Mobile Devices in Information Society

Ilya Shmorgun

Topics

Information society Ubiquitous computing Modern mobile devices Ubiquitous mobile interactions

Information Society

Ubiquitous Computing

Mobile Devices

Information Society

Information society is a new mode of human existence where the organized production, storage, retrieval, and utilization of information play a central role.

A society where the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a signicant economic, political, and cultural activity.

Wealth is created through economic utilization of knowledge.

A society where people mainly produce knowledge or cultural artifacts.

Conclusion

Information society is very much dependent upon information management and so our technology needs to be able to support us in making better use of that information.

Ubiquitous Computing

The goal of ubiquitous computing is to make computers invisible.

Taking cues from the physical world a ubiquitous computing environment should include lots of information on the periphery.

Using technology should be as pleasant as a walk in the woods.

In the physical world lots of information is available and yet a person is not overwhelmed by it.

Instead he can choose what to focus his attention on.

In contrast, currently, rather than being a tool through which people work, the computer too often remains the focus of attention.

Ubiquitous computing proposes interaction through calm technology, where users can sense and control what directly interests them, while still being aware of other opportunities to consume information and when to focus on them.

In the ubicomp reality people interact with devices and objects without recognizing the presence of computers and without signicant cognitive effort.

In its ultimate form ubicomp means that devices will be able to move with us and dynamically build understanding of their changing environments and congure their services accordingly.

Thus, ubiquitous computing is simultaneously very personal and extremely global.

Ubiquitous technology requires simple, easy-touse interfaces and a positive user experience.

The user needs to be able to focus on the task without worrying about the technology itself.

People should be able to use devices without needing to engage in underlying concepts or technical details.

New Paradigms of Interaction

The proliferation of computing into the physical world suggests new paradigms of interaction inspired by constant access to information and computational capabilities.

Ubiquitous computing inspires the development of applications that are off the desktop.

The new interaction paradigm should reect more closely how humans interact with each other and the physical world.

This includes the ability to speak, make gestures and use various tools for writing.

The Internet of Things

Much of the users expectations will be inuenced by the Web, where a person encountering a problem can simply hit Reload.

In addition, on the Web it is very easy to move between different peaces of information and connect them together through links.

The Internet of Things encompasses a variety of technologies and research that aim to extend the existing Internet to the world of physical objects.

Examples of connecting physical objects to the information stored on the Internet include QR codes and RFID tags.

QR Codes

Quick Response (QR) codes are rectangular bar codes which can store large pieces of information.

QR codes can encode any data type, such as alphanumeric, Kanji, and Hiragana symbols.

QR codes can be found on billboards, bus stops, LCD advertising and food wrappers.

The main barrier to widespread usage of QR codes is that users need to download special applications to decode the information stored in the codes.

RFID Tags

RFID tags rely on wireless non-contact systems to transfer data from tagged objects to readers.

RFIDs enable information to be read without requiring a line of sight.

The main barrier to RFIDs becoming mainstream is the cost of producing chips and also that special RFID readers are yet to become widely adopted.

Context

Systems can automatically adapt to the environment by taking into account the current time, physical location, needs and other parameters.

Important aspects of context are: where you are, who you are with, and what resources are nearby.

Types of context

Context is any information that can be used to characterize the situation of a person, place, or object that is relevant to the interaction between a user and an application.

Computing context includes network connectivity, communication costs and bandwidth as well as nearby devices.

User context includes a users prole, location, people nearby and the current social situation.

Physical context includes lighting, noise levels, trafc conditions, and temperature.

Time context includes time of day, week, month, and season of the year.

It is possible to obtain a context history, when all of these contexts are recorded over a period of time.

Context Awareness

Context awareness can be passive or active.

Passive context awareness means that an application presents new or updated context to the user or allows the context to be retrieved later.

Active context awareness means that an application can automatically adapt to discovered context by changing its behavior.

Active context awareness can lead to more interesting applications and remove unnecessary user interaction.

An example of active context awareness is when a mobile device uses its lighting sensor to automatically adjust the brightness of the display.

Issues with Context

There is no uniform way of tracking location indoors as well as outdoors and so systems must use different sources to nd the users location.

This may result in more uncertainty and errors and result in conicting pieces of information.

One possible solution would be to assemble context information from a variety of sources by using an approach called context fusion.

Another would be to involve the user as a domain expert as he is the person, who has the most understanding of his personal domain.

Opportunistic Interactions

For many everyday tasks the goals and intentions are not clear, instead they are opportunistic.

This means that a person takes advantage of the available circumstances.

Activities are performed if the relevant opportunity arises without engaging in extensive planning and analysis.

The goal of ubicomp is to provide a multitude of single-activity interactions that together result in a unied and continuous interaction between people and services.

A person should not focus on a single interface to accomplish some task.

Instead the interaction should be more integrative and free-owing, similar to our interaction with the physical world.

Context-Aware Applications

Context-aware applications should support users in highly dynamic situations and improve their perception of the surrounding context and the effects of available actions.

This will allow users to better form their goals and reect their true intentions.

There is a need for systems that are able to exploit devices that just happen to be in the environment.

In opportunistic systems everything needs to be considered a sensor, meaning that every source of data needs to be used.

The key to opportunistic sensing is abstracting all kinds of data as generic sensors and providing standardized access interfaces for them.

Conclusion

The goal of ubiquitous computing is to provide a technological capability to support users in achieving their goals by thoroughly integrating computational devices in the physical environment and making them invisible.

As a result information access and management becomes easier.

Modern Mobile Devices

Mobile Computing

The modus operandi of mobile computing is providing access to information at your ngertips anywhere, anytime.

As computers become more portable, people expect to be able to access information anytime and anywhere on the devices they carry with them all the time.

Since the beginning mobile computing assumed a 2-level hierarchy: server and client.

The term mobile computer includes many types of devices, such as laptops, cell phones and smartphones.

The key ingredients are high-performance lowpower processors, high-density memory, and standardized wireless communication.

Mobile computers are resource-poor, their connectivity is highly variable in regards to performance and reliability, and they rely on a limited source of energy.

These constraints are intrinsic to mobility and not simply artifacts of the current technology.

Mobile Device Denition

This research focuses specically on mobile devices which are viewed as a subset of mobile computing.

A mobile device is a small, handheld computing device, typically with a touchscreen or a small keyboard for input which does not rely on a WIMP interaction style.

The Evolution of Mobile Phones

The Evolution of Tablets

Mainstream Mobile Platforms

Mobile Device Capabilities

Camera GPS and GLONASS Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Accelerometer Three-axis gyroscope Digital compass WiFi 3G and EDGE Bluetooth

And when you combine those sensors with articial intelligence, you get...

What people use mobile phones for?

Ramsay, M., & Nielsen, J. (2000). WAP Usability Report.

Highly goal-driven services which provide fast answers to specic problems, for example Whats the weather like?

Entertainment-focused services with the sole purpose of killing time, for example gossip, sports and games.

Killing time is the killer app for mobile because the user wants to get brief content in a limited amount of time and still be satised.

Figure 11: Users bookmarks according to category.

30

20

Percentage

10

0
W Sp Sh En Po Tr Sh N ew s Se er th ea el av t or es ar rta te m in t en
User bookmarks by category

n pi op

c ar h

l rta

g en e in s

Mobile Information Needs

Mobile Information Needs (Sohn et al., 2008)

Mobile Activities

Budiu, R., & Nielsen, J. (2012). Usability of Mobile Websites and Applications (2nd ed).

combined:

Histogram of Mobile Activities communication entertainment news travel/transportation weather picture-related shopping utility banking/financial personal data local info information (public data) device maintenance personal care/health work 6 23 22 20 20 15 12 12 51 51 44 37 33 31 171

In this chart, the numbers indicate how many times each mobile activity was performed across the 172 person-days for which we collected the diary. Shopping includes purchasing,

What people use iPads for?

Budiu, R., & Nielsen, J. (2011). Usability of iPad Apps and Websites.

The iPad is frequently shared between family members.

The most common uses include games, email, social networking, watching videos, reading news and shopping.

The Mobile Computing Reality

Mobile device usage is dominated by content consumption.

Difculty to Perform

Desktop experience

Mobile experience

Complexity of Task
redev 2011 - From Mac to iPhone to iPad (And Back) - William Van Hecke

For any kind of a serious computing task a laptop is considered the bare minimum needed for effective HCI.

For many people smartphones are personal computers on which they rely the most.

The mobile device and its functionalities has become a part of peoples self-expression and a status symbol.

Companies work hard to make sure that the newest devices are cutting edge and do not vanish into the background, and yet...

Truly mobile computing - lightweight, accessible on the go, and wirelessly connected - has been a vital vision of ubiquitous computing.

The mobile device has become a pleasant and effective place to get things done.

Yet, the mobile device conicts with the original vision in many ways.

Computing is centralized in the palm of your hand instead of being distributed across the environment.

This also conicts with the assumption that information appliances (single-function devices) would prevail over complicated multifunctional devices.

The smartphone also conicts with Weisers concept of tabs, which would be available in large numbers and shared by people.

Instead smartphones are intimately personal devices which are used for numerous purposes.

Research has yet to address the multifaceted functionality of mobile devices.

Multiple functionalities enable users to do the same task in different ways and combine functions in unique ways.

Users can also choose to ignore functionalities that are not relevant to them.

If we want to understand and design for the world as it is, not the world as forecast, we need to understand how this multi-functionality benets users.

The dream of ubicomp has already become a reality in the form of the mobile device.

The mobile device is used in ways that describe the real but messy ubicomp.

Mobile devices are popular exactly because of their multiple functions.

The presence of multiple functions has become more important than the design of the interface used to access them.

Even with similar devices and when using same applications and functions people still use their mobile devices in unique ways which are adjusted to specic contexts.

Flexibility is paramount.

People nd creative ways of adapting less suitable technology for their needs by mixing applications in ways that designers could not imagine.

People do not see their mobile device as fun but instead as a Swiss Army knife or as a loyal dog which does exactly what it is asked to do.

Technology is rarely perfect.

It almost always fails in some way.

Mobile device use is an exercise in overcoming absences.

The real usage experience is full of seams in contrast to the seamless vision of ubicomp.

However these seams are negotiated with ease and users easily learn how to work around them.

On the other hand, improvements in hardware can also be seen as a way of overcoming or removing the seams in the user experience.

Thus, this is can be seen as a two-way process.

The messiness of ubicomp is handled through adjustment of both technology and practices.

Users do not perceive their actions as messy or effortful in any way.

People are not generally conscious of navigating the seams of technology.

People solve problems utilizing a bag of tricks approach by nding the right combination of tools to t the situation.

Mobile devices just as other technology need to be tended to, maintained, kept alive, charged and cared for.

Yet people still feel that the devices add smoothness to their lives, possibly because smoothness is still present in the form of the integration of many functions of a single device.

The mobile device is very far from the notion of a disappearing computer.

On the other hand all a user needs to do is just sign in to his Google, iCloud or Windows Live account and any device will be restored to the same settings and selection of applications.

Non-Ubicomp Characteristics
Sophisticated hardware and industrial design Highly personalized

Ubicomp Characteristics
Content is more important Can be easily restored from the cloud Price drops very fast

Initially very expensive

The actual uses of ubicomp are about dealing with and taking advantage of the unintended seams in technology.

Although the mobile device is in no way invisible it still constitutes a connection to all realms of peoples lives.

Transparency and seamlessness is not achieved in smooth use of the mobile device but instead in combining everyday applications and tasks on a single device with the possibilities offered by a portfolio of services.

The ways in which people tend to use technologies makes it very difcult to make any predictions and thus apply a user-centered design approach to understand the users and their needs.

The sum of the parts and their assemblability is more important than the whole.

Conclusion

Ubiquitous computing has become a reality in the form of the mobile device.

Yet it very difcult to understand its true nature, as a mobile device has both ubicomp and nonubicomp characteristics.

People use mobile devices in unique and unpredictable ways and rely heavily on opportunistic interaction opportunities.

This makes the interaction designers work very difcult if not almost impossible as it is hard to guess how an interface will be used and what will be its perceived usefulness.

We are only just beginning to explore the capabilities of mobile devices and it is clear that the most interesting possibilities are yet to come.

Ubiquitous Mobile Interactions

Research Problem

The research problem can be seen in the fact that there is different information available in different contexts and with various interfaces for various devices.

There exists a need to integrate available interaction opportunities together to provide a better user experience.

These interaction opportunities can be abstracted into a concept of a ubiquitous information layer.

Research Goals

The primary goal of this research is to contribute to the understanding of how an already available but not easily accessible information layer can be accessed via mobile devices.

Also the aim is to explore how this information layer can help better realize the potential of mobile devices.

Research Questions

Can mobile devices be the premier interface to the emerging ubiquitous information environment?

In what ways can a ubiquitous information environment contribute to the realization of the potential of mobile devices?

The Layers Approach

Information Layer

Scheduling Information System

Studies Information System University Website

Integration Layer

Web Service

mTLU Mobile Client

Device Layer

Contextual Information

This model has several shortcomings.

It closely mimics the classic 2-level hierarchy of mobile computing with a server and a client.

It fails to take into account the existence of various interaction opportunities as well as the user and his goals which are supposed to be at the center of any ubiquitous computing system.

Thus, a new model needed to be proposed.

The Interaction Opportunities Approach

A new model should consider the users goal as a primary factor.

The technology should thus aim to support the user in achieving that goal in the shortest amount of time and with minimal cognitive load.

It should also consider various interaction opportunities found in the ubiquitous information environment and connect them together as a means of providing an optimal way for the user to achieve his goal.

The mobile device should work as an interface to the ubiquitous information layer, chiey because it is always carried around by the user and is already considered an invaluable tool in providing the user with information anytime and anywhere.

User

Mobile Device

Mobile Device QR Code

Time Context

Informa tion Source Physical Context

Ubiquitous Information Layer

Person Person RFID Tag User Context Person Informa tion Source Comput ing Con text

Mobile Device

Informa tion Source

Goal

Next Steps

Next steps include identifying case studies, where this model can be employed and tested.

Currently these case studies include the mTLU, mDSpace and m.eesti.ee research projects.

Conclusion

A theoretical framework was proposed in order to better understand how a ubiquitous information layer can be made accessible via mobile devices and how it can contribute to realizing the mobile devices potential.

Closing Remarks

Information society is a new mode of human existence in which information plays a central role in ensuring the well-being of society.

Technology needs to evolve to support people in their increased reliance on information.

Ubiquitous computing provides a possible answer.

The mobile device can be considered the rst tangible example of a working mainstream ubiquitous computing solution, however its full potential is yet to be discovered.

This work proposes a theoretical framework to better understand the interaction of mobile devices with the ubiquitous information layer and how this can be used to support the user in achieving his goals.

This model needs to applied in specic case studies in order to prove its relevance.