Development of Mobile Web App "ESP" for DeepBlue to interrogate how an audience is thinking

DeepBlue is much more than just an orchestra. Their innovative approach to audience engagement led it to develop ESP, their Electronic Show Programme web app which allows for real-time (synchronous) and delayed (asynchronous) audience interaction, customer feedback and research. The show itself is driven invisibly by a music technology operating system (currently QUT's Yodel) that allows them to adapt to a wide range of performance venues and varied types of presentation. DeepBlue's community engagement program has enabled over 5,500 young musicians and community choristers to participate in professional productions, it is also a cornerstone of DeepBlue's successful business model. You can view the ESP mobile web app at m.deepblue.net.au if you view this and only the landing page is active, there is not a show taking place or imminent. ESP prototype has already been used for 18 months. Imagine knowing what your audience really thinks – in real time so you can track their feelings and thoughts through the show. This tool has been developed and used by the performing group DeepBlue since late 2012 in Australia and Asia (even translated into Vietnamese). It has mostly superseded DeepBlue's SMS realtime communication during a show. It enables an event presenter or performance group to take the pulse of an audience through a series of targeted questions that can be anonymous or attributed. This will help build better, long-lasting, and more meaningful relationships with groups and individuals in the community. This can take place on a tablet, mobile phone or future platforms. There are three organisations trialling it so far.

UbiOpticon : participatory sousveillance with urban screens and mobile phone cameras

In many cities around the world, surveillance by a pervasive net of CCTV cameras is a common phenomenon in an attempt to uphold safety and security across the urban environment. Video footage is being recorded and stored, sometimes live feeds are being watched in control rooms hidden from public access and view. In this study, we were inspired by Steve Mann’s original work on sousveillance (surveillance from below) to examine how a network of camera equipped urban screens could allow the residents of Oulu in Finland to collaborate on the safekeeping of their city. An agile, rapid prototyping process led to the design, implementation and ‘in the wild’ deployment of the UbiOpticon screen application. Live video streams captured by web cams integrated at the top of 12 distributed urban screens were broadcast and displayed in a matrix arrangement on all screens. The matrix also included live video streams of two roaming mobile phone cameras. In our field study we explored the reactions of passers-by and users of this screen application that seeks to inverse Bentham’s original panopticon by allowing the watched to be watchers at the same time. In addition to the original goal of participatory sousveillance, the system’s live video feature sparked fun and novel user-led apprlopriations.

Regulation and integral control of an underactuated robotic system using IDA-PBC with dynamic extension

This paper proposes a method for design of a set-point regulation controller with integral action for an underactuated robotic system. The robot is described as a port-Hamiltonian system, and the control design is based on a coordinate transformation and a dynamic extension. Both the change of coordinates and the dynamic extension add extra degrees of freedom that facilitate the solution of the matching equation associated with interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control designs (IDA-PBC). The stability of the controlled system is proved using the closed loop Hamiltonian as a Lyapunov candidate function. The performance of the proposed controller is shown in simulation.

Tools for Mobile Multimedia Programming and Development

Mobile devices are rapidly developing into the primary technology for users to work, socialize, and play in a variety of settings and contexts. Their pervasiveness has provided researchers with the means to investigate innovative solutions to ever more complex user demands. Tools for Mobile Multimedia Programming and Development investigates the use of mobile platforms for research projects, focusing on the development, testing, and evaluation of prototypes rather than final products, which enables researchers to better understand the needs of users through image processing, object recognition, sensor integration, and user interactions. This book benefits researchers and professionals in multiple disciplines who utilize such techniques in the creation of prototypes for mobile devices and applications. This book is part of the Advances in Wireless Technologies and Telecommunication series collection.

The Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS): A new tool to measure the quality of health mobile applications

Smartphone technology provides free or inexpensive access to mental health and wellbeing resources. As a result the use of mobile applications for these purposes has increased significantly in recent years. Yet, there is currently no app quality assessment alternative to the popular ‘star’-ratings, which are often unreliable. This presentation describes the development of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) a new measure for classifying and rating the quality of mobile applications. A review of existing literature on app and web quality identified 25 published papers, conference proceedings, and online resources (published since 1999), which identified 372 explicit quality criteria. Qualitative analysis identified five broad categories of app quality rating criteria: engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information quality, and overall satisfaction, which were refined into the 23-item MARS. Independent ratings of 50 randomly selected mental health and wellbeing mobile apps indicated the MARS had excellent levels of internal consistency (α = 0.92) and inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.85). The MARS provides practitioners and researchers with an easy-to-use, simple, objective and reliable tool for assessing mobile app quality. It also provides mHealth professionals with a checklist for the design and development of high quality apps.

Educational paradox : the hidden obstacles to the integration of mobile phones in the language classroom

This paper reports on the findings of an international telecollaboration study using Facebook, in which teachers studying in M. Ed programs in Australia and Greece, discussed the use of mobile phones in language classrooms. Results suggest that invisible barriers exist in the use of mobile phones in the classroom, including bans on use in schools, lack of familiarity with educational uses for mobile phones, and negative perceptions about mobile phones specifically in terms of classroom management.

Joint 2D and 3D cues for image segmentation towards robotic applications

This thesis investigates the fusion of 3D visual information with 2D image cues to provide 3D semantic maps of large-scale environments in which a robot traverses for robotic applications. A major theme of this thesis was to exploit the availability of 3D information acquired from robot sensors to improve upon 2D object classification alone. The proposed methods have been evaluated on several indoor and outdoor datasets collected from mobile robotic platforms including a quadcopter and ground vehicle covering several kilometres of urban roads.

Mobile phones and media use in Madang province of Papua New Guinea

A mobile phone service was not available to the majority of the population in Papua New Guinea (PNG) until mid-2007. Since that time, commercial competition has been introduced into the mobile telecommunication sector and coverage has spread across many parts of the country. While the focus of this article is on mobile phones, the research has also explored media access and media usage more generally. Analysis in this article adopts the 'circuit of culture' model developed by du Gay et al. (1997). The article is based on data from a survey conducted in 2009 in eight rural villages in Madang Province. The research occurred during the primary stages of mobile phone adoption in these places, providing a rare opportunity to gauge early adoption behaviour and attitudes.

Human-centred methods for design of mobile social technologies : a case study of agile ridesharing

Social contexts are possible information sources that can foster connections between mobile application users, but they are also minefields of privacy concerns and have great potential for misinterpretation. This research establishes a framework for guiding the design of context-aware mobile social applications from a socio-technical perspective. Agile ridesharing was chosen as the test domain for the research because its success relies upon effectively connecting people through mobile technologies.

A taxonomy of computation offloading in mobile cloud computing

The ability of cloud computing to provide almost unlimited storage, backup and recovery, and quick deployment contributes to its widespread attention and implementation. Cloud computing has also become an attractive choice for mobile users as well. Due to limited features of mobile devices such as power scarcity and inability to cater computationintensive tasks, selected computation needs to be outsourced to the resourceful cloud servers. However, there are many challenges which need to be addressed in computation offloading for mobile cloud computing such as communication cost, connectivity maintenance and incurred latency. This paper presents taxonomy of the computation offloading approaches which aim to address the challenges. The taxonomy provides guidelines to identify research scopes in computation offloading for mobile cloud computing. We also outline directions and anticipated trends for future research.

From prototype to exploitation : mobile services for patients with chronic lower back pain

Many research and development projects that are carried out by firms and research institutes are technology-oriented. There is a large gap between research results, for instance in the form of prototypes, and the actual service offerings to customers. This becomes problematic when an organization wants to bring the results from such a project to the market, which will be particularly troublesome when the research results do not readily fit traditional offerings, roles and capabilities in the industry, nor the financial arrangements. In this chapter, we discuss the design of a business model for a mobile health service, starting with a research prototype that was developed for patients with chronic lower back pain, using the STOF model and method. In a number of design sessions, an initial business model was developed that identifies critical design issues that play a role in moving from prototype toward market deployment. The business model serves as a starting-point to identify and commit relevant stakeholders, and to draw up a business plan and case. This chapter is structured as follows. We begin by discussing the need for mobile health business models. Next, the research and development project on mobile health and the prototype for chronic lower back pain patients are introduced, after which the approach used to develop the business model is described, followed by a discussion of the developed mobile health business model for each of the STOF domains. We conclude with a discussion regarding the lessons that were learned with respect to the development of a business model on the basis of a prototype.

Same but different? Mobile technology adoption in China

Purpose This paper seeks to answer two research questions which are “What are key factors which influence Chinese to adopt mobile technology?” and “Do these key factors differ from factors which are identified from Western context?” Design/methodology The findings from a pilot study with 45 in-depth interviews are used to develop questionnaires and test across 800 residents from the three research cities. The data were analyzed by Structural Equation Modelling together with Multi-group Analysis. Findings Our data suggest eight important concepts, i.e. utilitarian expectation, hedonic expectation, status gains, status loss avoidance, normative influence, external influence, cost, and quality concern, are influential factors affecting users’ intentions to adopt 3G mobile technology. Differences are found between the samples in the three research cities in the effect of hedonic expectation, status gains, status loss avoidance, and normative influence on mobile technology adoption intention. Research limitations/implications: As the stability of intentions may change over time, only measuring intentions might be inadequate in predicting actual adoption behaviors. However, the focus on potential users is thought to be appropriate, given that the development of 3G is still in its infancy in China. Originality/value Previous research into Information Technology (IT) adoption among Chinese users has not paid attention to regional diversity. Some research considered China as a large single market and some was conducted in only one province or one city. Culturally, China is a heterogeneous country.

Formal analysis of card-based payment systems in mobile devices

To provide card holder authentication while they are conducting an electronic transaction using mobile devices, VISA and MasterCard independently proposed two electronic payment protocols: Visa 3D Secure and MasterCard Secure Code. The protocols use pre-registered passwords to provide card holder authentication and Secure Socket Layer/ Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) for data confidentiality over wired networks and Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) between a wireless device and a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) gateway. The paper presents our analysis of security properties in the proposed protocols using formal method tools: Casper and FDR2. We also highlight issues concerning payment security in the proposed protocols.

Firm-customer mobile digital connectedness : conceptualization, measurement and implications

Firm-customer digital connectedness for effective sensing and responding is a strategic imperative for contemporary competitive firms. This research-in-progress paper conceptualizes and operationalizes the firm-customer mobile digital connectedness of a smart-mobile customer. The empirical investigation focuses on mobile app users and the impact of mobile apps on customer expectations. Based on pilot data collected from 127 customers, we tested hypotheses pertaining to firm-customer mobile digital connectedness and customer expectations. Our test analysis using linear and non-linear postulations reveals those customers raise their expectations as they increase their digital interactions with a firm.