Implementing a map based simulator for the location API for J2ME

The Java Location API for J2METM integrates generic positioning and orientation data with persistent storage of landmark objects. It can be used to develop location based service applications for small mobile devices, and these applications can be tested using simulation environments. Currently the only simulation tools in the public domain are proprietary mobile device simulators that are driven by GPS data log files, but it is sometimes useful to be able to test location based services using interactive map-based tools. In addition, we may need to experiment with extensions and changes to the standard API to support additional services, requiring an open source environment. In this paper we describe the implementation of an open source map-based simulation tool compatible with other commonly used development and deployment tools

A gentle transition from Java programming to Web Services using XML-RPC

Exposing students to leading edge vocational areas of relevance such as Web Services can be difficult. We show a lightweight approach by embedding a key component of Web Services within a Level 3 BSc module in Distributed Computing. We present a ready to use collection of lecture slides and student activities based on XML-RPC. In addition we show that this material addresses the central topics in the context of web services as identified by Draganova (2003)

Description and Experience of the Clinical Testbeds

This deliverable describes the up-to-date technical environment at three clinical testbed demonstrator sites of the 6WINIT Project, including the adapted clinical applications, project components and network transition technologies in use at these sites after 18 months of the Project. It also provides an interim description of early experiences with deployment and usage of these applications, components and technologies, and their clinical service impact

The fans united will always be connected: building a practical DTN in a football stadium

Football stadia present a difficult environment for the deployment of digital services, due to their architectural design and the capacity problems from the numbers of fans. We present preliminary results from deploying an Android app building an ad hoc network amongst the attendees at matches at Brighton and Hove Albion's AMEX stadium, so as to share the available capacity and supply digital services to season ticket holders. We describe the protocol, how we engaged our users in service design so that the app was attractive to use and the problems we encountered in using Android

Development tools for mobile devices in market price information systems

There are already several applications on mobile devices that can be useful in agriculture. For example: GPS-enabled map software, individual cattle identification and tracking software and even complex agricultural systems. These are just beginning to spread in the Hungarian agrifood sector. The possibility of using for agribusiness of mobile internet and mobile tools is increasing. Mobile tools are really suitable for tasks like inspecting the evolution of prices of agricultural products. One of our application development is a mobile extension to access the Market Price Information System run by the Hungarian Agricultural Economics Research Institute. The accessibility of information demanded by market actors can be ensured effectively by using mobile tools. The biggest limitation for PDA is screen size. If it is getting smaller from full screen to PDA-sized and yet further to mobile phone dimensions, user performance drops. The main reason for this is that smaller screens make it more difficult for a user to make good judgements about the usefulness of any particular information. The development methods and tools help us to solve one part of these problems

Profile transformation in mobile technology based educational systems : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Science in Information Systems at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

In order to meet the learning needs from various types of students, computer aided education systems try to include new methods to provide personalized education to every student. From the early 1970s, a lot of adaptive educational systems have been created to provide training on a variety of subjects. Combined with the Internet, the adaptive educational systems have become web-based and even more popular. Recently, the development of mobile technology has made the web-based adaptive educational systems accessible through mobile phones. It is necessary that the students can also receive adaptive educational contents on mobile phones. This research project investigated the possible student's preference differences between Personal Computer (PC) and mobile phone, and then proposed a student profile transformation framework to address such differences. This research project conducted two surveys on the student profile transformation between PC and mobile phone. A demo web-based educational system that could be accessed from both PC and mobile phone was also developed for participants of the surveys to give more real and precise responses. Based on Felder-Silverman Learning Style Theory (Felder, 1993; Felder & Silverman, 1988) and the results of the surveys, this thesis proposes a student profile template and a student profile transformation framework, which both fully considered the influences of device capabilities and locations on students' preferences on mobile phones. Furthermore, the proposed framework integrates a solution for unsupported preferences and preference conflicts. By implementing the proposed template and framework, the students' preference changes between PC and mobile phone are automatically updated according to various device capabilities and locations, and then the students can receive adaptive educational contents that meet their updated preferences

A Crowd-Assisted Real-time Public Transport Information Service: No More Endless Wait

Many passengers have expressed frustration in waiting for public bus endlessly without knowing the estimated ar- rival time. In many developing countries, requiring bus operators to invest in the installation of a GPS unit on every bus in order to track the bus location and subsequently predicting the bus arrival time can be costly. This paper proposes passenger-assisted sharing of bus location to provide an estimation of bus arrival time. Our scheme aims to exploit the availability and capability of passenger mobile phones to share location information of the travelling buses in order to collect transportation data, at the same time provide an estimation of bus arrival time to the general public. A mobile app is developed to periodically report bus location to the cloud service, and it can detect location spoofing by malicious users. The preliminary results of the field tests suggest that the proposed system is viable and the predicated ETA falls within three minutes of the bus actual arrival time