De-mystifying [a facet of] mobile learning : collaborative media in studio

“Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” (Prensky, 2001, p. 1). The influx of available new technology has helped to democratise knowledge, transforming when, where and how learning takes place, and changing perceptions of traditional learning landscapes (JISC, 2006; Neary et al., 2010). Mobile computers combined with wireless technology, have completely transformed the educational world; students have turned nomad[ic], engaging in conversations and thinking across traditional campus spaces (Alexander, 2004; Fisher, 2005). In this workshop we will be attempting to de-mystify a facet of mobile learning, by working in small groups to set up and kick start a number of social media sites, which can be used for collaboration and information exchange, in the design studio.

Using mobile technology and augmented reality to increase data reliability for environmental assessment

Climate change and land use pressures are making environmental monitoring increasingly important. As environmental health is degrading at an alarming rate, ecologists have tried to tackle the problem by monitoring the composition and condition of environment. However, traditional monitoring methods using experts are manual and expensive; to address this issue government organisations designed a simpler and faster surrogate-based assessment technique for consultants, landholders and ordinary citizens. However, it remains complex, subjective and error prone. This makes collected data difficult to interpret and compare. In this paper we describe a work-in-progress mobile application designed to address these shortcomings through the use of augmented reality and multimedia smartphone technology.

Active text perception for mobile robots

Our everyday environment is full of text but this rich source of information remains largely inaccessible to mobile robots. In this paper we describe an active text spotting system that uses a small number of wide angle views to locate putative text in the environment and then foveates and zooms onto that text in order to improve the reliability of text recognition. We present extensive experimental results obtained with a pan/tilt/zoom camera and a ROS-based mobile robot operating in an indoor environment.

Tsunami alert : the mobile phone difference

Substantial growth has occurred in the telecommunication sector in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since 2007. Mobile telephony has spread to rural and remote localities, following decades of inadequate telephone services. This paper examines the introduction of mobile telephones into a rural village in PNG, and focuses on information access during emergency situations. It considers three tsunami alerts: one immediately prior to the introduction of mobile phone services in the area, and two which occurred after mobile phone reception became available. The research shows that for people with limited access to information, responses to threats such as tsunamis can be inappropriate and driven by fear and panic. By contrast, when there is reliable, timely information available, measured responses can be adopted. This research demonstrates how the use of newly-introduced communication technologies for handling emergencies may work in practice, benefitting people in poorer, rural communities.

Could mobile telephony be harnessed for development in Papua New Guinea?

Could mobile telephony be harnessed for development in Papua New Guinea (PNG)? Could mobile phones be utilised to enhance the security and prosperity of rural communities? Could mobile phones be a useful tool in the achievement of the PNG 2050 Vision targets? This paper is based on literature review around use of mobile phones in development in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. It also draws on discussions with key players in PNG, such as NGOs, UN agencies, donor partners, telecommunication companies and the government of PNG. Anticipated benefits of mobile phone availability have not been fully realised in rural areas of PNG to date due to pricing, difficulties with recharging handset batteries in communities which do not have mains electricity supply, and also concerns about negative social changes related to mobile telephony, for example parental stress over youth forming unsuitable relationships. Nonetheless, there are manifest possible ways for mobile phone technology to change user communication patterns positively regarding economic output. In sectors as diverse as health, education and law and justice, discussions are currently underway to establish how mobile phones could be used to increase service delivery, particularly to rural and marginal communities.

From movie screens to moving screens : mapping qualities of new urban interactions

Next generation screens of diverse dimensions such as the Pebble e-paper watch, Google’s Project Glass, Microsoft’s Kinect and IllumiRoom, and large-scale multi-touch screen surface areas, increasingly saturate and diversify the urban mediascape. This paper seeks to contribute to media architecture and interaction design theory by starting to critically examine how these different screen formats are creating a ubiquitous screen mediascape across the city. We introduce next generation personal, domestic, and public screens. The paper critically challenges conventional dichotomies such as local / global, online / offline, private / public, large / small, mobile / static, that have been created in the past to describe some of the qualities and characteristics of interfaces and their usage. More and more scholars recognise that the black and white nature of these dichotomies does not adequately represent the fluid and agile capabilities of many new screen interfaces. With this paper, we hope to illustrate the more nuanced ‘trans-scalar’ qualities of these new urban interactions, that is, ways in which they provide a range functionality, without being locked into either end of a scale.

User-driven quality of experience modelling for mobile video optimisation

The increasing demand for mobile video has attracted much attention from both industry and researchers. To satisfy users and to facilitate the usage of mobile video, providing optimal quality to the users is necessary. As a result, quality of experience (QoE) becomes an important focus in measuring the overall quality perceived by the end-users, from the aspects of both objective system performance and subjective experience. However, due to the complexity of user experience and diversity of resources (such as videos, networks and mobile devices), it is still challenging to develop QoE models for mobile video that can represent how user-perceived value varies with changing conditions. Previous QoE modelling research has two main limitations: aspects influencing QoE are insufficiently considered; and acceptability as the user value is seldom studied. Focusing on the QoE modelling issues, two aims are defined in this thesis: (i) investigating the key influencing factors of mobile video QoE; and (ii) establishing QoE prediction models based on the relationships between user acceptability and the influencing factors, in order to help provide optimal mobile video quality. To achieve the first goal, a comprehensive user study was conducted. It investigated the main impacts on user acceptance: video encoding parameters such as quantization parameter, spatial resolution, frame rate, and encoding bitrate; video content type; mobile device display resolution; and user profiles including gender, preference for video content, and prior viewing experience. Results from both quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed the significance of these factors, as well as how and why they influenced user acceptance of mobile video quality. Based on the results of the user study, statistical techniques were used to generate a set of QoE models that predict the subjective acceptability of mobile video quality by using a group of the measurable influencing factors, including encoding parameters and bitrate, content type, and mobile device display resolution. Applying the proposed QoE models into a mobile video delivery system, optimal decisions can be made for determining proper video coding parameters and for delivering most suitable quality to users. This would lead to consistent user experience on different mobile video content and efficient resource allocation. The findings in this research enhance the understanding of user experience in the field of mobile video, which will benefit mobile video design and research. This thesis presents a way of modelling QoE by emphasising user acceptability of mobile video quality, which provides a strong connection between technical parameters and user-desired quality. Managing QoE based on acceptability promises the potential for adapting to the resource limitations and achieving an optimal QoE in the provision of mobile video content.

Mobile cost estimating

Martin Skitmore introduces a most "remarkable couple", Rod and Annie Stewart of Huntsville, Alabama (and elsewhere), and their post retirement business, Mobile Data Services. Contrary to popular expectations, Rod and Annie are not only computer-friendly, but are almost entirely dependent on the new technology for their survival.

Social and mobile interaction design to increase the loyalty rates of young blood donors

Young adults represent the largest group of first time donors to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, but they are also the least loyal group and often do not return after their first donation. At the same time, many young people use the internet and various forms of social media on a daily basis. Web and mobile based technological practices and communication patterns change the way that young people interact with one another, with their families, and communities. Combining these two points of departure, this study seeks to identify best practices of employing mobile apps and social media in order to enhance the loyalty rates of young blood donors. The findings reported in this paper are based on a qualitative approach presenting a nuanced understanding of the different factors that motivate young people to donate blood in the first place, as well as the obstacles or issues that prevent them from returning. The paper discusses work in progress with a view to inform the development of interactive prototypes trialling three categories of features: personal services (such as scheduling); social media (such as sharing the donation experience with friends to raise awareness); and data visualisations (such as local blood inventory levels). We discuss our translation of research findings into design implications.

Tag-based interaction in online and mobile banking : a preliminary study of the effect on usability

In this paper we describe tag-based interaction afforded by a tag-based interface in online and mobile banking, and present our preliminary usability evaluation findings. We conducted a pilot usability study with a group of banking users by comparing the present 'conventional' interface and tag-based interface. The results show that participants perceive the tag-based interface as more usable in both online and mobile contexts. Participants also rated the tag-based interface better despite their unfamiliarity and perceived it as more user-friendly. Additionally, the results highlight that tag-based interaction is more effective in the mobile context especially to inexperienced mobile banking users. This in turn could have a positive effect on the adoption and acceptance of mobile banking in general and also specifically in Australia. We discuss our findings in more detail in the later sections of this paper and conclude with a discussion on future work.

A comparative usability study of a tag-based interface in the mobile banking context

This paper presents a comparative study to evaluate the usability of a tag-based interface alongside the present 'conventional' interface in the Australian mobile banking context. The tag-based interface is based on user-assigned tags to banking resources with support for different types of customization. And the conventional interface is based on standard HTML objects such as select boxes, lists, tables and etc, with limited customization. A total of 20 banking users evaluated both interfaces based on a set of tasks and completed a post-test usability questionnaire. Efficiency, effectiveness, and user satisfaction were considered to evaluate the usability of the interfaces. Results of the evaluation show improved usability in terms of user satisfaction with the tag-based interface compared to the conventional interface. This outcome is more apparent among participants without prior mobile banking experience. Therefore, there is a potential for the tag-based interface to improve user satisfaction of mobile banking and also positively affect the adoption and acceptance of mobile banking, particularly in Australia.

Image-based visual navigation for mobile robots

We introduce a new image-based visual navigation algorithm that allows the Cartesian velocity of a robot to be defined with respect to a set of visually observed features corresponding to previously unseen and unmapped world points. The technique is well suited to mobile robot tasks such as moving along a road or flying over the ground. We describe the algorithm in general form and present detailed simulation results for an aerial robot scenario using a spherical camera and a wide angle perspective camera, and present experimental results for a mobile ground robot.

A context-fusion framework for enhancing context-awareness on mobile application

Mobile devices and smartphones have become a significant communication channel for everyday life. The sensing capabilities of mobile devices are expanding rapidly, and sensors embedded in these devices are cheaper and more powerful than before. It is evident that mobile devices have become the most suitable candidates to sense contextual information without needing extra tools. However, current research shows only a limited number of sensors are being explored and investigated. As a result, it still needs to be clarified what forms of contextual information extracted from mo- bile sensors are useful. Therefore, this research investigates the context sensing using current mobile sensors, the study follows experimental methods and sensor data is evaluated and synthesised, in order to deduce the value of various sensors and combinations of sensor for the use in context-aware mobile applications. This study aims to develop a context fusion framework that will enhance the context-awareness on mobile applications, as well as exploring innovative techniques for context sensing on smartphone devices.