层数据表示中抽象出来，可以使用自己的词汇表进行编程。研究Questions1。语义分析（使用Q-learning方法）能否为使用自然语言为物联网开发最终用户编程（EUP）环境提供基础？如何支持对最终用户编程框架的质量评估（构建支持的度量标准和基准）？研究领域：自然语言处理、普适计算、人机交互

DescriptionThe emerging infrastructure of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) offers unprecedented opportunities to build systems which integrate networks of things, services, and people. The expansion of the borders of systems to capture data from ambient and personal sensors, communicative tools, mobile and ubiquitous computing devices, defines a dramatic increase of the sensing substrate which can be used as the basis for the construction of the next generation of computing systems.However, the heterogeneous and distributed nature of this substrate introduces new requirements for developing systems over the Internet-of-Things. Designing, programming or managing these new environments requires metaphors, interfaces, and interaction strategies for supporting programmers in the construction of IoT systems. Additionally, many IoT application scenarios require higher personalization and contextualization. Despite the sophistication and prevalence of user centered design methods, it is increasingly problematic for software developers to anticipate the needs of users at design time. In many situations, end-users themselves (either domain experts or consumers) should be enabled create and adapt systems to their preferences.ApproachThis project aims at building an end-to-end software development environment for the Internet-of-Things to support end-users in programming tasks. A central goal to the project is to enable end-users to build IoT applications using the combination of natural language commands, semantic search and visualization. The proposed programming environment is built upon the concept of schema-agnostic data environments, where end-users are abstracted away from the underlying data representation and can program using their own vocabulary.Research Questions1. Can semantic parsing (using Q-learning methods) provide the foundation for developing an end-user programming (EUP) environment using natural language for the Internet-of-Things?2. How to support the evaluation of the quality of an end-user programming framework (building the supporting metrics and benchmarks)?EPSRC Research AreasNatural Language Processing, Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, Human-Computer Interaction