Literature Review
INF5261
Kham Viravong - khamphiv
Paulo Fierro - paulof
Chosen Literature
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Theme: Ethnography
Jason Burke, Andrea Kirk: Ethnographic Methods
Choosing Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Appropriate Research
Methods
URL: http://www.otal.umd.edu/hci-rm/ethno.html
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Theme: Positioning Systems
Schilit, et al. Challenge: Ubiquitous Location-Aware Computing and the
“Place Lab” Initiative. WMASH’03, September 19, 2003, San Diego,
California, USA.
URL: http://www.ischool.washington.edu/mcdonald/papers/Schilit.WMASH.pdf
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Theme: Location-Aware Content
Bill Perry: The Invisible Ideas Project: Using Mobile Devices, Macromedia
Flash, and Global Positioning Systems
Macromedia Mobile Devices Developer Center
URL: http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/devices/articles/invisible_ideas.html
Ethnography
“Ethnography is in itself not so much a method
as a category of human-computer
interaction research”

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adapted from sociology and anthropology
a method of observing human interactions
in social settings and activities
people in their cultural context
Ethnography
a powerful assessment of users'
needs
 uncovers the true nature of the
system user's job
 ethnographer plays the role of the
end-user
 open-ended and unbiased nature of
ethnography allows for discovery

Ethnographic Methods
Concurrent Ethnography or
Ethnomethodology
 Evaluative Ethnography
 Quick and Dirty Method
 Rapid Ethnography

Ethnography: Design Principles
Use ethnographic methods early in
the design process
 Have a well-defined scope
 Choose a proper level of ethnographic
study
 Make use of previous ethnographic
studies
 Wear one hat at a time

Positioning Systems
”vision of ubiquitous location aware
computing”
Open software base
 Community building

Global Wi-Fi Positioning
Client-computed positioning using
wireless access points (APs)
 Association with access points
 Signal strength of AP beacons
 Signal strength of multiple AP
beacons

Bootstrapping Global Wi-Fi Positioning
Create a rough incomplete map of
hotspots
 Build the Wi-Fi Positioning database
by aggregating and statistically
processing AP ”sightings” (detection)
 Place Bar in web browser to relay
selected location information
 Privacy issues

Location-Aware Content
Invisible Ideas
“Imagine you're a mouse and the
physical world is your screen”

A location-aware application
that displays site-specific audio
and visual content on the
Pocket PC to users as they
stroll through several Boston
parks using GPS
Overview
147 artist exhibitions in 3 parks
 Radius trigger
 GPS -> text file -> Flash app
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The user interface
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A passive experience
Thumb-navigated
Simple non-distracting
interface
Using GPS
C++ app used as gateway to GPS
receiver
 C++ app provides an API
 User tracking

Summary
Content stored locally
 Content loaded based on location
 Location via GPS
 First real-world use of Flash + GPS on
a PDA
