Smart Environment Scenarios
From MobiComp
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Contents |
Visitor Guide
Mobile guides may be provided using several different hardware devices, including conventional PDAs, Tablet PCs and WHYRE, a wearable multimedia system. At the museum desk, a visitor provides some registration details and chooses a device. The Museum Desk application registers the visitor and associates the device with them by passing information to the Context Server. As the visitor walks around the museum, their location is tracked by one of several methods and the device display is updated to offer information about nearby objects and displays. The system attempts to discover any common features of the objects viewed and the depth of interest shown by the visitor. This information is used to establish a 'visitor profile' which is used to prioritise the information shown to the visitor. No information is ever hidden from the visitor, and further information is always available through links provided on the device screen.
Pre- and Post-Visit Support
Potential visitors can explore the museum web pages and may choose to register in advance of their visit. A registered visitor may use the system to note objects of interest and to receive information about other displays of similar or related material. This serves to establish an initial profile of their interests. Before their visit, they may print a brief guide to these objects of interest which they can take to the museum to help in locating the relevant displays. On arrival at the museum, the pre-registered visitor may wish to use one of the mobile guide systems. Their printed guide includes a unique tag that will associate their profile with the selected guide system. It can therefore be used as a form of Smart Ticket. The mobile guide then uses the profile to prioritise the objects and displays in which the visitor has previously registered an interest. As they proceed around the museum, the guide system records which objects are visited and, if the visitor spends a significant time at other displays, adds these to their profile. At any time after the visit, the museum web pages will show a personalised view of the museum displays, prioritising those that were seen during the visit and offering links to further information about these and related objects.
Smart Ticketing
Smart Tickets are objects that can be issued to visitors, or can be printed at home by the visitors themselves, which can be used to provide some form of personalised enhancement to the visit. Smart tickets are typically used with several kiosk displays located at key places in the museum or site. They may also be used with individual mobile guides as described above in #Pre- and Post-Visit Support.
Each Smart Ticket hold a unique identification, usually in the form of an optical or Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag. Optical tags can be read by a simple camera and RFID tags by a suitable reader, either of which can be attached to almost any kiosk device. Individual visitors can be identified by their tickets, so the kiosk software can take account of information gathered at earlier stages of their visit. The kiosk may adapt the displayed information according to the perceived interests or attention span of the particular visitor.
Similar Smart Tickets carried by museum or site staff can be used to give privileged access to the kiosk systems, either for maintenance purposes, or to provide direct control of the display when conducting a group of visitors on a guided tour. The records of individual visits with information on the time spent at each kiosk and the information actually viewed may also be used as input to planning decisions on the future development of the kiosk systems and the study of visitor flow.
Visitor Monitoring
Smart Tickets and Moble Guides offer the possibility of deriving useful visitor tracking information, but other, more direct, techniques are also possible using the MobiComp Infrastructure.
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Collections and Environmental Monitoring
Small embedded processor units are placed in display cabinets or other locations to be monitored. Each unit runs a special version of the MobiComp Context Service and monitors environmental changes reported by a variety of sensors, e.g. temperature, humidity and vibration. The units may use serial, bluetooth or ethernet connections to communicate measurements to the central MobiComp service. The current environmental conditions captured by all of the installed units, together with historical trends and alarm conditions, may be viewed in a web browser on any desktop or mobile machine connected to the local network.
