New Applications For Mobile Users

ERCIM News is a quarterly publication from the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. The July 2003 issue is dedicated to research about applications and service platforms for the mobile user. All of the 30 articles are available online.

Here are references to some articles I found particularly interesting, with their abstracts and pictures. Of course, you're encouraged to read the individual articles if you need more information.

• mBlog: a Mobile Information Service for All
  by Emmanuel Frécon

  Easy-to-use Web sites, called ‘weblogs’ or ‘blogs’ are the latest massive Internet phenomenon. mBlog, developed by SICS in collaboration with Ericsson, takes blogs a step further by adding a mobility component.

  How does it work?

  Users send SMS, MMS or e-mail messages to a dedicated number or e-mail address. mBlog then creates a new blog entry for each message. This entry is placed at the top of the Web page while previous entries are moved down. Upon posting, entries are time-stamped and automatically given a geographical position, ie that of the device. This position can later be changed if necessary.

  Alternatively, users can direct their browser to a specific Web page and fill in a simple form. Upon completion, an entry is created as above. The resulting blog can be viewed from any Web browser or WAP phone. A geographical map shows the location of the entries. It is useful to note that new multimedia phones now include fully-fledged Web browsers.

  
  
  Here is an illustration showing mBlog at work for bloggers.

• Fluid Computing
  by Marcel Graf

  It has long been desirable to be able to let an application 'flow' from one user interface to another, depending on the user's situation and the capability of the interface being used. The IBM Zurich Research Laboratory has developed middleware which realises this wish. The service provided is called Fluid Computing.

  A Fluid Computing application is no longer tied to a particular device. It may run simultaneously on several devices which the Fluid middleware coordinates, for example a small mobile PDA (left) and a big stationary PC display (right). When wireless network connectivity is available synchronization occurs keystroke-by-keystroke, otherwise updates are queued until connectivity is regained.

  Here is an example for a PDA.

  

• Middleware Support for Ubiquitous Computing
  by Luc Hogie and Christian Hutter

  Mobile devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are currently used mostly for personal information management. However, these devices are becoming powerful enough to run much more sophisticated applications not only in an isolated manner, but even, due to their wireless communication capabilities, in a cooperative way. We are looking at middleware support in the domain known as ubiquitous computing.

  In order to highlight some of the challenges inherent to ubiquitous computing, we use the example of ubiquitous gaming. Based upon elements of traditional multiplayer games like 'The Settlers' or 'SimCity', we introduce various ideas of how to adapt them for use in a ubiquitous environment.

  For instance, while travelling by train, passengers could play a game together. At train stations, some players might leave while others join the game, possibly taking over existing roles. People could also collaborate, joining forces as well as dividing work. In addition to that, the environment itself could have an influence on the game. For instance, train stations might represent marketplaces in which a large variety of goods are offered and collaboration with other players waiting for their trains is possible. Aside from that, several sophisticated services, hosted for example on a powerful stationary node, might be available only at such special locations.

  Here is an illustration of this ubiquitous gaming scenario.

  

• Sentient Objects: Towards Middleware for Mobile Context-Aware Applications
  by Gregory Biegel and Vinny Cahill

  Despite rapid advances in sensor technologies making a wealth of environmental data available to applications, programmer support for the development of context-aware applications remains poor. The majority of such applications are developed in an ad-hoc, application-specific manner and there is an urgent need for middleware and services to support the development of such applications. Mobile, intelligent software components known as sentient objects provide one middleware abstraction that can ease the development of mobile context-aware applications.

  Here is the sentient object model.

  

• Object-driven Application Design: from Mobility towards Ubiquitousness
  by Davide Carboni, Gavino Paddeu and Stefano Sanna

  Techniques and frameworks that assist designers and programmers in the development of applications that are seamlessly portable from one device to another are still a challenge. The e-mate project at the Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia (CRS4) tackles this issue proposing a technique based on the object-oriented paradigm with a strong focus on the delivery of services on multiple platforms.

  Here is their Agenda application objects running on a desktop PC, a smartphone and a Personal Digital Assistant.

  

• Uluru: Mobile Interactive Multimedia Experimental Service Environment
  by Johan de Heer, Andrew Tokmakoff, Henk Eertink and John Anijs

  The ULURU project, initiated in 2001 by the Dutch Telematica Instituut and Mobiview, has its focus on aspects that play a primary role in the value chain between content providers, mobile network operators and end-users. Research has been performed in personalization, payments, digital rights management, content management and content distribution.

  For example, here is an example of personalized Teletext news for i-mode (left), and Sony/Ericsson P800 (right), and NewsFlash with ANP content for IPAQ (middle).

  

Source: ERCIM News No. 54, July 2003

© Copyright 2008 Roland Piquepaille. Last update: 01/07/2008; 20:50:45.