Cloud computing and context-awareness: A study of the adapted user experience

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Today, mobile technology is part of everyday life and activities and the mobile ecosystems are blossoming, with smartphones and tablets being the major growth drivers. The mobile phones are no longer just another device, we rely on their capabilities in work and in private. We look to our mobile phones for timely and updated information and we rely on this being provided any time of any day at any place. Nevertheless, no matter how much you trust and love your mobile phone the quality of the information and the user experience is directly associated with the sources and presentation of information. In this perspective, our activities, interactions and preferences help shape the quality of service, content and products we use. Context-aware systems use such information about end-users as input mechanisms for producing applications based on mobile, location, social, cloud and customized content services. This represents new possibilities for extracting aggregated user-centric information and includes novel sources for context-aware applications. Accordingly, a Design Research based approach has been taken to further investigate the creation, presentation and tailoring of user-centric information. Through user evaluated experiments findings show how multi-dimensional context-aware information can be used to create adaptive solutions tailoring the user experience to the users’ needs. Research findings in this work; highlight possible architectures for integration of cloud computing services in a heterogeneous mobile environment in future context-aware solutions. When it comes to combining context-aware results from local computations with those of cloud based services, the results provide findings that give users tailored and adapted experiences based on the collective efforts of the two

Mobile Life: A Research Foundation for Mobile Services

The telecom and IT industry is now facing the challenge of a second IT-revolution, where the spread of mobile and ubiquitous services will have an even more profound effect on commercial and social life than the recent Internet revolution. Users will expect services that are unique and fully adapted for the mobile setting, which means that the roles of the operators will change, new business models will be required, and new methods for developing and marketing services have to be found. Most of all, we need technology and services that put people at core. The industry must prepare to design services for a sustainable web of work, leisure and ubiquitous technology we can call the mobile life. In this paper, we describe the main components of a research agenda for mobile services, which is carried out at the Mobile Life Center at Stockholm University. This research program takes a sustainable approach to research and development of mobile and ubiquitous services, by combining a strong theoretical foundation (embodied interaction), a welldefined methodology (user-centered design) and an important domain with large societal importance and commercial potential (mobile life). Eventually the center will create an experimental mobile services ecosystem, which will serve as an open arena where partners from academia and industry can develop our vision an abundant future marketplace for future mobile servíces

Mobile forms of communication and the transformation of relations between the public and private spheres

Stress is placed upon contextual issues and for this reason we will theoretically consider aspects of the modern society that are working in conjunction with the mobile phone to alter the public/private dichotomy. The article focuses upon the themes of: emergent practices, community, authority, domestication and etiquette, and notions of space. Rather than focusing solely on perceived change we shall also consider continuities and adaptation in social action, drawing on a range of ethnographic research

Towards a digital money structure for illiterate users

In developing countries, although money is becoming digital in the form of mobile money, it is not easily used by millions of illiterate users in their everyday transactions. Digitization of material money thus poses a challenge to many users. Existing mobile money systems and platforms represent money in terms of simple numbers, like 13, 50, 0.78, 23.64, 80 etc. This way of money representation is almost unusable by illiterate users, unless they depend on others' help. The literature has overlooked the different metadata inscribed on material money (like icons or images, colour, security means, and serial numbers etc). However, these metadata enable illiterate users to identify different currency notes. The material properties of money bills also enable illiterates do simple maths like addition, subtraction, division, and counting. However, current mobile money solutions have not considered money bill's metadata. Such absence of metadata made money bill identification and transactions difficult for illiterates. The work described in this paper uses the theory of digital objects and theory of non-material technological objects and presents a theoretical presentation for the structure of digital money, to be used in digital ecosystem

Cloud computing and context-awareness : a study of the adapted user experience

Today, mobile technology is part of everyday life and activities and the mobile ecosystems are blossoming, with smartphones and tablets being the major growth drivers. The mobile phones are no longer just another device, we rely on their capabilities in work and in private. We look to our mobile phones for timely and updated information and we rely on this being provided any time of any day at any place. Nevertheless, no matter how much you trust and love your mobile phone the quality of the information and the user experience is directly associated with the sources and presentation of information. In this perspective, our activities, interactions and preferences help shape the quality of service, content and products we use. Context-aware systems use such information about end-users as input mechanisms for producing applications based on mobile, location, social, cloud and customized content services. This represents new possibilities for extracting aggregated user-centric information and includes novel sources for context-aware applications. Accordingly, a Design Research based approach has been taken to further investigate the creation, presentation and tailoring of user-centric information. Through user evaluated experiments findings show how multi-dimensional context-aware information can be used to create adaptive solutions tailoring the user experience to the users’ needs. Research findings in this work; highlight possible architectures for integration of cloud computing services in a heterogeneous mobile environment in future context-aware solutions. When it comes to combining context-aware results from local computations with those of cloud based services, the results provide findings that give users tailored and adapted experiences based on the collective efforts of the two.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Appropriation of mobile cultural resources for learning

Copyright © 2010 IGI Global. This article proposes appropriation as the key for the recognition of mobile devices - as well as the artefacts accessed through, and produced with them - as cultural resources across different cultural practices of use, in everyday life and formal education. The article analyses the interrelationship of users of mobile devices with the structures, agency and practices of, and in relation to what the authors call the "mobile complex". Two examples are presented and some curricular options for the assimilation of mobile devices into settings of formal learning are discussed. Also, a typology of appropriation is presented that serves as an explanatory, analytical frame and starting point for a discussion about attendant issues

Understanding temporal rhythms and travel behaviour at destinations: Potential ways to achieve more sustainable travel

This paper analyses the roles played by time in destination-based travel behaviour. It contrasts clock time's linear view of time with fragmented time, instantaneous time, fluid time and flow, time out and the multiple temporalities of tourism experiences. It explores temporal issues in a destination travel context, using qualitative techniques. Data were captured using diary photography, diary-interview method with tourists at a rural destination; their spatial and temporal patterns were captured using a purpose built smartphone app. The analysis revealed three temporal themes influencing travel behaviour: time fluidity; daily and place-related rhythms; and control of time. Three key messages emerge for future sustainable tourist destination-based travel systems. Given the strong desire for temporal fluidity, transport systems should evolve beyond clock-time regimes. Second, temporal forces favour personal modes of transport (car, walk, cycle), especially in rural areas where public transport cannot offer flexibility. Third, the car is personalised and perceived to optimise travel fluidity and speed, but is currently unsustainable. Imaginative initiatives, using new mobile media technology can offer new positive and proactive car travel, utilising spare public and private vehicle capacity. Research is needed to implement mechanisms for individualised space-time scheduling and collective vehicle use strategies. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC