The influences of the just-in-time social cloud on real world decisions

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-224).People have intertemporal biases towards choices that result in immediate gratification versus delayed rewards. The social context can accentuate or downplay preferences towards virtues or vices when making choices in the moment. Especially in our modern world where social networks are virtually accessible at anytime, from anywhere, how our day-today decisions are affected by the "always-on" connection to our social networks via mobile devices is an open question. By understanding the dimensions of these social forces, we can utilize the just-in-time social cloud to nudge people towards decisions that have long term benefits for health and finances, while counterbalancing the forces of the marketers that trigger our impulses towards immediate temptations that we may regret later. This work presents an empirical inquiry into the effect of just-in-time social influences in human decision-making. In order to understand these effects and discover their parameters, I design and deploy real-world experiments with the just-in-time social cloud using mobile phones as platforms for just-in-time social influence. The Open Transaction Network forms the basis of generating just-in-time social networks based on the transactions shared by people in the context of commerce. The Open Transaction Network is extended to several systems to conduct real-world experiments involving real choices. By augmenting mobile commerce applications with just-in-time social networks, I design a mobile commerce environment that can socially influence our just-in-time choices. The Open Credit Card Application Framework augments existing methods of payment by using transactions as triggers to enable mobile applications that facilitate just-in-time decisions or reflections. Friends within communities show significant similarity in their hourly transaction behaviors. Varying manifestations of the just-in-time social cloud (individual friends, groups of friends and popularity information) can be used to nudge people's choices in the dimensions of taste, price and time as they decide.by Kwan Hong Lee.Ph.D

Audio applications for mobile Internet Protocol

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-94).IMPROMPTU is an Internet Protocol (IP) based audio platform for mobile communications and networked audio applications. IMPROMPTU supports multiple audio applications on a mobile device communicating over the IP network. The audio user interface on the IMPROMPTU client provides speech interfaces to switch applications and control each application with unique vocabulary and grammar along with providing auditory feedback during the usage of the applications. The alerting model is based on the applications competing to attract user's attention. Various audio applications with different characteristics have been implemented, including radio, MP3 player, and baby monitor. Although IMPROMPTU supports conventional voice telephony services, it does so with increased negotiation between calling parties through more flexible call control. The system architecture is composed of distributed services and applications managed by the Application Manager.Kwan Hong Lee.S.M