Compare multimedia frameworks in mobile platforms

Multimedia feature is currently one of the most important features in mobile devices. Many modern mobile platforms use a centralized software stack to handle multimedia requirements that software stack is called multimedia framework. Multimedia framework belongs to the middleware layer of mobile operating system. It can be considered as a bridge that connects mobile operating system kernel, hardware drivers with UI applications. It supplies high level APIs that offers simple and easy solutions for complicated multimedia tasks to UI application developers. Multimedia Framework also manages and utilizes low lever system software and hardware in an efficient manner. It offers a centralize solution between high level demands and low level system resources. In this M.Sc. thesis project we have studied, analyzed and compared open source GStreamer, Android Stagefright and Microsoft Silverlight Media Framework from several perspectives. Some of the comparison perspectives are architecture, supported use cases, extensibility, implementation language and program language support (bindings), developer support, and legal status aspects. One of the main contributions of this thesis work is that clarifying in details the strength and weaknesses of each framework. Furthermore, the thesis should serve decision-making guidance when on needs to select a multimedia framework for a project. Moreover, and to enhance the impression with the three multimedia frameworks, a basic media player implementation is demonstrated with source code in the thesis.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Mobile platform-independent solutions for body sensor network interface

Body Sensor Networks (BSN) appeared as an application of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) to medicine and biofeedback. Such networks feature smart sensors (biosensors) that capture bio-physiological parameters from people and can offer an easy way for data collection. A new BSN platform called Sensing Health with Intelligence Modularity, Mobility and Experimental Reusability (SHIMMER) presents an excellent opportunity to put the concept into practice, with suitable size and weight, while also supporting wireless communication via Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4 standards. BSNs also need suitable interfaces for data processing, presentation, and storage for latter retrieval, as a result one can use Bluetooth technology to communicate with several more powerful and Graphical User Interface (GUI)-enabled devices such as mobile phones or regular computers. Taking into account that people currently use mobile and smart phones, it offers a good opportunity to propose a suitable mobile system for BSN SHIMMER-based networks. This dissertation proposes a mobile system solution with different versions created to the four major smart phone platforms: Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Android. Taking into account that, currently, iPhone does not support Java, and Java cannot match a native solution in terms of performance in other platforms such as Android or Symbian, a native approach with similar functionality must be followed. Then, four mobile applications were created, evaluated and validated, and they are ready for use

Source and network coding on mobile devices

This project concerns the development and implementation of a full functional demonstrator for cooperative wireless networking and network coding, which is a technology for improving performance in wireless networks. An application for distribute a video among nodes forming a cooperative cluster is implemented. The implementation is done for the Maemo platform. In Cellular Controlled Peer-to-Peer (CCP2P) networks, besides being connected to an outside world using cellular links, a group of mobile devices in close proximity form a cooperative cluster contributing their onboard capabilities and resources to exploit them a more efficient way. This project implements this kind of networks. Diverse cooperating phones agree on splitting a video to download and start to receive it through USB from a server (simulating the cellular link). Simultaneously the received data is exchanged over the short-range link using three different transmission schemes: Network coding and broadcast, which were implemented in a previous work, and a new hybrid schema developed as a combination of both, broadcast and network coding. After implementation of the program, tests are carried out, to see the results achieved with this new schema and compare it with the previous ones, in terms of throughput, energy consumption and necessary time to distribute the whole video. The results obtained show an improvement in the three cases for the new hybrid schema, which use broadcast at the beginning, when all the nodes are interested in all the packets, and Network Coding for retransmissions of packets

Design and Implement Voice Application over Ad Hoc Networks Using UPnP

The traditional voice service was based on circuit-switched network architecture. It has been deployed on the packet-switched based network since Session Initial Protocol (SIP) became the de facto standard for Voice over IP (VoIP) in 1999. Since then voice service has become simple and flexible. Another important technology driving voice service more popularity is mobile Ad Hoc networks (MANET). Most of internet applications or services such as VoIP or instant messaging (IM) are designed with client/server architecture. This design requires the initiator of communication sessions to know the address of counterpart prior to building a connection. With Ad Hoc networks, there is no such requirement at all. In this thesis, we will design an Ad Hoc architecture using Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol, and implement a simple voice application over such network. By definition infrastructure is unavailable in Ad Hoc network, we will also present the solution of how to enable SIP-based session setup on Ad Hoc network. This thesis consists of two parts. The first part is the theoretical part. In this part, we will review the technologies related to our design and implementation. The second part is the system implementation and validation part. We will test our implementation with the Nokia Internet Tablet N810/N800s for various scenarios

Ilonani : a table-top robot for remote interaction

Este documento presenta los resultados de la investigación realizada con el objetivo de desarrollar un robot para la interacción remota. La concepción de este “robot de mesa” incluye el uso de un Internet Tablet de Nokia, el N810, como la cabeza y cara del robot, concentrando las funciones de procesamiento y la interfaz con los usuarios. Este dispositivo iría montado sobre una base que proporcionaría la capacidad de giro y balanceo, controlado con un sistema formado por un microcontrolador y un grupo de servomecanismos. El trabajo realizado bajo este proyecto se concentra en el desarrollo de una configuración software que permita la realización de video conferencia entre dos de estos dispositivos. Los resultados obtenidos tienen dos facetas: por un lado, se configuró un sistema que proporcionaba la funcionalidad de video conferencia (aunque no de la manera anticipada), y por otro, se obtuvo un conocimiento destilado en este documento con la idea de que fuese utilizado en futuros proyectos.Ingeniería Industria

Implementing user innovation: case mobile web server beta

Open innovation is challenging the traditional model of closed innovation in research and product development. The idea is to open the boundaries of a firm and let external influences take part in the development processes. One way of utilizing open innovation is to involve the so-called lead users via user innovation methods. The concept of MWS ”an Internet server in the phone” is an original Nokia Research Center innovation. It is a fully-fledged HTTP server that has been adapted to Nokia's Symbian smartphones. This makes it possible to use the phone features remotely from anywhere over the Internet. For the user of the phone this opens up new possibilities to use the device for example as a remote camera or data storage. If the user chooses it is also possible to open up access to the phone for friends which creates new possibilities for sharing information and communication. The methods of open innovation were utilized in the project in many ways. First of all most of the required technology was based on open source software, such as Apache HTTP Server and Python scripting language. By employing open source software the project was able to concentrate on integration to the smartphone platform. It was also thought that using open source software components it would be easier to motivate new developers to come up with new innovative uses for technology solution. In the MWS beta project the idea was to make the service accessible for a wider base of lead users in the mobile world. It was thought that involving lead users would lead to the discovery of new use cases for the technology. Several methods and tools for user innovation were employed in this phase of the project, such as discussion boards, a blog and direct communication channels. This thesis work documents the phases of the beta project and the results of user innovation. /Kir1

Predicting mobile device battery life

Matkapuhelimet ja muut mobiililaitteet ovat kaikki riippuvaisia yhdestä kriittisestä tekijästä: akkukestosta. Kun akku tyhjenee, laite on hyödytön kunnes käyttäjää pystyy uudelleen lataamaan laitteen. Akkukesto on muodostunut ongelmaksi etenkin uusimmissa älypuhelimissa. Matkapuhelinten kehitys viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana on muuttanut ne yksinkertaisista kannettavista puhelimista monitoimilaitteiksi. Uusimmat älypuhelimet voivat sisältää esimerkiksi internet-selaimen, mediasoittimen ja navigaattorin. Tämä kehitys on tehnyt puhelimista entistä hyödyllisempiä jokapäiväisissä tilanteissa, mutta samalla laitteiden keskimääräinen energiankulutus on kasvanut, johtaen lyhyempään akkukestoon. Tässä työssä tutkitaan miten akkukestoa pystyttäisiin ennustamaan ja esittämään käyttäjälle intuitiivisella tavalla. Työn kohdelaite oli Linux-pohjainen älypuhelin, Nokia N900. Työssä näytetään, että akkukestoa todellakin on mahdollista ennustaa luotettavalla tavalla. Työn tuloksena syntynyt akunmonitorointisovellus, BattInfo, näyttää käyttäjälle monipuolista tietoa jäljellä olevasta akkukestosta, esimerkiksi jäljellä olevan puheajan ja musiikinsoittoajan. Ryhmä N900-puhelimen käyttäjiä testasi BattInfoa, ja saatujen tuloksien perusteella sovellusta edelleen parannettiin.Mobile phones and other mobile devices have one resource in common that is essential to all of them: battery life. Once the battery is empty, the device is useless until it is recharged. Limited battery life has become an issue especially in the newest mobile devices. The evolution of mobile devices during the last ten years has changed them from mobile phones into multi-functional mobile computers. Today's mobile device can contain for example a web browser, a music player and a navigator. This evolution has made the devices increasingly useful and important in everyday situations, but at the same time the average power consumption of the devices has increased, leading to shorter and less predictable battery life. This thesis examines how the remaining battery life could be estimated and indicated to the user in an intuitive way. The target platform of the work was the Linux-based mobile computer, Nokia N900. The work shows that estimating the remaining battery life on the target device in a reliable manner is feasible. The outcome of the work is a battery monitoring application, named BattInfo, which provides the user with remaining battery life estimations, such as call time and music playback time. BattInfo was also tested on a group of N900 users, and further improved based on the results from the testing

Context-Aware Mobile Games Using Android, Arduino and HTML5

Mobiilitehnoloogiate areng ja nutitelefonide kiire levik loob uusi võimalusi mobiilirakenduste arendamiseks ning palju rõhku pannakse mängudele. Loodavad mängud muutuvad aga keerulisemaks, sest üha enam kasutatakse keskkonnast tulevat informatsiooni, et kohandada mängu vastavalt kasutaja asukohale ja kontekstile. Mänge, mis seovad kasutaja füüsile asukoha ja oleku virtuaalmaailmaga keskkonnateadlikuks mänguks. Üha enam luuakse rakendusi veebiplatvormile, mitte kindlatele operatsioonisüsteemidele, sest veebitehnoloogiad võimaldavad luua võrdväärse funktsionaalsuse ning kasutajamugavusega rakendusi. Veebipõhiste rakenduste suurimaks eeliseks on see, et nende tööks on vaja ainult veebibrauserit ning igale operastioonisüteemile ei pea kirjutama eraldi programmi. Antud tehnoloogiad on jõudnud ka mobiilimaailma, kus iga operatsioonisõsteemi jaoks peab arendama eraldiseisva rakenduse, sest iga tootja süsteem on teistest erinev. Antud bakalaurusetöö eesmärgiks on luua veebitehnoloogiaid kasutades mobiilimäng, mille juhtimiseks kasutatakse nutitelefonis olevaid sensoreid ning lisaks Arduino mikrokontrolleritest tulevat väliskeskoona informatsiooni. Antud bakalaurusetöö suurimaks panuseks on PhoneGap raamistikule loodud moodul, mis võimaldab pärida Arduino mikrokontrollerist saadetud sensorite informatsiooni kliendipoolsest koodist, mis tavaliste lahendustega pole võimalik.Latest technological achievements in mobile and open-source electronics platforms made it possible to develop pervasive applications that use environmental information to enhance software usability aspects in real-time, like in the case of context-aware mobile games. However, the development of this kind of pervasive applications is tied to speci c aspects owned by each mobile platform (e.g. programming language, SDK and tools, etc.). Moreover, a considerable effort and knowledge in low-level programming techniques is required for porting the applications between platforms, and thus in general most of the solutions are targeted at particular platform. In order to investigate the possibility of creating portable pervasive applications that combine sensor information from the multiple micromechanical artefacts embedded within the smartphones, we used contextual sensor data provided by Arduino Microcontroller. The current thesis proposed extending the existing implementation of PhoneGap to create hybrid mobile applications based on HTML5 that are easy to port, maintain and reuse