2015 IIAI 4th International Congress on Advanced Applied Informatics
Adaptive Context-Awareness Model for Cultural
Heritage Information based on User Needs
Abdul Kadir Jailani Shigeru Kusakabe
Graduate School of Information Science Department of Advanced
and Electrical Engineering Information Technology
Kyushu University, Japan Kyushu University, Japan
Email: akjailani.dp@gmail.com Email: kusakabe@ait.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Abstract—Due to the rapid growth of digital information of
cultural heritage, users can access and exploit cultural heritage
information in its full richness. However, current tools do not
fully support searching information based on user needs. This
paper describes a conceptual model and its prototype of cultural
heritage. We propose a model for providing adaptive context-
awareness to cultural heritage content based on user’s profile
and current location in Global Positioning System (GPS). We
introduce our model with Unified Modeling Language (UML)
based approach.
I. I NTRODUCTION
According to a comprehensive survey of adaptive hyperme-
dia and a survey of context-aware mobile computing research,
context-awareness is one of the seven new trends for a vision
of the future of generic adaptive hypermedia systems (AHS),
and many researchers have proposed their own definition of
such context [4], [6].
The volume of digital cultural heritage information is
already huge and still rapidly growing. Users must be pro-
vided the most convenient access to help them in gaining
information from the overload of arts information. The prob-
lem in providing information to the user is the presentation
does not suit with the need of individual user [7]. Most
adaptive navigation researches do not restrict the user but
rather provides suggestions as to which links or paths are
more appropriate than others. Sorted lists of links (placing
the strongest recommendation at the top) and link annotations
using colors and/or icons help the user in deciding which links
are appropriate and which are not, but the user is not forced
to follow these recommendations [4].
Another paper survey [1] with 477 cultural heritage ex-
perts/users in the Netherlands on usage reveals that experts
think the internet is becoming a more important information
source. Experts said that they would use such system mainly
to: do research, compare cultural heritage data collections and
look for potential items to borrow from other collections. The
survey concluded that information seeking is an important
part of experts work. Expert’s search questions can be simple
or complex, with many constraints. Most search applications
use both simple and complex search. The two most frequent
fact finding problems are where simple search does keyword
matching across all descriptions and returns too many results;
and where advanced search specifies values as constraints
and retrieves too few or no results. Difficulties in building
978-1-4799-9958-3/15 $31.00 © 2015 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/IIAI-AAI.2015.287
Keijiro Araki
Department of Advanced
Information Technology
Kyushu University, Japan
Email: araki@csce.kyushu-u.ac.jp
queries can occur if the expert is not familiar with the correct
controlled vocabularies from the thesauri that are used to
describe the object [1].
Previous paper [11] proposed an expert system based on
guidance of approach and proved its benefit and enhancement
of users knowledge. However, there are several extended
issues pointing the flaws of the study. One of the remaining
challenging issue is to implement the approach modern mobile
devices.
Based on the above problems, we propose a concept for
providing access to cultural heritage content based on user’s
profile, interests and current location in GPS.
What could be adapted in adaptive hypermedia system is
the content of the cultural heritage (content-level adaptation)
and the link to maps of cultural heritage (link-level adaptation)
in the form of content more often based on the profile and
interests of users as well as the current location [10].
A. A Scenario
To illustrate our ideas, we use a scenario as represented
below:
A user is visiting a city, he can detect his current location
through the system from his smartphone. At the same time,
our system provides user friendly interface to obtain user
profile information and their cultural heritage interests. For
user profile there are two categorizes; learning or just visiting.
User interest has ten categorizes; artifacts and monuments,
buildings, works of art, folklore, shrine, language and knowl-
edge, landscapes, traditions, biodiversity, and other interest.
We present preliminary information regarding the names and
references, location, functional type, dating from the cultural
heritage, and can be added up to 5 other information such
as; persons and organizations associated with the history
of the building, cultural heritage materials and techniques,
current condition of cultural heritage, protection/legal status,
notes/historical summary [2].
B. User Model
According to the survey [5], the techniques for building
user model is inferring individual facts and inferring whole
clusters of facts at once, one of the simplest ways to derive
information about a user is to look at the way he uses the
system.
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 The term of user model in the context of meaningful
representation of knowledge and system preferences ’believes’
user (which could be represent by an individual, group of
people or non-human agents) possesses. It is a source of
knowledge which is separated by the system from the rest
of the knowledge and contain explicit assumptions about the
user. The knowledge of the user model can be obtained
implicitly by making inferences about their interactions with
the users of the system. Knowledge of the user model can
be acquired implicitly by making inferences about users from
their interaction with the system, by carrying out some from of
test, or from assigning users to generic user categories usually
called ’stereotypes’ [3], [12]. In UML profiles are defined using
stereotypes, definitions, and constraints which are applied to
specific model elements, class diagram, uses case diagram,
activity diagram, like classes, attributes, operations, actor, and
activities.
Representation of user characteristics in the adaptive sys-
tem is implemented in the form of user interests as seen in
Figure 4. Technically, this model will disable or enable parts
of the content according to the user’s knowledge level and
current location.
Fig. 1. Use Case Diagram
C. Domain Model
The domain model of application’s purpose is ability to A. Use Case Diagram
adaptive. It will serve several purposes. Firstly, it forms the
basis of all the inferences and predictions which can be made The use case diagram is a model for the behavior of the
from the user-system interaction. It is important therefore that system and describes the interaction between one or more
the model is at an appropriate level of abstraction to allow actors and the use case. The purpose of the use case diagram is
the required inferences to be made. Secondly, the domain to determine the function of what is inside a system and who
model defines the aspects of the system which are adaptive is entitled to use these functions. The use case diagram as seen
by describing alternative representations of domain features. in Figure 1 has three actors, eight use cases, and association
Thirdly, the domain model holds the characteristics of the of relationship.
application which are measurable, so that they can be evaluated The system contains 10 functions; ’Detection Position’ is
for effectiveness against the required criteria. The final use of useful for detecting the position of the user based on GPS,
the domain model is to form the basis of the student model ’Profile Interests’ is useful for providing user friendly interface
component of the user model. The system needs to record which concern in profile and interests, ’Learning’ is useful for
what it ’believes’ the user believes about certain aspects of user learning, ’Detection Location CulturalHeritage’ is useful
the application. The domain model must describe the system for showing all cultural heritage location at the current position
so that it can store data about the user’s understanding of the based on city or prefecture, ’Provide Information CulturalHer-
various concepts and functions in the application. The domain itage’ is useful for providing information in accordance with
model consists of one or more abstractions of the system. It is the cultural heritage of city or prefecture that has been detected
a description of the application which contains facts about the and presented the outputs in text and images form, ’Login’
domain, i.e. the objects, their attributes and the relationship is useful for representing the security of the data processing
between objects as seen in Figure 3 [3]. of cultural heritage, ’Manage CulturalHeritage’ is useful for
the managing to data processing of cultural heritage and is
a generalization of the parts ’Add Data CulturalHeritage’
II. C ONTEXT M ODEL for adding data, ’Update Data CulturalHeritage’ to update
the data and ’Remove Data CulturalHeritage’ that serves to
The context model is used to define the enclosing en-
remove the data if there is an error categorization of existing
vironmental of systems studied. In other words, the context
data.
is the surrounding elements of the system, and the model
provides a description of the behavior and the interface of
the surrounding environment. The UML as used in systems B. Activity Diagram
engineering defines a context model as the physical scope of
the system being designed, which could include the user as The Activity diagram is a technique to describe procedural
well as the environment and other actors. A system context logic, business processes, and workflow. In some ways, this
diagram represents the context graphically. diagram plays similar role to a flowchart, the differences are
the principle and the diagram symbols [9]. Figure 2 represents
We describe our model with UML based approach [9] and the workflow of the cultural heritage context aware system
represent it into use case, activity and class diagrams. from one action to another action. An action is a node on

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the activity diagram, whereas activity refers to a series of
action. We described our activity diagram as follows: starting
from the initial state (a black circle notation) then go into
action node (rounded rectangles notation) ’Get Location’ to
perform location detection, proceed to action node ’Profile
Interests’ to display the profile and interests as the action
and interaction of the user model and the domain model, then
perform ’Cultural Heritage Choices’ action node for selecting
the categories and subcategories of cultural heritage. The cate-
gories are divided into three. First, ’Tangible Cultural Heritage
Selection’ with four subcategories; ’Artifacts and Monument
Selection’, ’Buildings Selection’, ’Shrine Selection’, and ’Work
of Art Selection’. Second, ’Intangible Cultural Heritage Se-
lection’ with three subcategories; ’Folklore Selection’, ’Tra-
ditions Selection’, and ’Language and Knowledge Selection’.
Third, ’Natural Heritage Selection’ with two subcategories;
’Landscapes Selection’ and ’Biodiversity Selection’, then select
from ’Area Choices’ one of two action node; ’Based City’ or
’Based Prefecture’. Afterward, followed by filtering in ’Filter
Information’ action node, then it provides the text, images
and maps information from ’Information Cultural Heritage
Based City/Prefecture’. User could select ’Visiting Purpose’
action node and perform one of two choices; ’Learning’
or ’Just Visiting’. In ’Learning’ action node followed by
’Interactive Element:Learning Task’ action node, hereinafter
to ’Get Location’ action node or stop in the final state (an
encircled black circle notation).

C. Class Diagram
Class diagram describes the structure of the cultural her-
itage context aware system by showing the system’s classes,
their attributes, operations (or methods), and the relationships
among objects. Figure 3 shows the class diagram. According to Fig. 2. Activity Diagram of System
[9] about the conceptual of the class diagram is advisable not
to draw for all things, should concentrate on key areas. Better
to have a few classes and a property that is continually updated
than the many, but forgotten things of the main in the model.
We described 6 classes as our conceptual of class diagram:
’User’, ’GPS’, ’Interests’, ’Learning’, ’Manage CulturalHer-
itage’, and ’CulturalHeritage’. The association symbols in our
class diagram divided into 2 categorizes; 1..* to 1 means one or
more instances associated with exactly one instance like User
with Interest association. Another categorize, 1..* to 1..* means
one or more instances associated with one or more instances
like association of ManageCH to CulturalHeritage.

III. P ROTOTYPE D ESIGN

We developed our prototype using Android 4.3 API 18 OS.
Continuing the scenario that we explained earlier, user get the
information of the current position. In this prototype sample we
illustrate users can choose their interests after got the current
location. Here, the sample location is at Dazaifu-Shi, Fukuoka
Prefecture. Further, the system provides seeking classification
based on city or prefecture. Figure 4 shows all the description.
The system will produce two kinds of output; map output
as seen in Figure 5, the other is text and figures output. In this
sample, the user is interested in building and landscape based
on Dazaifu city classification. According to the location, there
are 5 kinds of cultural heritage found in that area;
1. Komyozenji and Kanzeonji temples (building categorizes),
Fig. 3. Class Diagram of Domain Model
2. Dazaifu Tenmagu and Kamado (shrine categorizes),
3. Zen garden or Dry landscape (landscape categorizes),
4. Kyushu National Museum (work of art categorizes),
5. Onisube (folklore categorizes)
Based on his interests needs, only 2 of 5 kinds of cultural
heritage information will appear from the system as Figure 6
shows. In case of the user who has knowledge himself about
cultural heritage. Another facilities, he could write at ’Other
Interest’ choice. For example; he wrote ’sumo’, then the system

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 Fig. 6. Prototype: Text and Figure Output
Fig. 4. Prototype: User Interface

user. Afterwards, we are planning to implement this model

and gaining feedback from participant users.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank to Directorate of Higher
(DGHE) of Indonesian government and Department of Ad-
vanced Information Technology Kyushu University of Japan
for their support in this research. This work was partly sup-
ported by KAKENHI, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research(S)
24220001.

Fig. 5. Prototype: Map Output
will proceed into ’traditions categorize’ and all information
about ’sumo’ will appear from the system.
IV. C ONCLUSION AND F UTURE W ORKS
This paper present a model which facilitating user in obtain
cultural heritage information correspond to their needs through
user friendly interface. As future works, we will focus on
user visiting purpose for developing learning method to the
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