An effective approach to develop location-based augmented reality information support

Using location-based augmented reality (AR) for pedestrian navigation can greatly improve user action to reduce the travel time. Pedestrian navigation differs in many ways from the conventional navigation system used in a car or other vehicles. A major issue with using location-based AR for navigation to a specific landmark is their quality of usability, especially if the active screen is overcrowded with the augmented POI markers which were overlap each other at the same time. This paper describes the user journey map approach that led to new insights about how users were using location-based AR for navigation. These insights led to a deep understanding of challenges that user must face when using location-based AR application for pedestrian navigation purpose, and more generally, they helped the development team to appreciate the variety of user experience in software requirement specification phase. To prove our concept, a prototype of intuitive location-based AR was built to be compared with existing standard-location based AR. The user evaluation results reveal that the overall functional requirements which are gathered from user journey have same level of success rate criteria when compared with standard location-based AR. Nevertheless, the field study participants highlighted the extended features in our prototype could significantly enhance the user action on locating the right object in particular place when compared with standard location-based AR application (proved with the required time)

Spatial Awareness in Locative Media Projects

This MRP focuses on the different applications that location technologies take part of such as, free based navigational systems like Google Maps, and Locative Media art projects; and analyzes their impact on people and their experience of space. By determining that Google Maps and Locative Media are on different sides of the spectrum of location technologies, I suggest that they are developing different territorial discourses through the use of digital mapping. I suggest that Google Maps is developing a territorialization of space by modifying the way in which the body recognizes space, by creating an image of the world that is designed towards a single user—the Google user—and by imposing itself as a map that is able to represent space. Using a theoretical approach towards understanding these effects, I then analyze three Locative Media project that challenge these ideas, they are: Cary Peppermint’s project, “Indeterminate Hikes,”“Megafone/Montreal in*accessible” by Antoni Abad, and “Amsterdam Real Time” by the Waag Society

User perception of location based services

Location based services are nowadays embedded in most services and devices that individuals use throughout their day. Those location based services are used to get directions, information for their location or even get informed about events. A lot of studies have been conducted focusing on the adaptation of location based services or the experience the users have while using those services. During this research the understanding of location based services and if the users understand the possible trade-offs that exist was researched. Since those services are embedded in modern technology by studying and analysing the beliefs and understanding the users have around those services can assist in better understanding the real user needs and assist in bettering those services. In order to achieve the goals of the study, fieldwork was conducted in the form of interviews. A total of twelve participants were recruited to participate in the study and scenario driven interviews were conducted in order to collect the appropriate data for analysis. The analysis of the data resulted in four main themes that best describe the user beliefs. Those four themes are "Positive View of Location Based Services", "Accepting and expecting no Privacy", "Having difficulties accessing information about the location based services" and "Wanting to change how the services work" with the majority of the participants having a positive view of location based services. Those themes are analysed and discussed and the impact they can have in means of design and user acceptance levels is also presented later during this study. The limitations that existed during the research are also discussed along with the possible future work at the discussion part of the study

Code Park: A New 3D Code Visualization Tool

We introduce Code Park, a novel tool for visualizing codebases in a 3D game-like environment. Code Park aims to improve a programmer's understanding of an existing codebase in a manner that is both engaging and intuitive, appealing to novice users such as students. It achieves these goals by laying out the codebase in a 3D park-like environment. Each class in the codebase is represented as a 3D room-like structure. Constituent parts of the class (variable, member functions, etc.) are laid out on the walls, resembling a syntax-aware "wallpaper". The users can interact with the codebase using an overview, and a first-person viewer mode. We conducted two user studies to evaluate Code Park's usability and suitability for organizing an existing project. Our results indicate that Code Park is easy to get familiar with and significantly helps in code understanding compared to a traditional IDE. Further, the users unanimously believed that Code Park was a fun tool to work with.Comment: Accepted for publication in 2017 IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT 2017); Supplementary video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUiy1M9hUK

Multi-Sensor Context-Awareness in Mobile Devices and Smart Artefacts

The use of context in mobile devices is receiving increasing attention in mobile and ubiquitous computing research. In this article we consider how to augment mobile devices with awareness of their environment and situation as context. Most work to date has been based on integration of generic context sensors, in particular for location and visual context. We propose a different approach based on integration of multiple diverse sensors for awareness of situational context that can not be inferred from location, and targeted at mobile device platforms that typically do not permit processing of visual context. We have investigated multi-sensor context-awareness in a series of projects, and report experience from development of a number of device prototypes. These include development of an awareness module for augmentation of a mobile phone, of the Mediacup exemplifying context-enabled everyday artifacts, and of the Smart-Its platform for aware mobile devices. The prototypes have been explored in various applications to validate the multi-sensor approach to awareness, and to develop new perspectives of how embedded context-awareness can be applied in mobile and ubiquitous computing

A student-led comparison of techniques for augmenting the field experience

We report a study in which 30 university geography students compared five techniques to enhance the experience of visiting outdoor locations. The techniques were: a pre-prepared acetate overlay of the visual scene; a custom-designed visitor guide running on a PDA; the mScape location-based software running on a GPS-enabled mobile phone; Google Earth on a tablet PC; and a head-mounted virtual reality display. The students were given the assignment as part of their assessed coursework for a field trip to the UK Lake District, where they had to evaluate the techniques and propose improvements or future designs to enable tourists or students on field trips to gain an enhanced understanding of their surroundings. The paper describes these techniques, reports the process and results of the student assignment, and concludes with a discussion of some broader issues emerging from the project