A Pattern for Context-Aware Navigation

Navigation systems nowadays have become ubiquitous, with many users relaying on them to find on-the-fly directions to new locations. With current advances in technology, modern navigation systems augment navigation directions with new information ranging from traffic, tolls, accidents and any other issue that could lead to delays in a given route, to social network aspects such as schedule, friends, to weather alerts. This paper presents an architectural pattern for context-based navigation, that describes an abstract way to integrate context information with the navigation process. This pattern applies to user navigation in any environments where context is relevant, not only to driving navigation. Someone could apply this pattern for driving navigation, indoor navigation, navigation using public transportation, robotic navigation, and so on. An example with contextual navigation on a university campus illustrates how the pattern can be used.