LBS, flexibility of information, semantics and transparency

Matching User's Semantics with Data Semantics in Location-Based Services by Shijun Yu, Lina Al-Jadir, Stefano Spaccapietra, Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Semantics in mobile Environments (SME 2005), Ayia Napa, 9 May 2005.

One of the major issues for flexible information services is how to be able to correctly understand what is being requested by users, and how to find information that is relevant to the request. This paper focuses on such semantic issues, aiming at outlining the general problem as well as the specificity attached to location-based services, one of the major trends in mobile information systems. (...) From a semantic viewpoint, the major characteristic of, and challenge for, LBS is the fact that they serve as mediator between a possibly unknown user and possibly a priori unknown data sources. Moreover, the mediation has to be run on-the-fly, i.e., it cannot be prepared in advance as the partners in the mediation are not necessarily known. To overcome the difficulty, contributions from most advanced techniques are welcome. They include: ontology assistance (to understand what it is all about), peer-to-peer information search (to increase chances of finding relevant information), incomplete information handling (to cope with missing data), and approximation techniques (to determine what could be a reasonable answer when a perfect matching is not possible). (...) In this paper we showed how using semantics can help in finding information that is relevant to the mobile user, and thus improve the quality of location-based services. The context, user profile, user history, and data profile are dynamic semantic components that should be used in the matching process in order to give a tailored and useful information to the user.

Why do I blog this? even thought the LBS scenarios proposed in this paper are quite common, it deals with very pertinent issues with regard to what the users need, which information might be relevant for them and in what context. Besides, I like the idea adressed in the conclusion (I'm not a great fan of the example but...):

Nowadays, a user can use his mobile phone in Paris or London, without having to know that s(he) is using the telecommunication services of this or that local operator. Location-based services should offer the same flexibility. A tourist, whether s(he) is in Paris or London, should have tourist assistance by local LBS providers, and get relevant information according to his/her profile.

Of course, the idea of 'profile' might be expanded but I think the service 'transparency' to the users is important.

Positioning system through sidewalk pattern recognition

Via networked_performance, and amazing positioning system that uses sidewalk pattern recognition (by Jason Kaufman and James Sears from Gumspots):

GSPS: GumSpots™ Positioning System--by Jason Kaufman and James Sears--is a pattern recognition technology which can be used for a variety of location aware services. Their demonstration of GSPS lets you enter and view hidden data on city sidewalks. A user would take a photograph of the GumSpots with a cellphone and submit it to the GSPS service. The GSPS service would then determine the location and orientation of the image and return the image with extra hidden data displayed on the image. In this case the hidden data will be text as well as 'connect the dot' drawings. A user also has the ability to add hidden text by submitting a note with their image.

Why do I blog this? I like this kind of trick that uses an environmental feature for a new purpose, that emerges from the designers creative thinking of how he can fix a problem (i.e. doing positioning).

Paper about user's expectations when using LBS

Lately I am more and more returning to my earlier reading about location-awareness from 2 years back, maybe it's because I am writing journal papers and I need some connections with my work. This morning I re-read this paper from Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing: User needs for location-aware mobile services by Eija Kaasinen (Pers Ubiquit Comput (2003) 7: 70–79). A paper I blogged about in 2004 I guess. The paper is interesting with regard to the user's expectations and usage of location-based services. Here some excerpts I found relevant. First about the goal:

We have carried out several empirical studies to study user attitudes, needs and preferences for location-aware services. We started with scenario evaluations in group interviews. The aim of this evaluation was to study broadly the attitudes of the potential users towards different personal navigation services (...)We have also evaluated with users different commercial location-aware services in Finland: Benefon Esc! used together with a Yellow Pages short message service (SMS), the user can get information on nearby services as well as their location, which the Benefon Esc! can display on the map screen. (...) Sonera Pointer services that utilised cell-based positioning. Pointer Bensa (Gasoline) gave information on the cheapest gasoline stations in the vicinity of the user. Pointer Opas (Guide) offered information about the district around the user...

Then some of the results:

criticism of new technology was brought up in many group interviews. A predestined and over-controlled environment was seen as dubious, and the interviewees did not accept the rational and purpose-oriented attitude to life that they identified in the scenarios. In addition, some of the scenarios, for instance proactive shopping and exhibition guides, were seen as going too far beyond the real needs of people. (...) Our interviews with potential users and the user evaluations of some of the first location-aware services point out that user expectations are high and that the users in Finland at the time of the evaluations trusted current service providers and policy-makers for issues related to privacy protection. This constitutes a good starting point for location-aware services. It did not occur to most users that they could be located when using location-aware services. This puts additional responsibility on the service providers and policy makers. (...) The users need seamless service chains that serve them throughout their mobile activity, e.g. planning, searching services, finding the route as well as visiting and storing information.

Why do I blog this? The article raises important concerns, especially about users' expectations and how they feel being tracked (or not feeling it!). However, I am quit skeptical about the last thing: I don't really think a seamless service is really possible and it's maybe better to design applications that take advantage of seams (Ã la Chalmers) or to educate users.

Tags: lbs, location based services, location-awareness

Mobile phone social networking system that trigger animal noises

An intriguing location-based services: True Blue Love:

True Blue Love is a mobile phone social networking experience, designed to explore the politics behind intimate phone-based relations. Designed as a program for mobile phones; each participant enters into the program the characteristics of their ideal sexual mate, chosen from a series of preset selections. While the program is running, every time another phone comes within range, a love metric is calculated which is a representation of how close the incoming person matches the participant's ideal mate. If the match is close, the phone will emit a raucous mating call that will be unique to that participant. (...) The ridiculous sounds should function as social ice-breakers, and the unwilling couple may want to discuss what it is that they have in common that triggered the noise.

Location-Based Services failures

Even though the LBS concept is still trying to finds its way, some already dropped it, as attested by this account from the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment tradeshow in San Francisco:

While location-based services are finding some applications with enterprises, they have failed in the consumer market.

"Finding a friend is fine maybe once," said J H Kah, global vice president at South Korea Telecom. "We do make a good revenue from it, but it's still a small portion [of our overall business]." Mahesh Prasad, president of Indian mobile operator Reliance, added: "There are no compelling applications for consumers. Find a friend is not what I call a compelling application for people to pay for." (...) The services are a typical example of businesses getting over excited about a technology while failing to look at the usage case for consumers, argued Graeme Ferguson, director of global content development at Vodafone.

Why do I blog this? yes the Vodafone's guy is so right: there used to be a technological frenziness; for that matter, the claim that " services are finding some applications with enterprises, they have failed in the consumer market" is utterly crazy: what's the need of having applications if there is no consumer market!??? This means that they implement services first and then they think about the market. How weird! And what is pitiful is putting LBS in the closet... Well like Timo's comment in my yesterday's post, I am still positive of LBS but they might be different from what we/they expected. Besides I like SK telecom statements about the "Where are the Other Mobile Buddies Around Town" thing: "Finding a friend is fine maybe once". Come on, let's keep exploring user scenarios and LBS usage!

WOMBAT: Where are the Other Mobile Buddies Around Town

A new acronym I was not aware of: WOMBAT = Where are the Other Mobile Buddies Around Town?. It's actually taken from a recent EURESCOM study which "explored the communication needs of teenagers, how they could be met by location-based services, and which location technology is best suited:

In the EURESCOM study WOMBAT (Where are the Other Mobile Buddies Around Town?) researchers from major European telecoms companies developed real-life user scenarios for teenagers to see how well the different location-based technologies could serve young people’s needs. (...) The researchers identified among others, three major communication needs: to know where their peers are, to let their peers or their parents know where they are and to arrange and rearrange schedules for social events at short notice.

I am a bit doubtful concerning the 'needs' they collected. In the EURESCOM final paper, here is how they 'extracted those needs':

The study took an innovative approach to this question by using a solid social science basis from which to derive the needs, culminating in a series of user scenarios. (...) As the first step in this work we concentrated on the investigation of youth cultures and their mobile service needs. Existing data and material on young people were sourced from academic journal articles and books on youth culture, market research data, press articles, and data from various ongoing research projects. These sources were pulled together to form an understanding of young peoples’ lifestyles, culture and use of current mobile technology.

Here is scenario they envisioned:

"Imagine a group of teenagers who arranged to meet in town before going to a concert. One is already there and wants to know if he has enough time to do some shopping before his friends arrive. He checks his mobile device to see where they are and realises that one is passing a nearby shop. So he decides to wait for the close-by friend before going to the shop.“

Why do I blog this? mmh I am a bit skeptical with their 'solid science basis' and also about the needs they figure out. I think that "knowing where my buddies are" is very different from "automatically knowing where my buddies are". The main difference lies in the fact that giving one's location is both conveying an information (one's location) and an intention (that my buddies may need this information). Of course, it might be better to get my friend's position since he may not be able to give to me but he or she may be uncomfortable to disclose it on a regular basis... That's really a tricky issue. Though, there are some interesting ideas anyway (like strengthening the problem of technology acceptance by the users).

A Location Based game for mobile phones using Assisted GPS

Spacerace – A Location Based game for mobile phones using Assisted GPS by Stephan A. Drab and Gerald Binder, Pervasive 2005 Workshop: PerGames 2005. Spacerace is a mobile game especially designed to demonstrate the possibilities of an Assisted GPS empowered mobile phone:

The goal of the treasure hunt game Spacerace is to collect as many virtual crystals as possible in a small outdoor area. In order to collect a crystal, the Captain has to get near the virtual position of the selected crystal. He is guided by an Assisted GPS phone which shows the current distance to it. He is supported by the Navigator who has an overview of the position of the Captain and all the crystals they have to collect.

The Navigator tells the Captain which crystal to go after and where it is located by giving him directions in terms of points of the compass. The captain selects the suggested crystal number and tries to find it using the Navigator’s directions and the distance displayed on the screen of the mobile phone. After getting close to the desired virtual destination the crystal is collected and the team scores an amount of points. Crystals have a lifetime after which they disappear. The amount scored by the team after finding a crystal is dependent on the remaining lifetime. The faster the team finds the crystal, the more points they get.

Worst technologies for girls

The Worst Technology for Girls? is a paper presented by Wendy March (Intel Research) and Constance Fleuriot (Bristol University) at the EPIC 2005 Conference (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference ).

The aim of the research was to discover how teen girls use technology in relation to privacy practices in their everyday lives. Asking teenage girls to describe the worst technology they could imagine was a fruitful way of exploring their feelings towards location-awareness, tracking and surveillance in particular and served as inspiration for the design of concepts which embody many of their concerns.

What is interesting is the focus on participants' view of the potential impact on their privacy of technologies such as location-aware computing. With a peculiar emphasis on this question: "How do they feel about technologies that reveal their locations to their families and friends? " (joint photo blog for two weeks +i n-depth individual interviews of 24 teenage girls, aged between 17 and 18)

The approach of asking for the worst technologies is very relevant with regard to thoses goals. And the winners are:

• Family Video: A small video camera attached to a flotation device acts as a personal CCTV which sends back a constant video stream to home.
• Constant Connection provides a continuous open communication channel for parents and children ( the home audio device, which is ideally suited for a kitchen counter.)
• Ticker Text converts all communication from designated cell phones into an easy to read text format. Each text message that is sent or received on the phone is printed out on a paper roll.
• Teen Monitor provides a simultaneous broadcast of all your teenager’s conversations through an audio speaker in your home.

Why do I blog this? I really like this approach, not for imaginer do's and donts but instead to get insights about participants' feeling towards privacy concerns. Besides, imagining a situation in which all the family could read teenager's conversation on a paper roll in the kitchen would be a funny but tough issue!

Another 'capture the flag' pervasive game

During his visit in his almost-homeland country, Mauro saw this pervasive game he point us to: Capture The Flag. It's done by Jani Toilonen and Heikki Tolonen from the MediaTeam in the university of Oulu:

Capture the Flag game is played in teams. The idea is to capture and defend virtual flag zones. Game is played with a mobile handheld device, in which player’s position and the flag zones are shown on the screen. Cooperation within a team is emphasized: players are forced to play as a team. Capturing flags is much faster, when it´s done as a team, but also flags situated nearby have effects. Players must also pay attention to the flags positions in their strategy and their affect to the game itself.

The game was tested on 12 - 16 May 2005 at the University of Oulu with some about thirty students.

The game can be played with Fujitsu LOOX610 PDA and other handheld devices including an Internet connection and a compatible browser. Game utilizes positioning technology developed by Ekahau Ltd. Positioning in the University of Oulu wireless local area network operates on excellent level. Capture the Flag game is an application for leisure time encouraging players to move around and spend time with other players.

Why do I blog this? Thought the game motivation is a bit frightening in terms of social meaning, it's another interesting example of 'capture the flag'-related pervasive game. I'd like to see some screenshots and more importantly users' account/study of the game usage.

Connected pasta see also this project for cell-phone by Adrian David Cheok's team and this The Drop by Intel people

SCOOT: Location-Based Games as a creative tool for reviving local participation in urban environments.

Another location-based game called Scoot:

SCOOT is a mixed reality experience designed to explore the potentials of a relatively new(ish) form of game design, location-based games (LBGs), that employ the web and mobile devices as tools of play. SCOOT is set in both the physical world and a virtual facsimile of the site situated online. Players are challenged to find and solve clues in BOTH worlds in order to reveal the dynamics of the site and progress in the game. SCOOT also exploits known tropes from treasure hunt and puzzle games in the real world, supported by online navigation and communication.

There were two iterations of the game in Brisbane and Melbourne. It's part of the project "Lesser-known Worlds" carried out by newish media (mainly Deb Polson and Marcos Caceres).

Mobile Social Software workshop at CHI

Mobile Social Software: Realizing Potential, Managing Risks - Workshop at CHI2006, Montreal, Canada, April 22-27, 2006

The goal for this workshop is to explore the research questions, coming directions, and relevant technologies surrounding expanded adoption of mobile social software. We plan to address issues in the following areas (see the workshop web page for a full list of specific issues):

- How will mobile social software change existing social dynamics? - How will location services and other new technologies change the game? What are the privacy risks and research challenges of these technologies? - Next generation of mobile social software: What is it and when will we have it? - How can we build a coordinated, cross-cultural research effort?

Interested participants should submit up to a 3-page position paper the CHI Extended Abstracts format (Word/PDF) on or before Friday, 6 January 2006 to chi2006mososo@telin.nl describing their background, interest, and current projects in one or more areas related to mobile social software. Participants will be selected to represent diverse perspectives and the organizers are searching for positions that can stimulate discussion.

Wayfinding, GPS and social navigation

I really enjoy reading Jan's blog (future perfect). The author at the 'User Experience Group' at Nokia Research. Posts are very insightful and relevant to my research/interests. Today he posted a short account about wayfinding which I found SO RIGHT:

Jan actually comments this picture by saying: "Mobile with GPS and map application. So you want to make a map reference in a hurry? "It's easier to just ask someone" In many instances so it is".

Why do I blog this? I definitely agree with him, when lost and being immersed in a social environment, the most common solution is not take your ten-thousand-features gizmophone but rather to ask people next to you OR to find sign/cues in the environment that may make sense to find the solution. (This is called social navigation = footprints in the snow). Note: I don't say that the GPS is not useful but, rather, that it's more common for people to rely on others (present or not in the physical space).

A relevant resource about it: Dourish, P. & Chalmers, M. (1994). Running out of space: models of information navigation. Proceedings of HCI'94, Glasgow, August 1994.

Connected pasta: Russel also tackles this issue with his perspective. Worth to have a look!

Seamful design for location-based phone games

Seamful Design for Location-Based Mobile Games by Gregor Broll and Steve Benford. The article is about revealing and exploiting inevitable technical limitations in Ubiquitous Computing technology rather than hiding them. Relying ont their experiment about the game called 'Bill' (see here to get more information about it). To meet this end, they develop their own "seamful trading-game" called “Tycoon”:

Tycoon is a location-based multiplayer trading game with a simple producer-consumer-cycle that uses the different GSM-cells of a service provider network within a designated gaming-area, e. g. the centre of a city. Each of these cells in the physical area is virtually mapped to either a producer or a consumer in the game. Tycoon uses the metaphor of a wild west scenario to communicate its central mechanisms of collecting resources from producers which are called “mines” and using them to buy objects from consumers which are called “brokers” and have the names of cities or counties in California. These cells are called “brokers” because they sell objects in their areas in exchange for collected resources. While playing the game, players are travelling between the cells in the gaming-area, collect local resources in mines, use them to buy global objects from brokers and get credits for claiming them. (...) players start Tycoon by having to explore the gaming-area and discover mines, brokers and their locations by themselves. That way the players can gather their own knowledge about the gaming-area, where to find resources and where to claim objects.

Why do I blog this The pertinent point here is the discussion about understanding seams in mobile phone applications. The authors introduces general ideas and apply them to the design of location-aware games for mobile phones. This sort of stuff is of direct interest for some 4th place admirer in Barcelona

Usually mobile phone users are unaware of their current cell when using their phones, since the handover between different cells is handled seamlessly. (...) The invisible handover between cells is handled seamlessly so that users don’t get any information about their current cell and don’t have to worry about their position, dynamic cell coverage and propagation or flipping cells. While seamless design usually hides this information, we would like to present it to players and make them aware of this information so that they can take advantage of it during the game and use it as a valuable resource. In a location-based mobile game players are dependent on knowing where they are and dynamic boundaries and propagation of cells may raise interesting design-issues concerning the influence of positions and relations between GSM-cells on the behaviour of the users during the game.

There is a lot more to grasp in this paper for people interested in how interaction designers focused on cell phones/LBS could take advantage of seams.

The picture below depicts coverage and propagation of GSM-cells in an area of London based on samples of cell-ids and their GPS-positions. Their coverage is depending on many factors, cells’ boundaries and propagation are rather dynamic and fluctuating and it shows, cell-coverage has irregular shapes and adjoining cells often overlap and don’t share exact borders. Seamful design is a matter of showing this to the users, using is as a resource for the task to be performed (extracted from the paper):

GPS devices usability

Via Usability News, Usability of GPS Receivers in a Sporting Environment by Rodney Sloan and Jacques Hugo(Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria):

In spite of the growing popularity of GPS, there are many usability issues to be addressed. (...) We looked at learnability and discovered that many GPS devices did not include even simple help menus. As we all know, most users read a manual only as a last resort! Most of us expect the device itself to answer our 'how to' questions. (...) the input systems employed had a low utility as it takes a significant amount of time to input data into the device. (...) In terms of personal safety to the user, giving attention to the device while performing specific tasks may be hazardous in the same way as driving a car while talking on a cell phone (...) What is not easy to memorise though is the data stored on the device, particularly waypoints, which could become confusing with large sets of data.(...) Knowledge of the buttons and controls for a specific device is needed, as is knowledge of the display. The user also needs a basic technical understanding of how the device functions. For example, it is important to understand how the GPS receives satellite signals and how it calculates the heading of the user. In field studies, users who did not understand these points became frustrated and complained that the device was not working properly.

I think ths most interesting critique is this one:

Most conventional GPS receivers are specifically built for the outdoors, with waterproof sealing and sturdy, drop-resistant design. These features suggest that the designers have taken some of the things the user will typically have to face into consideration. However, much more attention should be paid to the context of use, which includes a closer look at the variety of environments, specific user tasks and interaction modalities.

blubox: creative toolbox for bluetooth

Via the locative mailing list , blubox's blurb:

blubox is a unique bluetooth software and hardware application designed and developed by Maria N. Stukoff and Jon Wetherall for the creative use of mobile phones via bluetooth. as part of this development we are invited to trail the first phase of blubox technology - called fotobox an interactive installation with a public LED screen display - at the 3rd Salford Film Festival in salford/manchester tonight...

If you can make it, please join the LIME Bar for 9pm by the Lowry Centre and be part of the fotobox. an up-date with documentation images will be available later on at: http://mobilebox.typepad.com

The next phase of blubox will platform a 3D game environment controlled and played via bluetooth technology. we aim to release the framework for this mobile phone game by march 2006.

Record tracking data from your bluetooth GPS receiver

GETrack is a pertinent application that allows you to "record tracking data from your bluetooth GPS receiver and send the track via bluetooth to your PC for direct use with "Google Earth.":

The tracking data is ready to be used with "Google Earth". These files can then be sent by email to your friends or put them on your website.

On the PC side you only need a bluetooth dongle and the ability to receive files from your phone.

You can choose a logging interval from 5,10,20,30,60 and 300 seconds which covers driving speeds by car and bike and is also suitable for hiking tours.

You can choose to send a file in plain Google Earth format, extended Google Earth format including automatic waypoints including altitude, driving speed and time/date and CSV (Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice) format. Compatible with Series 60 devices (6600 FW 4.09.1 and better and later models).

Article in GeoConnexion

Our article "When location means more than location" (Nicolas Nova, Fabien Girardin and Pierre Dillenbourg) has been published in the november issues of european magazine geoconnexion. It actually shows how automating location-awareness in mobile collaboration can be ineffective. Registration required!

Mobiluck: bluetooth tracking

Mobiluck, an interesting location-based application which offers the following services:

Send messages for free and meet people with your mobile phone, Today, with MobiLuck you can already: Detect all nearby Bluetooth devices. Your cell phone rings or vibrates when it finds one. Send messages and photos for free to friends or strangers with no need of their phone numbers. Hear when you receive a Bluetooth message and reply to the sender! Send your profile and receive profiles from other MobiLuckers including their photo.

Their agenda is also compelling:

Play multi-users games, download ringtones, logos, music and games. Meet people, recognize friends of friends and share your passions. Attend professional exhibitions, exchange business cards and find new customers. Find a job, an apartment, a second-hand car, a pub, an unoccupied cab, win miles and do some shopping. Save time in public transportations and lines, enjoy cities and museums… and many other things…

In the description there is this "You're surrounded by great people who are open to new experiences like you! At this point, if you're not too shy, you can contact other MobiLuckers who are having fun with their devices by using their screen name to call them: "Is that you, Bulldozer?"". It's a bit strange to assumed that having a bluetooth phone activated makes you willing to have 'new experience' (it can be activate right from the beginning) but...

Course about pervasive computing and the socio-cognitive affordances of space

Tomorrow, I'll give a lecture about pervasive computing and the socio-cognitive affordances of space, which is my research topic. It's the second time I do this talk (the first time was last year) and now that I am reshuffling the presentation, what struck me is that nothing really changed in one year: for instance, there are still boring scenarios of LBS usage and techno-push is still the norm. Julian's take about this is that "maybe when we stop calling Location Based Services "Location Based Services" we'll finally be onto something". The presentation is here (10.5pdf, Mb). To put it shortly, it's about the emergence of pervasive/ubiquitous computing and how it relates to fundamental of human behavior. I describe how space/place affords various social and cognitive functions, which might be the starting points of relevant design ideas for user-centered applications/services.

By 'socio-cognitive functions of space', I refer to all the processes influenced by spatial features. This relates to phenomenon such as: proxemics, cultural values of a place, schelling points, territoriality, copresence which eases referential communication, functional values of a place (a waiting room is meant to foster a 'sit and wait' behavior), topology that foster specific behavior like division of labor, behavioral framing based on places (communication is different in a lecture room than in a café)... social navigation based on spatial features (footprints in the snow to find your way).

The conclusion is that space (and consequently all its affordances) should be taken into account when designing environment that supports collaborative Work/learning and play.

This is part of a course about Computer Supported Collaborative Work given by Pierre Dillenbourg and myself at the faculty of computer science at EPFL.

Shoot me if you can: korean location-based game

Via cscout, this cool location-based game from Korea: Shoot Me If You Can (Taeyoon Choi):

Shoot me if you can is an urban game inspired by first person shooting online video game. Replace gun with fun, and shoot the opponent team with a cellular phone equipped with a digital camera. Participants; shooters are given team color and phone number printed on the sticker. Shooters are ought to take a picture of the opponent team. If successful, she/he sends the picture to the opponent team member, via multimedia SMS system. Different rules exist for variations in game. Tactics is important part as well as team work and understanding of the urban environment. This work is a commentary on abundance of digital image in our culture, desire to photograph and violence of surveillance camera. Active public participation in encouraged through website and the game.

Why do I blog this? it sounds like an interesting example of urban computing game!