AmbieSense

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AmbieSense was a large European project funded by the Information Society Technologies, Fifth Framework Programme of the European Commission (EU-IST 2001-34244). A company has been formed of the same name and has contributed to initiatives such as the open source Webinos project.

Contents

Objectives

The AmbieSense looks into the future of the ambient intelligence landscape. Miniature and wireless context tags are mounted in everyday surroundings and situations. The tags are smart objects embedded in the environment of people with mobile devices. Project vision: "Relevant information to the right situation and user". The resulting AmbieSense technology and applications gave good inspiration to several of the later Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) projects. [1]

Project impact - from idea to market

People have referred to the AmbieSense project as: "turning the mobile operator model on its head". The invented system enables new and flexible business models for the distribution, delivery, and interaction with mobile information. Applications for travel and tourism were implemented for Oslo Airport, Gardermoen and Seville city centre, in which also Lonely Planet was involved as content provider. The piloting of the applications and technologies were well received, which led to the commercialisation of the project outcome (see: External links below).

AmbieSense main components

An AmbieSense system includes three cornerstones:

The system integrates context tags with information from content service providers. The mobile information was both from a general travel guide publisher and local information providers.

Content service providers are able to provide online information directly to a user or also via tags mounted in various strategic places thus creating an information zone. Information can be uploaded from remote via WiFi or Ethernet (by content service provider or building owners, for example, and is accessible locally by the user who is in that environment and situation, via Bluetooth push and/or pull. For example, in the context of an ambient travel guide, the historic and cultural web pages, local sights, shops, maps, and local events can be communicated to the mobile phones.

Web pages and other multi-media content were relayed and distributed via the tags. One of the applications, the travel guide for mobile phones was also presented on EuroNews HiTech, a TV-program and web-column, January 6, 2005.

The users can also receive recommendations or search results based on their context. These may be explicitly stated, implicitly derived through accessing their search behaviour, or use environment information from the context tags.

Other dissemination results

Press coverage in many newspapers in Spain, Scotland, Germany, and Norway (both online and paper versions). Three Spanish radio stations, one Spanish TV-channel, and the international channel EuroNews. Several articles found in Gemini, a popular scientific magazine in Norway. Additional information can be found on various web sites in the world. News items in IST Results web (Europe), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Bulletin web (United States), and EuroNews web.

Related Research Articles

A location-based service (LBS) is a general term denoting software services which use geographic data and information to provide services or information to users. LBS can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, indoor object search, entertainment, work, personal life, etc. Commonly used examples of location based services include navigation software, social networking services, location-based advertising, and tracking systems. LBS can also include mobile commerce when taking the form of coupons or advertising directed at customers based on their current location. LBS also includes personalized weather services and even location-based games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wireless</span> Transfer of information or power that does not require the use of physical wires

Wireless communication is the transfer of information (telecommunication) between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most common wireless technologies use radio waves. With radio waves, intended distances can be short, such as a few meters for Bluetooth or as far as millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications. It encompasses various types of fixed, mobile, and portable applications, including two-way radios, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and wireless networking. Other examples of applications of radio wireless technology include GPS units, garage door openers, wireless computer mouse, keyboards and headsets, headphones, radio receivers, satellite television, broadcast television and cordless telephones. Somewhat less common methods of achieving wireless communications involve other electromagnetic phenomena, such as light and magnetic or electric fields, or the use of sound.

Context awareness refers, in information and communication technologies, to a capability to take into account the situation of entities, which may be users or devices, but are not limited to those. Location is only the most obvious element of this situation. Narrowly defined for mobile devices, context awareness does thus generalize location awareness. Whereas location may determine how certain processes around a contributing device operate, context may be applied more flexibly with mobile users, especially with users of smart phones. Context awareness originated as a term from ubiquitous computing or as so-called pervasive computing which sought to deal with linking changes in the environment with computer systems, which are otherwise static. The term has also been applied to business theory in relation to contextual application design and business process management issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile computing</span> Human–computer interaction in which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage

Mobile computing is human–computer interaction in which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage and allow for transmission of data, which can include voice and video transmissions. Mobile computing involves mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software. Communication issues include ad hoc networks and infrastructure networks as well as communication properties, protocols, data formats, and concrete technologies. Hardware includes mobile devices or device components. Mobile software deals with the characteristics and requirements of mobile applications.

Autonomic computing (AC) is distributed computing resources with self-managing characteristics, adapting to unpredictable changes while hiding intrinsic complexity to operators and users. Initiated by IBM in 2001, this initiative ultimately aimed to develop computer systems capable of self-management, to overcome the rapidly growing complexity of computing systems management, and to reduce the barrier that complexity poses to further growth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile device</span> Small, hand-held computing device

A mobile device is a computer, small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical keyboard. Many such devices can connect to the Internet and connect with other devices such as car entertainment systems or headsets via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular networks or near field communication. Integrated cameras, the ability to place and receive voice and video telephone calls, video games, and Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities are common. Power is typically provided by a lithium-ion battery. Mobile devices may run mobile operating systems that allow third-party applications to be installed and run.

Mobile business development is a category of business development which focuses on attracting new customers in the Mobile Web markets. There are large efforts being made to make innovative mobile ICT services work. Examples of these services include mobile tourist guides and shopping guides for potential consumers. As an emerging trend, technology and service providers combine their expertise and resources to design these services. This incorporates designing several models: the Value network, a Value proposition, a Revenue model and a Technological architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambient intelligence</span>

In computing, ambient intelligence (AmI) refers to electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Ambient intelligence is a projection of the future of consumer electronics, telecommunications, and computing, originally developed in the late 1990s by Eli Zelkha and his team at Palo Alto Ventures for the time frame 2010–2020. This concept is intended to enable devices to work in concert with people in carrying out their everyday life activities, tasks, and rituals in an intuitive way by using information and intelligence hidden in the network connecting these devices. It is theorized that as these devices grow smaller, more connected, and more integrated into our environment, the technological framework behind them would disappear into our surroundings until only the user interface remains perceivable by users.

Object hyperlinking is a term that refers to extending the Internet to objects and locations in the real world. Object hyperlinking aims to extend the Internet to the physical world by attaching tags with URLs to tangible objects or locations. These object tags can then be read by a wireless mobile device and information about objects and locations retrieved and displayed.

Locative media or location-based media (LBM) is a virtual medium of communication functionally bound to a location. The physical implementation of locative media, however, is not bound to the same location to which the content refers.

A service delivery platform (SDP) is a set of components that provides a service(s) delivery architecture for a type of service delivered to consumer, whether it be a customer or other system. Although it is commonly used in the context of telecommunications, it can apply to any system that provides a service. Although the TM Forum (TMF) is working on defining specifications in this area, there is no standard definition of SDP in industry and different players define its components, breadth, and depth in slightly different ways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile web</span> Mobile browser-based World Wide Web services

The mobile web refers to mobile browser-based World Wide Web services accessed from handheld mobile devices, such as smartphones or feature phones, through a mobile or other wireless network.

The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology." Many choose to think of Mobile Commerce as meaning "a retail outlet in your customer’s pocket."

Proximity marketing is the localized wireless distribution of advertising content associated with a particular place. Transmissions can be received by individuals in that location who wish to receive them and have the necessary equipment to do so.

Mobile local search is a technology that lets people search for local things using mobile equipment such as mobile phones, PDAs, and other mobile devices. Mobile local search satisfies the need to offer a mobile subscriber spontaneous access to near-position services and information such as businesses, products, events, restaurant, movie theatre or other local information. Mobile local search is the search and discovery of persons, places, and things within an identifiable space defined by distinct parameters. These parameters are evolving. Today they include social networks, individuals, cities, neighborhoods, landmarks, and actions that are relevant to the searcher's past, current, and future location. These parameters provide structure to vertically deep and horizontally broad data categories that can stand-alone or are combined to comprise searchable directories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audio tour</span>

An audio tour or audio guide provides a recorded spoken commentary, normally through a handheld device, to a visitor attraction such as a museum. They are also available for self-guided tours of outdoor locations, or as a part of an organised tour. It provides background, context, and information on the things being viewed. Audio guides are often in multilingual versions and can be made available in different ways. Some of the more elaborate tours may include original music and interviews. They are traditionally rented on the spot, more recently downloaded from the Internet, or available via the mobile phone network. Some audio guides are free or included in the entrance fee, others have to be purchased separately.

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network. A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that use the protocol. Introduced in 1999, WAP achieved some popularity in the early 2000s, but by the 2010s it had been largely superseded by more modern standards. Almost all modern handset internet browsers now fully support HTML, so they do not need to use WAP markup for web page compatibility, and therefore, most are no longer able to render and display pages written in WML, WAP's markup language.

On-Device Portals (ODPs) allow mobile phone users to easily browse, purchase and use mobile content and services. An ODP platform enables operators to provide a consistent and branded on-device experience across their broadening portfolio of services and typically provides on-device catalogs of content for purchase, deep links to WAP portals, customer care functionality and rich media services such as full track music, TV and video.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IYOUIT</span>

IYOUIT is a mobile alpha service to share personal experiences with others while on the go. It was released in June 2008 by NTT Docomo Euro-Labs and discontinued in August 2011.

Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) is the combination of cloud computing and mobile computing to bring rich computational resources to mobile users, network operators, as well as cloud computing providers. The ultimate goal of MCC is to enable execution of rich mobile applications on a plethora of mobile devices, with a rich user experience. MCC provides business opportunities for mobile network operators as well as cloud providers. More comprehensively, MCC can be defined as "a rich mobile computing technology that leverages unified elastic resources of varied clouds and network technologies toward unrestricted functionality, storage, and mobility to serve a multitude of mobile devices anywhere, anytime through the channel of Ethernet or Internet regardless of heterogeneous environments and platforms based on the pay-as-you-use principle."

References

  1. Myrhaug, Hans; Whitehead, Nik; Goker, Ayse; Erlend, Tor; Till, Faegri; Lech, Christopher (2004). Markopoulos P.; Eggen B.; Aarts E.; Crowley J.L. (eds.). AmbieSense – A System and Reference Architecture for Personalised Context-Sensitive Information Services for Mobile Users . European Symposium on Ambient Intelligence. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 3295. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. pp.  327–338. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-30473-9_31. ISBN   978-3-540-23721-1.