RICERCA ITALIANA     

Adaptive, Context-aware, Multimedia Guides on Mobile Devices

Università degli Studi di Udine

Abstract

The project aims at deepening those theoretical and technical aspects allowing one to design a full-scale mobile guide in different application domains. The project will propose an integrated framework for a context-aware mobile guide, characterized by: (i) a standard and shared format for the representation of data allowing interoperability between different devices and applications, (ii) ability to derive information on the state and behaviour of the user from common sensors data (e.g., GPS data), (iii) automatic generation of natural language presentations, (iv) device-dependent generation and adaptation of the user interface, (v) usability-centered input/output modalities based on visual interfaces and multimedia and multimodal techniques, (vi) multi-user features (mobile communication, community). Three applications for three different domains (tourism, culture and sport) will be developed to prove the effectiveness and generality of the proposed solution.

Principal Investigator

Luca CHITTARO Università degli Studi di UDINE

Research Objectives

Recent advances in mobile devices (PDA, SmartPhones, mobile phones), wireless communication technologies (GPRS, UMTS, Wi-Fi) and localization technologies (GPS, EGNOS) are making it possible to develop complex applications, named mobile guides, that support users in their work and free time activities, any time and in any place, replacing the need for human guides and for the time-consuming and often unsuccessful examination of paper-based information.
The main goal of this research project is to deepen the theoretical and technical aspects allowing one to design a full-scale mobile guide in different application domains. The project will propose an integrated framework for a context-aware mobile guide, that will be used to develop three applications in three different domains (tourism, culture and sport).
The main requirements for the guide will be:
• The ability to provide users with services in an easy and effective way.
• The ability to infer contextual information exploiting common sensors data (e.g., GPS).
• The ability to automatically adapt contents, presentation modalities and interaction with the system, according to the specific user (e.g., her interests, goals), the current context (e.g., position, luminosity, noise), the current device (e.g., PDA, SmartPhone).
• The ability to provide the user with automatically generated content and natural language presentations.
• The ability to provide the user with >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The first mobile guide prototypes have been developed during the '90 in the Cyberguide (Abowd et al., 1996) and GUIDE (Cheverst et al., 2000) projects. In recent years, there has been an increase in the interest towards these applications, thanks to the continuous progress of mobile devices and technologies.
The research literature refers to a broad spectrum of different application areas for mobile guides. Mobile city guides provide the user with maps and other relevant information such as the location of restaurants, public offices, tourist sites, etc. adapted to the user's location (e.g. Iacucci et al. 2003, Schmidt-Belz and Poslad 2003). Mobile guides for specific tourist-sites provide users with the opportunity to follow guided tours or access additional information about the site being visited (e.g. Bornträger et al. 2003), while mobile museum guides provide additional information about the specific items on display (e.g. Rocchi et al. 2003). Other mobile guide systems support the user's social or personal life, such as mobile personal guides and event planners keeping track of friends and events (e.g. Fithian et al. 2003, Paulos and Goodman 2004). Assisting people commuting and travelling, mobile navigation guides provide route planning information and directions for wayfinding (e.g. Chincholle et al. 2002, Holland et al. 2001), while mobile travel planners keep track of users' itineraries, upcoming meetings etc. (e.g. Ricci et al. 2002).

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