Investigating Perceptions of a Location-Based Annotation System

The Fifth International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, Seattle, WA, 2003

In this paper, we describe a system used to link online content to physical objects implemented with commercially available pocket computers using integrated bar code scanners, wireless networks, and web services. We discuss our design goals and technical architecture and describe applications that have been constructed on this architecture. We describe the role of the related web site to create communities around scans collected by the handhelds.

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, 2010

With advanced sensor technologies and tools for content creation, current mobile devices possess features for providing information services based on user's location. There are several services for geographically pinned user-generated content focusing on providing information to users in unfamiliar locations. However, information needs regarding location-based content services in the familiar everyday context have so far been quite little researched. Our research entailed a 12-day user study where nine participants kept a diary, in which they reported needs for annotations of locations they had come across in various day-to-day situations. Based on our results, we present design implications for annotation services, taking into account the user needs in various daily situations. The results show that the services should support flexible controls of the visibility of annotations, notifications about selected annotations within the vicinity, and easy remote annotations. In addition, the system should support collective and living annotations that can be contributed by several users.

2006

ABSTRACT We present a location-aware messaging system that lets users read and post notes linked to a particular location. We developed multiple clients (designed to run on desktop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cell phones) so that users could choose the most contextually-appropriate device to interact with the system. We allowed remote access and authoring to avoid imposing artificial restrictions on users' needs. We report on the findings from our evaluation of the system.

Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, 2012

While mobile applications typically offer access to standardized ‚basic' geo-content, there is evidence in the human sciences that people actually prefer subjective information sources for decision making, e.g. personal stories about experiences by family and friends. The success story of content communities in web applications confirms the wide acceptance of innovative information systems that offer the potential to consume, to produce and to rate personalized data. Therefore in this paper an approach for a mobile, interactive and integrated system is presented that do not only deliver basic geo-referenced information, but also allow the users to create location aware information for themselves and other users: information like hints and personal experience will be geo-referenced, time stamped and annotated with text and keyword information. It is stored and exchanged between community members. This individual information creates information content which is continuously growing and updated. Image based and text based information retrieval in combination with location information are used to provide easy access to relevant information. In this paper we outline the system architecture and components that enable these new approaches also providing augmented reality navigation. The approach was tested in a field test study and results and open issues are given. The system worked well and could be applied to future experiments in order to gain more insight in the mobile users' behaviour in real contexts.

2007 IEEE 18th International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, 2007

This paper presents a lightweight approach for providing web-based location aware multimedia content retrieval through Java enabled handheld devices. The main distinguishing characteristic of the proposed approach is that it separates the positioning system from the content access mechanisms, while being generic to the selection of the localization technology, i.e. GPS, Bluetooth, etc. Furthermore, it is built as an open, standards-based, modular architecture comprising a core of reusable components and interfaces for supporting different types of services, through web technologies. On-site services are provided through smart phones, which exploit the user's contextual state, mainly defined as end-user location and organization of points of interest. A test case of a museum e-guidance application for Bluetooth enabled smart phones is presented. The test case demonstrates the capacity of the approach to provide location based content retrieval to museum visitors while using their personal phones, without the need for the visitors, or the museum, to acquire and manage specially built user terminals, e.g. PDAs with GPS modules.