Quality assessment technique for ubiquitous software and middleware

The new paradigm of computing or information systems is ubiquitous computing systems. The technology-oriented issues of ubiquitous computing systems have made researchers pay much attention to the feasibility study of the technologies rather than building quality assurance indices or guidelines. In this context, measuring quality is the key to developing high-quality ubiquitous computing products. For this reason, various quality models have been defined, adopted and enhanced over the years, for example, the need for one recognised standard quality model (ISO/IEC 9126) is the result of a consensus for a software quality model on three levels: characteristics, sub-characteristics, and metrics. However, it is very much unlikely that this scheme will be directly applicable to ubiquitous computing environments which are considerably different to conventional software, trailing a big concern which is being given to reformulate existing methods, and especially to elaborate new assessment techniques for ubiquitous computing environments. This paper selects appropriate quality characteristics for the ubiquitous computing environment, which can be used as the quality target for both ubiquitous computing product evaluation processes ad development processes. Further, each of the quality characteristics has been expanded with evaluation questions and metrics, in some cases with measures. In addition, this quality model has been applied to the industrial setting of the ubiquitous computing environment. These have revealed that while the approach was sound, there are some parts to be more developed in the future

The Mundane Computer: Non-Technical Design Challenges Facing Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence

Interdisciplinary collaboration, to include those who are not natural scientists, engineers and computer scientists, is inherent in the idea of ubiquitous computing, as formulated by Mark Weiser in the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, ubiquitous computing has remained largely a computer science and engineering concept, and its non-technical side remains relatively underdeveloped. The aim of the article is, first, to clarify the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration envisaged by Weiser. Second, the difficulties of understanding the everyday and weaving ubiquitous technologies into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it, as conceived by Weiser, are explored. The contributions of Anne Galloway, Paul Dourish and Philip Agre to creating an understanding of everyday life relevant to the development of ubiquitous computing are discussed, focusing on the notions of performative practice, embodied interaction and contextualisation. Third, it is argued that with the shift to the notion of ambient intelligence, the larger scale socio-economic and socio-political dimensions of context become more explicit, in contrast to the focus on the smaller scale anthropological study of social (mainly workplace) practices inherent in the concept of ubiquitous computing. This can be seen in the adoption of the concept of ambient intelligence within the European Union and in the focus on rebalancing (personal) privacy protection and (state) security in the wake of 11 September 2001. Fourth, the importance of adopting a futures-oriented approach to discussing the issues arising from the notions of ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence is stressed, while the difficulty of trying to achieve societal foresight is acknowledged

Looking to the future: M-learning with the iPad

Might Apple’s new iPad gain unprecedented traction in education, or is just another example of the over-hyping of new devices in a time of technological determinism (Postman, 2000)? This paper explores the potential affordances and limitations of the Apple iPad in the wider context of emergent mobile learning theory, and the social and economic drivers that fuel technology development. Against the background of effective teaching and learning, the functionality offered by the iPad, and its potential uses for learning, are discussed. A critical review of the way the iPad may support learning, that draws on learning theory, contemporary articles and e-learning literature, suggests that the device may offer an exciting platform for consuming and creating content in a collaborative, interactive way. However, of greater importance is that effective, evidence-driven, innovative practices, combined with a clear-sighted assessment of the advantages and limitations of any product, should take priority over the device itself

The Use of Current Mobile Learning Applications in EFL

AbstractTechnological developments in ubiquitous computing and wireless communication together with the adoption of mobile multimedia devices and applications have translated into huge opportunities for English as a foreign language (EFL). Operating systems like Google's open source Android, Apple's iOS, and Microsoft's Windows 7 are getting more sophisticated and now have the potential to dramatically change this field. These handheld devices support individual and collaborative learning and offer the opportunity to develop technology that will assist students to learn anytime and anywhere and a large amount of applications for mobile phones, tablets and i-pod players has already been widely employed in EFL.Mobile learning (m-learning) refers to the use of mobile technologies for educational purposes. These devices can offer learning opportunities that are: spontaneous, informal, contextual, portable, ubiquitous, pervasive, and personal (Kukulska- Hulme et al., 2011). Thus, as Pilling-Cormick and Garrison (2007) explained, learners take primary responsibility and control of their learning process, including setting goals and evaluating outcomes. They are no longer the passive recipients of education, but consumers making choices in the learning market.However, although the stimuli from multi-channels (sound, image, interaction, etc.) may be very advantageous for the learner, mobile technologies also require the thoughtful integration of EFL pedagogy. In this paper, we intend to examine both the qualities and limitations of some mobile applications available by assessing their features from a pedagogic and technical point of view with the aid of a quality rubric. The results here presented are the starting point for the development of MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) applications for EFL teaching/learning as part of the work carried out by linguists and IT engineers within the context of the SO-CALL-ME project in Spain

A Conceptual Framework for Designing Interactive Human-Centred Building Spaces to Enhance User Experience in Specific-Purpose Buildings

Human/User interaction with buildings are mostly restricted to interacting with building automation systems through user-interfaces that mainly aim to improve energy efficiency of buildings and ensure comfort of occupants. This research builds on the existing theories of Human-Building Interaction (HBI) and proposes a novel conceptual framework for HBI that combines the concepts of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Ambient Intelligence (AmI). The proposed framework aims to study the needs of occupants in specific-purpose buildings, which is currently undermined. Specifically, we explore the application of the proposed HBI framework to improve the learning experience of students in academic buildings. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted among students who are considered primary occupants of Goodwin Hall, a flagship smart engineering building at Virginia Tech. Qualitative coding and concept mapping were used to analyze the qualitative data and determine the impact of occupant-specific needs on the learning experience of students in academic buildings. The occupant-specific problem that was found to have the highest direct impact on learning experience was finding study space and highest indirect impact was Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ). We discuss new ideas for designing Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI), e.g. Augmented Reality (AR), increase the perceivable affordances for building occupants and considering a context-aware ubiquitous analytics-based strategy to provide services that are tailored to address the identified needs

Towards ad-hoc situation determination

Toolkits such as PlaceLab [1] have been successful in making location information freely available for use in experimental ubiquitous computing applications. As users' expectations of ubiquitous computing applications grow, we envisage a need for tools that can deliver a much richer set of contextual information. The high-level situation of the current environment is a key contextual element, and this position paper focuses on a method to provide this information for an ad-hoc group of people and devices. The contributions of this paper are i) a demonstration of how information retrieval (IR) techniques can be applied to situation determination in context-aware systems, ii) a proposal of a novel approach to situation determination that combines these adapted IR techniques with a process of cooperative interaction, and iii) a report of preliminary results. The approach offers a high level of utility and accuracy, with a greater level of automation than other contemporary approaches