TSE-2023-12-0631

With the rapid development of IoT technology, IoT-enabled systems, represented by smart homes, are becoming ubiquitous. In order to support personalized user requirements, such systems appeal to the end-user programming paradigm. This paradigm allows end-users to describe their requirements using TAP (Trigger-Action Programming) rules, which can be deployed on demand. However, writing TAP rules is error-prone and end-users are often unaware of the actual effects of the rules they write, given the context-sensitive nature of these effects. It is highly desirable that TAP rules can be validated before deployment. Unfortunately, requirements validation for IoT end-user programming has not received much attention so far. Therefore, this paper proposes to generate experience prototypes for IoT end-user programming using TAP rules. The difficulty lies in how to orchestrate user experience delivery service scenarios according to requirements and context changes, and effectively demonstrate these scenarios. We present a dynamic assembly approach for simulation model systems used for service scenario orchestration. By simulation, we synthesize desired system behaviors, system device behaviors, and context changes. Leveraging the simulation traces of each component, we employ animation techniques specifically designed to highlight user-aware changes. These experience prototypes allow end-users to directly understand the effects of the IoT-enabled systems, thereby determining whether their intentions are satisfied. Experimental results show that our approach is usable and effective for end-users and the generated experience prototypes are context-aware, capable of representing real-world service scenarios, effective, and efficient in requirements validation.

随着物联网技术的迅猛发展，以智能家居为代表的物联网系统已变得无处不在。为满足个性化用户需求，此类系统倾向于采用面向终端用户的编程范式。该范式允许终端用户利用触发-动作编程（TAP）规则来描述其需求，并可根据需求进行部署。然而，编写TAP规则易出错，且鉴于规则效果的上下文敏感性，终端用户往往不清楚所编写规则的实际影响。在部署前验证TAP规则显得尤为迫切。遗憾的是，物联网终端用户编程的需求验证至今未得到充分关注。因此，本文提出利用TAP规则为物联网终端用户编程生成经验原型。其难点在于如何根据需求及上下文的变化来编排用户体验交付服务场景，并有效地展示这些场景。我们提出了一种动态组装方法，用于模拟模型系统的服务场景编排。通过模拟，我们综合了期望的系统行为、系统设备行为以及上下文变化。利用每个组件的模拟跟踪，我们采用了专门设计的动画技术来突出用户感知到的变化。这些经验原型使终端用户能够直接理解物联网系统的效果，从而判断其意图是否得到满足。实验结果表明，我们的方法对终端用户来说是可用的且有效的，生成的经验原型具有上下文感知能力，能够代表现实世界的服务场景，且在需求验证方面既有效又高效。