Wireless Cities 2006

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Wireless Cities 2006
Pervasive Access to Mobile Multimedia Services
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Mobile services

• Usually, the user has a need that is achieved via
  a service provided by a computer system
• Fulfilling the need utility (the definition
  includes goal oriented and explorative/hedonistic
  behavior)
• E.g. have a conversation, transfer money, listen
  to music, play a game, retrieve information, make
  a note, etc.
• Rarely the need is in using the system
• Mobile service is provided by a mobile computer
  system
• Portable, more restricted resources than in
  desktop
• Strength available at this moment
• Weakness physical interface

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Pervasive access

• Pervasive computing The use of a computing
  infrastructure that supports information
  appliances from which users can access a broad
  range of network-based services, including
  Internet-based e-commerce services. Pervasive
  computing thus provides users with the ability to
  access and take action on information
  conveniently.
• With the network access the information space is
  huge ? the access to the services must be
  convenient.

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Pervasive access to mobile services the
challenge

• A service must be useful
• usefulness utility usability
• Mobile computing systems allow constant access to
  information services ? enables high utility value
  if used properly
• The user interface is restricted ? possibly
  decreases the usability
• The challenge maximize usefulness of the service
• Define services which exploit the constant access
  and thus offer high utility
• Develop user interface technologies which
  increase the usability

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Define mobile services with high utility

• Utility value examples for constant access
• Entertain self
• Retrieve information
• Store information
• Make a transaction (cross media)
• Human to human communication
• Personalization / social influence
• The possibilities are endless
• However, engineering is not enough - requires a
  good understanding of the application domain

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Develop user interface

• Currently, there are a few common ways to use
  mobile services
• Voice (video) calls
• Mobile web browser
• SMS (MMS) messaging
• Commonly used applications like camera, calendar,
  contacts
• Basically, users need
• I/O technology keyboard, mic, speaker, display,
  camera
• Mental model of the service
• One way to make it more usable (convenient), one
  can apply context-aware technologies
• Allows the mobile service to understand usage
  context and thus lower the input load and
  simplify the mental model

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How to increase and measure usability

• Enhance the usability attributes
• Easy to learn
• Efficient to use
• Easy to remember
• Few errors
• Subjectively pleasing
• Each mobile service, having their specific
  utility, needs a separate analysis of the
  attributes when evaluating usefulness
• Unless the utility values of services are
  comparable (usefulness usability utility)
• talking to a friend vs. paying a bill

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Context aware UI technologies in Rotuaari

• Concept use commercially and commonly available
  components which allow fast/automatic context
  recognition which makes the service access more
  convenient
• The studied technologies
• RFID (range touch)
• Visual codes (range 0,5m)
• Bluetooth (range 10m)
• Two cases in each technology
• Mobile device has the reader
• Mobile device has an identifier regognized by
  external reader
• The studied utility categories
• Retrieve information (push and pull)
• Store information

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Technology overview
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Mobile services evaluated

• Retrieve information pull RFID
• CityTag, CampusTag
• Retieve information push Bluetooth
• B-MAD, NLMS
• Store information visual codes
• Mobile fair diary

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CityTag, CampusTag
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CityTag, CampusTag setup

• Utility retrieve location based information
• Map of the surroundings, centered on current
  location
• Bus schedules, restaurant menu, movie clips (at a
  theatre)
• Technology RFID tag attached to users phone,
  RFID readers installed in the environment.
  Touching the reader causes a WAP push, which
  sends a web URL
• Main usability benefits are gained when compared
  to entering web URL manually

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CityTag, CampusTag results

• 34 test users
• Oulu downtown (CityTag)
• Users did a track consisting of four access points

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B-MAD, NLMS (Bluetooth)
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B-MAD, NLMS (Bluetooth)

• Utility receive location based information
  automatically
• Advertisement, bus schedules, restaurant menu,
  movie clips (at a theatre)
• Technology in B-MAD mobile device BT broadcasts
  its BT ADDR and gets a WAP push containing URL.
• Technology in NLMS mobile device searches for BT
  servers and downloads content when connection has
  established
• Main usability benefits are gained when compared
  to a case when user is not aware of the location
  based information in his proximity

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B-MAD, NLMS results
B-MAD, 35 users NLMS, 24 users
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Mobile Fair Diary (Visual codes)
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Mobile Fair Diary (Visual codes)

• Utility make notes (photo, dictation, text)
  which are automatically arranged according the
  time and location at the housing fair context.
  The content accessible via web.
• Technology users mobile device camera can be
  used to read visual codes at the fair area.
  Reading a code changes users context and makes a
  note of that location. The notes are accessible
  with a regular desktop browser later on.
• Main usability benefits are gained when compared
  to attaching the location and time to the notes
  when using a regular camera, pen and paper and a
  map of the fair area.

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MFD results
Using the the smart phone application
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MFD results
Opinions on combining a mobile application and an
Internet site.
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Conclusions

• We have studied selected context aware UI
  technologies for pervasive service access
• The initial results from user testing are
  promising
• Future work comparative analysis