Requirements for In-Situ Authoring of Location Based Experiences

In this paper we describe an investigation into the requirements for and the use of in-situ authoring in the creation of location based pervasive and UbiComp experiences. We will focus on the co-design process with users that resulted in a novel visitor experience to a historic country estate. This has informed the design of new, in-situ, authoring tools supplemented with tools for retrospective revisiting and reorganization of content. An initial trial of these new tools will be discussed and conclusions drawn as to the appropriateness of such tools. Further enhancements as part of future trials will also be described

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

A persistent infrastructure for augmented field trips

This paper describes an approach to the provision of pervasive field trips where a persistent infrastructure is provided, upon which teachers can easily create novel pervasive experiences for children. The physical infrastructure is briefly described along with the underlying information infrastructure, which enables the tools for authoring the content and designing the orchestration of the experience to be placed in the hands of teachers. A literacy experience and initial trials of the system are discussed, conclusions drawn, and future directions outlined

A Reusable, Extensible Infrastructure for Augmented Field Trips

This paper describes a reusable pervasive information infrastructure developed as part of the Equator IRC, designed to allow the construction of literacy based eLearning activities on top of material created as part of a more traditional visitors system. The architecture of the system is described along with details of the creation of the curated material and the subsequent adaption of the system by local primary school teachers to create a literacy experiences. Results of the first trials of the system are presented with conclusions drawn and discussion of future directions

Authoring Tool for Location-Aware Experiences

In this paper, we present an approach to create location-aware experiences. We use the concept of separation of concerns to represent the content layer and the location layer. This separation allows reusing the layers independently one of each other. The focus of this paper is to provide an end-user tool to create location-aware applications in-situ. By using our tool, the location-aware experiences can be defined in both indoor and outdoor spaces. We present an example of how our tool is used and we describe some discussion points that have occurred to us while defining a tool with these characteristics.Facultad de InformáticaLaboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

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

Authoring Tool for Location-Aware Experiences

In this paper, we present an approach to create location-aware experiences. We use the concept of separation of concerns to represent the content layer and the location layer. This separation allows reusing the layers independently one of each other. The focus of this paper is to provide an end-user tool to create location-aware applications in-situ. By using our tool, the location-aware experiences can be defined in both indoor and outdoor spaces. We present an example of how our tool is used and we describe some discussion points that have occurred to us while defining a tool with these characteristics.Facultad de InformáticaLaboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

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