Collaborative geographic visualization

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, perfil Gestão e Sistemas AmbientaisThe present document is a revision of essential references to take into account when developing ubiquitous Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with collaborative visualization purposes. Its chapters focus, respectively, on general principles of GIS, its multimedia components and ubiquitous practices; geo-referenced information visualization and its graphical components of virtual and augmented reality; collaborative environments, its technological requirements, architectural specificities, and models for collective information management; and some final considerations about the future and challenges of collaborative visualization of GIS in ubiquitous environment

Experimental Object-Oriented Modelling

This thesis examines object-oriented modelling in experimental system development. Object-oriented modelling aims at representing concepts and phenomena of a problem domain in terms of classes and objects. Experimental system development seeks active experimentation in a system development project through, e.g., technical prototyping and active user involvement. We introduce and examine "experimental object-oriented modelling" as the intersection of these practices

Programming a paintable computer

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-169).A paintable computer is defined as an agglomerate of numerous, finely dispersed, ultra-miniaturized computing particles; each positioned randomly, running asynchronously and communicating locally. Individual particles are tightly resource bound, and processing is necessarily distributed. Yet computing elements are vanishingly cheap and are regarded as freely expendable. In this regime, a limiting problem is the distribution of processing over a particle ensemble whose topology can vary unexpectedly. The principles of material self-assembly are employed to guide the positioning of "process fragments" - autonomous, mobile pieces of a larger process. These fragments spatially position themselves and reaggregate into a running process. We present the results of simulations to show that "process self-assembly" is viable, robust and supports a variety of useful applications on a paintable computer. We describe a hardware reference platform as an initial guide to the application domain. We describe a programming model which normatively defines the term process fragment and which provides environmental support for the fragment's mobility, scheduling and data exchange. The programming model is embodied in a simulator that supports development, test and visualization on a 2D particle ensemble. Experiments on simple combinations of fragments demonstrate robustness and explore the limits of scale invariance. Process fragments are shown interacting to approximate conservative fields, and using these fields to implement scaffolded and thermodynamic self-assembly.(cont.) Four applications demonstrate practical relevance, delineate the application domain and collectively illustrate the paintable's capacity for storage, communication and signal processing. These four applications are Audio Streaming, Holistic Data Storage, Surface Bus and Image Segmentation.by William Joseph Butera.Ph.D

The development and evaluation of a prototyping environment for context-sensitive mobile computing interaction

Recent developments in wireless communication, mobile computing, and sensor technologies have prompted a new vision of the world in which we live. As witnesses the effects of Moore's law, which are evident in many aspects of innovative technical opportunity, such as cost, size, capacity, bandwidth, etc. These advances allow us to build new types of human-computer-environment interaction in augmented physical spaces. Ideally, mobile computing devices can go with people so that they can access information on the move as being constantly connected to the digital space. Sensor technologies enable mobile computing devices to sense their users and environments. This increases the interaction bandwidth between a human and a mobile computing device. The development of context-sensitive mobile computing systems requires considerable engineering skills. None of the existing approaches provides an effective means of obtaining location and environmental information using "standard" hardware and software. This raises the entry level of discovering more about this type of interaction to the designers. In addition, it is important to stress that relatively little is known about the usability problems that might arise from interaction with these different context-sensitive mobile computing applications. The focus of this thesis is on the development of a prototyping environment for context-sensitive mobile computing. This thesis makes two contributions. The most significant contribution is the presentation of the Glasgow Context Server (GCS). It has been specifically designed to address the concerns mentioned above. It successfully integrates an off-the-shelf radio Local Area Network (LAN) with the infrared sensors that have been a feature of many previous context-sensitive mobile computing applications. The GCS is intended to help interface designers validate the claimed benefits of location sensing, location disclosing and environment sensing applications. The second contribution is the working applications, in particular, a web-based annotation system for physical objects and a shopping assistant built upon the GCS environment. These demonstrations are used to evaluate the GCS approach and point out the challenging issues in computing technology as well as usability concern. The hope is that this research can provide interface designers with an in-depth reference to a prototyping environment for context-sensitive mobile computing applications

Constructionism through mobile interactive knowledge elicitation (MIKE) in human-computer interaction

Mobile computing holds significant as-yet unknown applications of interest in the field of Cyberscience (e-Science) methods. This thesis provides a diverse exploration into the advancement of HC1 theory through the development and testing of mobile cyberscience tools. This is done by synthesising new metrics from learning epistemologies, with the benefits that can be provided by mobile computing solutions. This thesis aims to explore how mobile cyberscience can improve HCI knowledge elicitation (KE) methods. A review of the current state of the art in mobile computing and mobile HCI demonstrates that there is very little reported research in the direction of applying mobile computing to HCI theory (rather than the reverse which is demonstrated to be significantly considered in academia). This motivates a review of the current methods and cyberscience-based tools in the domain of KE in HCI, with several prototype mobile tool designs discussed. A review of candidate grounding theories in pedagogical epistemologies is then covered to build a theoretical foundation for this work. This facilitates the acquisition of a mobile-applicable investigation candidate, namely Constructionism theory, for software modelling in mobile computing methods in HCI KE. A framework for investigating constructionism is designed and presented, describing three key models that extend the domain of HCI KE theory. Through the design, implementation and testing (both expert and user testing) of several mobile computing tools for HCI KE, termed MIKE (Mobile Interactive Knowledge Elicitation) tools, these three key models of constructionism are explored through empirical research and are reported in this thesis as separate case studies. Case study 1 investigates the use of inert constructionism through the use of card sorting. Case Study 2 investigates the use of semi-dynamic constructionism through the use of affinity diagramming. Case Study 3 investigates the use of dynamic constructionism, through the use of low fidelity paper prototyping. The findings from these case studies indicate that mobile cyberscience has a significant scope for application in the practice of current-day HCI methods, and that new qualitative measures in HCI can be acquired through mobile cyberscience tools. There are three main contributions of this thesis that provide practitioners, educators and researchers in HCI with new knowledge. Firstly, the fields of mobile computing and mobile HCI are expanded with the empirically tested simulation of the techniques of card sorting, affinity diagramming and low-fidelity paper prototyping in HCI theory through mobile software. Secondly, a developed framework of constructionism theory successfully enhances the field of HCI KE, contributing to the growth of grounding theories in the field of HCI through the findings of three separately reported case studies. Lastly, cyberscience research for HCI has been given an expansion of research in the area of augmenting HCI with mobile computing. This is achieved through the user centred design, development and user testing of several mobile tools incorporating facilities unique to HCI practitioners, educators and researchers, leading to several related peer-reviewed publications

Technology 2003: The Fourth National Technology Transfer Conference and Exposition, volume 2

Proceedings from symposia of the Technology 2003 Conference and Exposition, Dec. 7-9, 1993, Anaheim, CA, are presented. Volume 2 features papers on artificial intelligence, CAD&E, computer hardware, computer software, information management, photonics, robotics, test and measurement, video and imaging, and virtual reality/simulation

The memory glasses : wearable computing for just-in-time memory support

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-181).This thesis documents a body of wearable computing research surrounding the development of the Memory Glasses, a new type of proactive memory support technology. The Memory Glasses combines features of existing memory support technologies (such as PDAs) with a context aware delivery system and a low-attention cuing interface. The goal of the Memory Glasses is to provide effective just-in-time memory support while mitigating some of the distraction and over-reliance problems that can result from the use of more conventional memory support technology. The Memory Glasses research is a synthesis of the author's six years of work on wearable computing. This thesis documents the author's intellectual contributions in the areas of wearable computing hardware architectures, software architectures, and human-computer interaction. Specific topics include the MIThril wearable computing research platform, the Enchantment middlewear, the MIThril Real-Time Context Engine, the author's modified Seven Stages of Action model and five principles of low-attention wearable human computer interaction, as well as the author's research in the use of subliminal cuing for just-in-time memory support. Although memory support is the unifying theme of this dissertation, the author's research has seen application in a number of other areas, including the mapping of social networks, research in human physiology and biomedical applications, and group situation awareness and command, control, and communications. A selection of these applications is briefly presented as support for the importance of the author's intellectual contributions.by Richard W. DeVaul.Ph.D

Guidelines and infrastructure for the design and implementation of highly adaptive, context-aware, mobile, peer-to-peer systems

Through a thorough review of existing literature, and extensive study of two large ubicomp systems, problems are identified with current mobile design practices, infrastructures and a lack of required software. From these problems, a set of guidelines for the design of mobile, peer-to-peer, context-aware systems are derived. Four key items of software infrastructure that are desirable but currently unavailable for mobile systems are identified. Each of these items of software are subsequently implemented, and the thesis describes each one, and at least one system in which each was used and trialled. These four items of mobile software infrastructure are: An 802.11 wireless driver that is capable of automatically switching between ad hoc and infrastructure networks when appropriate, combined with a peer discovery mechanism that can be used to identify peers and the services running and available on them. A hybrid positioning system that combines GPS, 802.11 and GSM positioning techniques to deliver location information that is almost constantly available, and can collect further 802.11 and GSM node samples during normal use of the system. A distributed recommendation system that, in addition to providing standard recommendations, can determine the relevance of data stored on the mobile device. This information is used by the same system to prioritise data when exchanging information with peers and to determine data that may be culled when the system is low on storage space without greatly affecting overall system performance. An infrastructure for creating highly adaptive, context-aware mobile applications. The Domino infrastructure allows software functionality to be recommended, exchanged between peers, installed, and executed, at runtime