Method and apparatus for fusing context data

The system for fusing context data obtained from a plurality of sources, said system comprising:

• means for receiving said context data from one or more information sources;
• means for computing a quality measure for each input context value;
• means for organizing context values into one or more clusters, each cluster having a single context value and a single quality measure associated therewith;
• and,
• means for selecting one or more clusters according to one or more criteria and aggregating the context values and quality measures of selected clusters to generate a single context value and quality single measure;
• wherein said single context value and single quality measure are usable by a context aware application to avoid conflict and ambiguity among different information sources providing said context data.

A computer program device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for fusing context data, said method steps comprising:

• (a) receiving context data from a plurality of information sources;
• (b) computing a quality measure for each input context value;
• (c) organizing context values into one or more clusters, and assigning a single context value and a single quality measure to each cluster;
• and,
• d) selecting one or more clusters according to one or more criteria and aggregating the context values and quality measures of selected clusters to generate a single context value and quality single measure,
• wherein said single context value and single quality measure are usable by a context aware application to avoid conflict and ambiguity among different information sources providing said context data.