LBWiki: A Location-Based Wiki

Wiki systems provide a simple interface paradigm that allow non-technical users to author collaborative on-line hypertexts. In this paper we propose to use the same simple paradigm to allow users to create content for ubiquitous information systems, and present LBWiki, a prototype location-based Wiki that allows users with a mobile device to create Wiki pages based on GPS co-ordinates. We describe the hierarchical location scheme used within LBWiki and the results of a small evaluation, in which users reacted positively to the concept, but asked for greater control over geographical regions, and highlighted the importance of accurate location technology

Snow White Is Missing: An Interactive Locative Story for Dementia Patients

With the increasing prevalence of powerful mobile technology, interactive entertainment is also becoming increasingly mobile. This can also be said for a range of applications including those pertaining to mental and physical health which are also looking to take advantage of the increase in mobile technology to create digital interventions and other treatment based software for mobile devices that can benefit from the mobile deliver form. In this paper we propose a new form of serious game in this vein: therapeutic locative interactive fiction. These are interactive story experiences, read while on the move, that respond to the readers environment and location context, and have therapeutic value. The locative nature of these stories enables therapeutic activities connected with out door spaces, and allows for content to enrich users, the readers of locational context. We present a demonstration of this concept through our own therapeutic locative interactive narrative: Snow White is Missing, and detail both its design from an interactive narrative and therapeutic activity perspectives

The Balance of Attention: Challenges of Creating Locative Cultural Storytelling Experiences.

There is a long history of research exploring how augmented and mixed reality systems can be used to support visitors to cultural heritage locations, but the technological or application specific focus of much of this research means that our understanding of how these experiences work is more of a collection of insights, rather than a coherent theory about how the elements of the experience come together. There is a danger that without developing this knowledge further, our systems will be technologically complex, but experientially simplistic. In this paper we explore how one form of mixed reality experience, digital locative storytelling, can impact the experience of place, and in turn how place impacts the experience of story. We have analysed 33 interviews, and 25 participant observations from 12 story deployments at 2 different sites. Our findings confirm that locative storytelling experiences not only impart information to readers, but also help them to rediscover familiar places and see hidden relationships - especially through time. But our findings also show how the success of the experience is reliant on the balance of attention between the virtual and real (the story and the place), and that issues with navigation, social interactions, and technology are problematic because they can disrupt this balance. Digital locative experiences therefore need to be designed carefully in order to create a balance of attention (for example, by aligning the elements of the story with the topology and character of place). We call this a state of Loco-Narrative Harmony, in which place and story are working together and reader attention is balanced, creating an effect that is greater than the sum of its parts

A Card Based Metaphor for Organising Pervasive Educational Experiences

This paper looks at the card metaphor used successfully in the Equator Ambient Wood and Chawton House projects to structure and author content as part of innovative school field trips using wireless and ubiquitous technologies. The framework provided by the metaphor is laid out and observations made as to how it has been used by domain experts in creating educational experiences. The trade-off between formalisation and restricting pedagogy is examined and key benefits that the metaphor provides are given