Ambient recommendations in the pop-up shop

In this paper we present the design and first-stage analysis of a purposely built, smart, pop-up wine shop. Our shop learns from visitors’ choices and recommends wine using collaborative filtering and ambient feedback displays integrated into its furniture. Our ambient recommender system was tested in a controlled laboratory environment. We report on the qualitative feedback and between subjects study, testing the influence the system had in wine choice behavior. Participants reported the system helpful, and results from our empirical analysis suggest it influenced buying behavior

2D-barcode for mobile devices

2D-barcodes were designed to carry significantly more data than its 1D counterpart. These codes are often used in industrial information tagging applications where high data capacity, mobility, and data robustness are required. Wireless mobile devices such as camera phones and Portable Digital Assistants (PDAs) have evolved from just a mobile voice communication device to what is now a mobile multimedia computing platform. Recent integration of these two mobile technologies has sparked some interesting applications where 2D-barcodes work as visual tags and/or information source and camera phones performs image processing tasks on the device itself. One of such applications is hyperlink establishment. The 2D symbol captured by a camera phone is decoded by the software installed in the phone. Then the web site indicated by the data encoded in a symbol is automatically accessed and shown in the display of the camera phone. Nonetheless, this new mobile applications area is still at its infancy. Each proposed mobile 2D-barcode application has its own choice of code, but no standard exists nor is there any study done on what are the criteria for setting a standard 2D-barcode for mobile phones. This study intends to address this void. The first phase of the study is qualitative examination. In order to select a best standard 2D-barcode, firstly, features desirable for a standard 2D-barcode that is optimized for the mobile phone platform are identified. The second step is to establish the criteria based on the features identified. These features are based on the operating limitations and attributes of camera phones in general use today. All published and accessible 2D-barcodes are thoroughly examined in terms of criteria set for the selection of a best 2D-barcode for camera phone applications. In the second phase, the 2D-barcodes that have higher potential to be chosen as a standard code are experimentally examined against the three criteria: light condition, distance, whether or not a 2D-barcode supports VGA resolution. Each sample 2D-barcode is captured by a camera phone with VGA resolution and the outcome is tested using an image analysis tool written in the scientific language called MATLAB. The outcome of this study is the selection of the most suitable 2D-barcode for applications where mobile devices such as camera phones are utilized

Improving customer shopping experience using an Android bar-code reader application

A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Mobile Telecommunications and Innovation (MSc. MTI)Queues continue to grow in spite of exhaustive methods done at the supermarkets to reduce it. There has been a rising interest in fast and simple shopping in supermarkets. In the ordinary shopping framework, check-out counters are distributed to minimize the queues yet at the same time it is said to be tedious. This created an exceptional opportunity that the researcher used to improve the current way of managing check-out queues and improve customer shopping experience. A review on consumer shopping behavior and existing solutions was done to get an understanding of consumer’s reaction to queues. Several theoretical models were extracted and combined in order to facilitate the study of queues and discovery of retail solutions. The literature shows that queues are an extremely complex phenomenon, and many of the drivers and pointers to customer satisfaction with queuing cannot be measured simply in terms such as the length of queue or wait time. Improving queues and satisfying customers required considerable understanding and more sophisticated responses. A mobile and web application was developed to make the management of check-out queues easier and efficient and to improve customer shopping experience. Agile methodology was adopted as the software methodology for the development of the application. Scan It, a mobile barcode scanning application was developed as a tool to offer an interactive platform where customers can scan and purchase supermarket products. It was developed for better improvement of shopping experience. The final prototype was tested to verify if the requirements were met

Mobile Pen and Paper Interaction

Although smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices become increasingly popular, pen and paper continue to play an important role in mobile settings, such as note taking or creative discussions. However, information on paper documents remains static and usage practices involving sharing, researching, linking or in any other way digitally processing information on paper are hindered by the gap between the digital and physical worlds. A considerable body of research has leveraged digital pen technology in order to overcome this problem with respect to static settings, however, systematically neglecting the mobile domain. Only recently, several approaches began exploring the mobile domain and developing initial insights into mobile pen-and-paper interaction (mPPI), e.g., to publish digital sketches, [Cowan et al., 2011], link paper and digital artifacts, [Pietrzak et al., 2012] or compose music, [Tsandilas, 2012]. However, applications designed to integrate the most common mobile tools pen, paper and mobile devices, thereby combining the benefits of both worlds in a hybrid mPPI ensemble, are hindered by the lack of supporting infrastructures and limited theoretical understanding of interaction design in the domain. This thesis advances the field by contributing a novel infrastructural approach toward supporting mPPI. It allows applications employing digital pen technology in controlling interactive functionality while preserving mobile characteristics of pen and paper. In addition, it contributes a conceptual framework of user interaction in the domain suiting to serve as basis for novel mPPI toolkits. Such toolkits ease development of mPPI solutions by focusing on expressing interaction rather than designing user interfaces by means of rigid widget sets. As such, they provide the link between infrastructure and interaction in the domain. Lastly, this thesis presents a novel, empirically substantiated theory of interaction in hybrid mPPI ensembles. This theory informs interaction design of mPPI, ultimately allowing to develop compelling and engaging interactive systems employing this modality

Untersuchung des Einflusses sozio-emotionaler Faktoren auf die soziale Akzeptanz und Nutzungsintention bei Lotsenrobotern

In the course of emerging service robotics research, this dissertation consists of three empirical studies to investigate how an extrovert robot personality, a tactile ability to interact and a humanoid robot appearance of robots with a hostess function impact on their social acceptance and intention to use. A field experiment has been conducted with 194 test persons. The experiment compared two versions of a shopping robot (standard version vs. extrovert version). Thereby, the standard version of the shopping robot has been adopted based on a developed extrovert concept. Next, based on a laboratory experiment with 48 students, two versions of the robot Nao have been compared with regards to their tactile ability to interact (Nao with tactile interaction vs. Nao without tactile interaction). Tactile interaction means the reaction of the robot to human contact. Finally, an online experiment with 131 students has been conducted by means of an online questionnaire. The students evaluated two shopping robots with different appearances (less humanoid vs. more humanoid shopping robot) with the help of two interactive videos. The results show that an extrovert robot personality, ability for tactile interaction and a more humanoid appearance of robots with a hostess function have a positive influence on their social acceptance and intention to use.Im Zuge der voranschreitenden Servicerobotik-Forschung, untersucht die vorliegende Dissertation in drei empirischen Teilstudien, inwiefern eine extravertierte Roboterpersönlichkeit, eine taktile Interaktionsfähigkeit und ein menschenähnliches Roboteraussehen bei Lotsenrobotern, einen Einfluss auf deren soziale Akzeptanz und Nutzungsintention haben. Im Rahmen eines Feldexperiments mit n=194 Versuchspersonen wurden zwei Roboter-Versionen eines Shoppingroboters (Standardversion vs. extravertierte Version) miteinander verglichen. Dabei wurde die Standardversion des Shoppingroboters anhand eines eigens entwickelten Extraversions-Konzepts verändert. Auf Basis eines Laborexperimentes mit n=48 Studierenden wurden zwei Versionen des Roboters Nao hinsichtlich seiner taktilen Interaktionsfähigkeit (Nao mit taktiler Interaktion vs. Nao ohne taktiler Interaktion) verglichen. Taktile Interaktion meint dabei, die Reaktion des Roboters auf die Berührung von Menschen. Zuletzt wurde ein Online-Experiment mit n=131 Studierenden durchgeführt, die im Rahmen eines Online-Fragebogens zwei verschieden aussehende Shoppingroboter (eher wenig menschenähnlicher vs. eher menschenähnlicher Shoppingroboter) mit Hilfe von zwei Videos zur Interaktion bewerteten. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eine extravertierte Roboterpersönlichkeit, eine taktile Interaktionsfähigkeit und ein eher menschenähnliches Erscheinungsbild bei Lotsenrobotern einen positiven Einfluss auf deren soziale Akzeptanz und Nutzungsintention haben

Segurança e privacidade no contexto de ambientes inteligentes

Dissertação de mestrado em Direito e InformáticaCom a realização do presente estudo pretende-se levar a cabo uma análise de ambientes inteligentes e as suas repercussões na privacidade e na proteção de dados, bem como possíveis soluções legais e tecnológicas para os problemas que os mesmos levantam. Neste trabalho procurou-se, por um lado, esclarecer o conceito de ambientes inteligentes, bem como definir os seus campos da aplicação e as suas vantagens, e, por outro lado, expor as críticas mais comuns dirigidas às ameaças à privacidade e à proteção de dados. Para o efeito, a investigação focou-se na análise da relevância e adequação da legislação atual face aos desafios emergentes de ambientes inteligentes através de uma abordagem detalhada do regime legal da União Europeia relativa à privacidade e à proteção de dados pessoais, bem como da legislação nacional, em concreto do Decreto-Lei n.º 67/98, de 26 de outubro. Ao longo do presente estudo foi possível inferir que o paradigma de ambientes inteligentes introduz novos riscos à privacidade e proteção de dados pessoais, os quais obrigam a repensar questões relacionadas com segurança, autonomia, identidade e autodeterminação da pessoa humana.This study intends to carry out an analysis of Ambient Intelligence and its impact on privacy and data protection; as well as possible legal and technological solutions to the problems that it raises. The aim is, on one hand, to clarify the concept of Ambient Intelligence, its advantages and application fields; and on the other hand, to expose common criticism regarding the threat that it poses to privacy and data protection. To this end, the main focus was to analyze the relevance and adequacy of current legislation towards Ambient Intelligence and the challenges that it faces; through a comprehensive breakdown of the European Union’s legal regime, as well as national legislation, on the matter of privacy and personal data protection, namely the Decree-Law n.º 67/98, October the 26th During this study it was possible to conclude that the paradigm of Ambient Intelligence introduces new and emerging concerns over privacy and personal data protection, which demand new thinking on issues related to security, autonomy, identity and self-determination of the individual.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) - projeto FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028980.Este trabalho foi desenvolvido no contexto do projeto CAMCoF -Contextaware Multimodal Communication Framework financiado por Fundos FEDER através do Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade - COMPETE

iGrocer- A ubiquitous and pervasive smart grocery shopping system

Emerging Smart phones are poised to give a whole new dimension to the way we shop, bank, and go about many of our everyday activities. iGrocer is a smart grocery shopping assistant, that re-defines grocery shopping. It is capable of maintaining nutrition profiles of its users. Particularly useful for elders and disabled shoppers, iGrocer can aid and advice users on what products to buy and what to avoid based on nutrition criteria and price constraints. Implemented on a smart phone with a barcode scanner accessory, iGrocer has a number of killer features that include: (1) ubiquitous shopping list: adding items to the shopping list by different means (e.g. simply scanning them when near empty, scanning and storing manufacturer coupons, planning the weekly menu right on the phone or through the web, and shopping for the necessary ingredient of a particular recipe, (2) quick and assisted in-store shopping: while shopping in the grocery store, iGrocer maps out the shortest shopping path with a map indicating the location of the next item on the list, and (3)automated check-out: iGrocer is capable of acting on behalf of the store and the customer to perform a trusted queue-less checkout. In this "application-oriented" paper, we present the iGrocer concept and give details of its architecture and implementation. We also summarize the lessons learnt throughout its development and testing phases

iGrocer – A ubiquitous and pervasive smart grocery shopping system

Emerging Smart phones are poised to give a whole new dimension to the way we shop, bank, and go about many of our everyday activities. iGrocer is a smart grocery shopping assistant, that re-defines grocery shopping. It is capable of maintaining nutrition profiles of its users. Particularly useful for elders and disabled shoppers, iGrocer can aid and advice users on what products to buy and what to avoid based on nutrition criteria and price constraints. Implemented on a smart phone with a barcode scanner accessory, iGrocer has a number of killer features that include: (1) ubiquitous shopping list: adding items to the shopping list by different means (e.g. simply scanning them when near empty, scanning and storing manufacturer coupons, planning the weekly menu right on the phone or through the web, and shopping for the necessary ingredient of a particular recipe, (2) quick and assisted in-store shopping: while shopping in the grocery store, iGrocer maps out the shortest shopping path with a map indicating the location of the next item on the list, and (3)automated check-out: iGrocer is capable of acting on behalf of the store and the customer to perform a trusted queue-less checkout. In this “application-oriented ” paper, we present the iGrocer concept and give details of its architecture and implementation. We also summarize the lessons learnt throughout its development and testing phases

Decision-Theoretic Planning for User-Adaptive Systems: Dealing With Multiple Goals and Resource Limitations

While there exists a number of user-adaptive systems that use decision-theoretic methods to make individual decisions, decision-theoretic planning has hardly been exploited in the context of useradaptive systems so far. This thesis focuses on the application of decision-theoretic planning in user-adaptive systems and demonstrates how competing goals and resource limitations of the user can be considered in such an approach. The approach is illustrated with examples from the following domains: user-adaptive assistance for operating a technical device, user-adaptive navigation recommendations in an airport scenario, and finally user-adaptive and location-aware shopping assistance. With the shopping assistant, we have analyzed usability issues of a system based on decision-theoretic planning in two user studies. We describe how hard time constraints, as they are induced, for example, by the boarding of the passenger in an airport navigation scenario, can be considered in a decision-theoretic approach. Moreover, we propose a hierarchical decision-theoretic planning approach based on goal priorization, which keeps the complexity of dealing with realistic problems tractable. Furthermore, we specify the general workflow for the development and application of Markov decision processes to be applied in user-adaptive systems, and we describe possibilities to enhance a user-adaptive system based on decision-theoretic planning by an explanation component