=Paper=
{{Paper
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|title=Ambient interface design for a Mobile Browsing Experience (AMBE)
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-402/paper02.pdf
|volume=Vol-402
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==Ambient interface design for a Mobile Browsing Experience (AMBE)==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-402/paper02.pdf
Ambient interface design for a Mobile Browsing
Experience (AMBE)
Rosaleen Hegarty†, Tom Lunney†, Kevin Curran†, Maurice Mulvenna*
†School of Computing and Intelligent Systems *School of Computing and Mathematics
Faculty of Computing and Engineering Faculty of Computing and Engineering
University of Ulster, Magee College University of Ulster, Jordanstown Campus
Derry/Londonderry, BT48 7JL Antrim, BT 37 OQB
(+44) 28 71375174 (+44) 28 71375388
{hegarty-r, tf.lunney, kj.curran}@ulster.ac.uk md.mulvenna@ulster.ac.uk
ABSTRACT of ‘calm’ [20] remains the consummation in these
Our preliminary research focuses on the development of phenomena and a reflection of the technology we seek.
an Ambient Mobile Browsing Experience (AMBE)
The principle of AIS, is captured in the following instance
system. AMBE is a communication and synchronisation
and subsequent descriptions; “When you look at a street
framework that will provide integrated connectivity
sign, for example, you absorb its information without
across heterogeneous geographically distributed devices.
consciously performing the act of reading. Computer
The intention is to provide persistent location-independent
scientist Herbert A. Simon calls this phenomenon
and appliance-sensitive viewing for the user, thus
“compiling”; philosopher Michael Polanyi calls it “the
enabling Internet mobility. Human technology interface
tacit dimension”; psychologist J.J. Gibson calls it “visual
communication will be abstracted to a representation that
invariants”; philosophers Hans Georg Gadamer and
facilitates optimisation and customisation across a number
Martin Heidegger call it “the horizon” and the “ready-
of different displays. This will help to ensure seamless
to-hand”, John Seely Brown at PARC calls it the
continuity between components providing usability and
“periphery”. All say, in essence, that only when things
maximum user convenience. An emphasis of our work is
disappear in this way are we freed to use them without
the application of a human-centered design ethos.
thinking and so to focus beyond them on new goals” [20].
Keywords
Nature in her pureness has provided simple informative
Ambient interfaces, peripheral displays, ubiquitous
cues that act on the subconscious delivering subliminally
computing, mobile digital communication, sensor
technology, context awareness.
INTRODUCTION
Denning and Metcalfe affirm, “to become attuned to more
information is to attend to it less” [5]. This cause is
central to Ambient Information System (AIS) design
within Ambient Intelligence (AmI). The ethos of which Figure 1. Ambient information existing in nature.
lies in the classification of center (the user) and periphery
and with critical effect. Take the occasion of a raindrop, a
(computational devices) for intelligent knowledge
signal and a suggestion requiring little cognitive effort,
management, with the objective of controlling
yet retrieving from memory past experiences stimulated
information overload and unnecessary complexity.
by similar impetus to deliver appropriate actions. Nature’s
Carbonell reflects on ambient interface interactions as
ambient sound and light further inform our everyday state
having to be reconfigured for throughput to output
of existence. With this in mind it is perhaps to nature we
terminals of varying media and screen dimensions [4].
must return in order to re-balance the information
Implementation of these constraints gives rise to
congestion that exists combining nature’s intuition with
‘interface plasticity’ and ‘adaptive multimodality’ [3].
twenty-first century engineering. ‘DataFountain’ reflects
However maintaining simplicity whilst asserting notions this concept. ‘DataFountain’ is an Internet enabled display
of currency comparisons for the Yen, Euro and Dollar,
and uses pressurised water levels from three points to
Copyright © 2008 for the individual papers by the papers'
provide particular information with calming aesthetics
authors. Copying permitted for private and academic [14]. Another example is ‘PlantDisplay’ appealing to
purposes. Re-publication of material from this volume human emotion through organic changes in the plant’s
requires permission by the copyright owners. appearance [13].
Human-centered design is attempting to capture this optimisation between distributed devices such as Personal
vision in computing technology by augmenting Digital Assistants (PDAs), Personal Computers (PCs), flat
consciousness and accommodating human-machine co- screens and smart mobile phones by using appropriate
operation. The emphasis is on efficient user-affable and sensor technology. Where appropriate the incorporation
immersive interfaces with distributed virtual services that of abstract symbolism via an artefact may filter
surround; empowering the user with control [12]. information to ambient displays in public space for
This anthropomorphic model of interaction refocuses the personal user discernment. Customisation and
user to the foreground and creates synergies between the synchronisation of multimedia input and output between
user and the environment [15]. Operations are intended to the distributed devices are to ensure continuity of the user
be omnipresent, non-intrusive and transparent. It is in the experience.
application of ascribing human characteristics such as In pursuing the objectives outlined, several research
sensory perception, and cognitive behavioural interactions questions will need to be addressed. For example: What
to physical or hidden phenomena that the essence of sort of profiler will be required to track and perhaps
ambient intelligence is encapsulated to provide enhanced interpret the user behaviour/movement, both within the
user proficiency [12]. context of the virtual environment and the physical one
Ambient information displays are about the analysis and (possibly intelligent algorithms coupled with infrared, or
representation of information in public, semi-public and Radio Frequency Identification-RFID tags) to provide
private space, incorporating subtle techniques and persistence and session continuity?
communication methods through peripheral perception In addition how will the profiler store the user’s session,
[19]. will it cache and co-ordinate seamlessly to a new device
Ambient displays rely on our multimodal senses, from decentralised clients (subsequently passing from web
operating subliminally and below the threshold of script to client – client-side facilities), or from a central
consciousness requiring only subconscious recognition repository (heavy overload for concurrent sessions –
[2]. The classic example is Jeremijenko’s Display server-side facilities)?
Installation entitled ‘Live Wire’, which attracts either How will AMBE tailor context sensitive intelligent user
aural or visual attention as the incitement requires [11]. interfaces with automatic profiling to optimise the mobile
More recent ambient displays include ‘The Kandinsky user experience?
system’, which generates aesthetic information collages What symbolic abstraction will be incorporated to release
converting textual input to image output [8]. ‘IMPACT’ sensitive information in public space, for example what
monitors daily physical activity and provides feedback indicators will alert the importance of an incoming
through detailed and abstracted displays [9]. ‘Ambient electronic message in an operating theatre or surgical
Orb’ presents ambient information through wireless room where disturbance of external influence is
configurations to track personal portfolio interests such as unwelcome, yet may be critical information required by
market shares [1]. ‘Hello.wall’ uses a large ambient the main operator within the given environment. Will this
display coupled with a hand-held device exploiting our utility be incorporated through artefacts of two or three
ability to perceive information via codes [19]. Real time dimensional composition? Or perhaps through colour
data panoramas map to visual components such as ocean coding or contour configurations adapted from existing
waves and sun strength reflecting stock market activity. works such as the Kandinsky paintings illustrated in
Consistently the purpose is to refine knowledge to a Figure 2. Would this approach eliminate the beep and
symbolic representation requiring little cognitive effort buzz of phones and pagers providing social and
[10]. acceptable communication etiquette, and in a minimally
intrusive manner?
MOTIVATION
The motivation for this research is to provide sensor-
activated communication. This will enable contextualised
content viewing to be available at the current terminal or
display screen demonstrating visual peripheral
information updates for the user.
The primary objectives of this study are in the
development of a framework intrinsically linked to the
porting of browsing session information over the network. Figure 2. (i) Marcadores (ii) Squares with Concentric
This will be demonstrated through the implementation of Rings by Kandinsky.
a scalable solution distributing current context An ethical issue that arises is that the abstracted notation
information to appropriate selected device displays. The for information is reliable and consistent for the initiated
requirement is to ensure user interface continuity and users specified; otherwise it could lose all purposeful
functionality. Privacy related data may need to be tagged
as ‘sensitive’ and filtered away from any public form of orchestrate this profile to heterogeneous devices within
display to enable security and dependability within the dynamic environments. In addition the server will also be
design. responsible for carrying out routine authentication and
authorisation and provide session state and mobility
handling within the system.
CHALLENGES
Amongst the challenges for this system, there exists the
requirement to work in real-time and to cope with varying CONTEXT AWARENESS
levels of ambiguity, such as changes in user predilection, The design process of AMBE will rely on the concept of
user idiosyncratic actions and weak sensor signals. context awareness. Adaptability to a user’s situation is
Adaptability to new heterogeneous devices (Figure 3) and enabled by context awareness, “Context is any
amended environments will result in readjustment to meet information that can be used to characterise a situation of
user specification and compensate for device failure an entity” [6]. This entity can be a person, place or
supporting integration and interoperability. Whilst computational device, alternatively has real existence and
dynamically adapting to user requirements through can change dynamically. Schmidt et al., say “context can
reconfiguration, ‘trust,’ ‘security’ and ‘safety’ standards give meaning to something else [17]. A challenge
must also be adhered to, and integrated into the system highlighted in the development of deployable context-
design. aware services is the aptitude to lever ambiguous contexts
as both sensed and interpreted context is often unclear. In
addition deployment of contextual information to mobile
applications brings to light the trust and privacy features -
critical with automated processing of sensitive
information. The sources available to capture contextual
information in this research include sensors in mobile
devices, RFID tags, network servers and application
servers among others. Contextual awareness between
disparate entities seeks to facilitate interoperability
between application platforms with some context
immeasurable, but derived through inference [18].
Activity Theory Modeling
Activity Theory Modeling is taken from the psychology
and social science disciplines, working in the areas of
consciousness and cognitive acts within phenomenology
[16]. Activity theory applied in AMBE finds application
in the areas of context awareness and situational
Figure 3. High-level schematic of AMBE. descriptions because of its adaptability to socio-technical
perspectives and centers on three key concepts namely;
The core of the application architecture is to provide action, situation and presence to give context [16]. The
natural interactions and abstraction of the underlying ability to capture the context of the user in state,
technical communication infrastructure; hiding application and service requires interpretation of the ‘6
complexity, whilst enhancing experience and confidence. W’s; ‘Who?,’ ‘What?,’ ‘Why?,’ ‘Where?,’ ‘When?’ and
Successful ubiquity however, requires transparency ‘hoW?’ and is central to the design and profile of the user.
integrated into the ecology of ones environment Context is argued to be a feature of interaction in any
facilitated through peripheral interfacing. human-computer symbiosis [7]. It is based on the premise
that intelligence is action orientated and context can be
The key components of AMBE work to ensure continuity used to bring order and clarity to unclear situations in
of service between multiple parts and include a sensor order to deliver appropriate actions. Therefore context is
network, web server, session server, and user session (to seen as a tool for action selection. Within AMBE enabling
store user history, cookies, current web page state and device exchange whilst sustaining the capabilities and
bookmarks amongst other user facilities) to different resources of the current session is part enabled by context
displays. The server side can act as a coordinator to awareness. Location information is another form of
manage the data, and facilitate screen resizing before context aware information. ‘Activity Theory Modeling’
exporting to a newly activated device. The client side may be incorporated further into the design process of
component will have the necessary functionality to AMBE as a means to capture information concerning the
manage session synchronisation as a feature. The server user. This modeling may encapsulate the user’s intentions
must also maintain a user’s personal profile and towards a display terminal, the capabilities of their
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