Authoring Support for Mobile Interaction with the Real World.

Mobile phones have been established as devices for the interaction with objects from the everyday world, such as posters, advertisements or points of interest. However, the usage of physical mobile applications is often still restricted by fixed content and behavior, whose authoring usually requires a considerable coding effort. This paper presents an approach to an authoring tool that separates the creative process of authoring content and behavior for mobile applications from its technical deployment. The tool supports non-technical users in the creation of content and behavior for the mobile guiding application MOPS that associates its content with points of interest in the real world through Physical Mobile Interaction

AnswerTree – a hyperplace-based game for collaborative mobile learning

In this paper we present AnswerTree, a collaborative mobile location-based educational game designed to teach 8-12 year olds about trees and wildlife within the University of Nottingham campus. The activity is designed around collecting virtual cards (similar in nature to the popular Top TrumpsTM games) containing graphics and information about notable trees. Each player begins by collecting one card from a game location, but then he or she can only collect further cards by answering questions – whose solutions are obtainable through sharing knowledge with other cardholders. This ostensibly allows each player to become a subject expert at the start of the game, encouraging collaborative interaction for the game to be successfully completed. In this initial paper we will outline the structure and background of this location based game. AnswerTree has been authored within the Hyperplace framework, and is a first implementation of a wider process to develop a flexible, multi-purpose platform for both individual and group location-based mobile learning

Supporting the design and consumption of Locative Media Experiences related to the Cultural Heritage of a Rural Village Community

In this paper, we provide an overview of the SHARC research project. Our approach, based on technology probes, is to design, develop and evaluate (over a longitudinal period) a system that supports the design and consumption of locative media experiences that relate to the cultural heritage of a rural village community named Wray. Our design needs to cater for the different backgrounds and cultural diversity reflected in the range of envisioned users of the system which includes both residents and visitors to the village

Supporting the Mobile In-situ Authoring of Locative Media in Rural Places: Design and Expert Evaluation of the SMAT app

Providing users with carefully authored Locative media experiences (which can be consumed via their GPS equipped smartphones or tablets) has significant potential for fostering a strong engagement with their current surroundings. However, the availability of mobile tools to support the authoring of locative media experiences in-situ, and by non-technical users, remains scarce. In this article we present the design and field-trial expert evaluation of a mobile app developed under the SHARC project (Investigating Technology Support for the Shared Curation of Local History in a Rural Community). The app is named SMAT (SHARC Mobile Authoring Tool) and supports the authoring of Locative Media experiences with a focus on the creation of POIs (Points of Interest) and associated geo-fences which trigger the pushed delivery of media items such as photos, audio clips, etc. One important requirement of SMAT is the ability to support authoring in places where connectivity is intermittent or unavailable, e.g. many rural areas

Shapes, marbles and pebbles: template-based content creation for location-based games

This paper presents the TOTEM framework for supporting the content creation and structuring for location-based games. Shapes (templates), Marbles (instances) and Pebbles (raw data) build the conceptual background while two integrated tools support the overall workflow: TOTEM.Designer, a web-application that allows for desktop-based authoring and TOTEM.Scout, a mobile app that allows for in-situ authoring. The TOTEM framework supports different user roles and allows inexperienced users to collect and create content. All data can be exported and easily added to external games

Supporting the creation of hybrid museum experiences

This paper presents the evolution of a tool to support the rapid prototyping of hybrid museum experiences by domain professionals. The developed tool uses visual markers to associate digital resources with physical artefacts. We present the iterative development of the tool through a user centred design process and demonstrate its use by domain experts to realise two distinct hybrid exhibits. The process of design and refinement of the tool highlights the need to adopt an experience oriented approach allowing authors to think in terms of the physical and digital “things” that comprise a hybrid experience rather than in terms of the underlying technical components

The SHARC framework:utilizing personal dropbox accounts to provide a scalable solution to the storage and sharing of community generated locative media

The emergence of personal cloud storage services provides a new paradigm for storing and sharing data. In this paper we present the design of the SHARC framework and in particular focus on the utilization of personal Dropbox accounts to provide a scalable solution to the storage and sharing of community generated locative media relating to a community's Cultural Heritage. In addition to scalability issues, the utilization of personal Dropbox storage also supports 'sense of ownership' (relating to community media) which has arisen as an important requirement during our on-going 'research-in-the-wild' working with the rural village community of Wray and involving public display deployments to support the display and sharing of community photos and stories. While the framework presented here is currently being tested with a particular place-based community (Wray), it has been designed to provide a general solution that should support other place-based communities

Boxed pervasive games: an experience with user-created pervasive games

Pervasive games are rapidly maturing - from early research experiments with locative games we now start to see a range of commercial projects using locative and pervasive technology to create technology-supported pervasive games. In this paper we report on our experiences in transferring the successful involvement of players in computer games to modding for pervasive games. We present the design process, the enabling tools and two sample games provided in boxes to end users. Finally we discuss how our findings inform the design of modding tools for a pervasive game community of the future

Supporting the consumption and co-authoring of locative media experiences for a rural village community: design and field trial evaluation of the SHARC2.0 framework

Locative Media Experiences (LMEs) have significant potential in enabling visitors to engage with the places that they visit through an appreciation of local history. For example, a visitor to Berlin that is exploring remnants of the Berlin Wall may be encouraged to appreciate (or in part experience) the falling of the Berlin wall by consuming multimedia directly related to her current location such as listening to audio recordings of the assembled crowds on 10th November 1989. However, despite the growing popularity of enabling technologies (such as GPS-equipped smart phones and tablets), the availability of tools that support the authoring of LMEs is limited. In addition, mobile apps that support the consumption of LMEs typically adopt an approach that precludes users from being able to respond with their own multimedia contributions. In this article we describe the design and evaluation of the SHARC2.0 framework that has been developed as part of our long-term and participatory engagement with the rural village of Wray in the north of England. Wray has very limited cellular data coverage which has placed a requirement on the framework and associated tools to operate without reliance on network connectivity. A field study is presented which featured a LME relating to Wray’s local history and which contained multimedia content contributed by members of the community including historic photos (taken from an existing ‘Digital Noticeboard’ system), audio-clips (from a local historian and village residents) and video (contributed during a design workshop). The novelty of our approach relates to the ability of multiple authors to contribute to a LME in-situ, and the utilisation of personal cloud storage for storing the contents associated with a multi-authored LME

Criação de narrativas interactivas espacialmente contextualizadas

Esta tese foca o desenho e desenvolvimento de um ambiente de authoring para o lnStory, uma plataforma para narrativas interactivas navegáveis no espaço, que permite o desenvolvimento de actividades lúdicas e acesso a informação multimédia. Foca a exploração de espaços físicos históricos e culturais, promovendo interacções entre utilizadores. Durante essas explorações acede-se a conteúdo multimédia geo-referenciado e contextualizado, através do uso de dispositivos móveis como telemóveis ou personal digital assistants. O objectivo é adquirir conhecimento histórico e cultural acerca do ambiente circundante ou participar, com outros utilizadores, em actividades, que podem ir de narrativas interactivas a jogos. O ambiente de authoring para tais actividades e conteúdos permite aos utilizadores a criação e personalização das suas próprias narrativas e jogos. É composto por duas ferramentas - lnAuthor, um editor visual para narrativas e jogos e lnContent, um editor visual para criação de conteúdos a serem associados às actividades em construção. - ABSTRACT; This thesis focuses on the design and development of an authoring environment for the lnStory project. lnStory is a platform for creating geo­ referenced interactiva narratives that allows the development of ludic activities and the access to multimedia information. lt focuses on the exploration of cultural and historical physical spaces, promoting interaction between users. During those explorations, users have access to contextual geo-referenced multimedia data, through the use of mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants or mobile phones, either for knowledge acquisition regarding the surrounding environment and its cultural and historical aspects or for engaging in story I gaming activities with other users. The authoring environment for such activities and media content, allows users to create and personalize their own stories. lt comprises two frameworks - lnAuthor, a graphical activity editor, and lnContent, a visual editor for creating screen areas to be associated with the activity being created