基于查询概率的位置隐私保护方法

现有的隐私保护技术较少考虑到查询概率、map数据、信息点（POI）语义等边信息,攻击者可以将边信息与位置数据相结合推断出用户的隐私信息,为此提出一种新的方法ARB来保护用户的位置隐私。该方法首先把空间划分为网格,根据历史查询数据计算出处于不同网格区域的用户提交查询的概率;然后结合相应单元格的查询概率来生成用户匿名区域,从而保护用户的位置隐私信息;最后采用位置信息熵作为隐私保护性能的度量指标。在真实数据集上与已有的两种方法进行对比来验证隐私保护方法的性能,结果显示该方法具体有较好的隐私保护效果和较低的时间复杂度。     

Landscape-aware location-privacy protection in location-based services

Mobile network providers have developed a variety of location-based services (LBSs), such as friend-finder, point of interest services, emergency rescue and many other safety and security services. The protection of location-privacy has consequently become a key aspect to the success of LBSs, since users consider their own physical location and movements highly privacy-sensitive, and demand for solutions able to protect such an information in a variety of environments. The idea behind location-privacy protection is that the individual should be able to set the level at which the location information is released to avoid undesired exploitation by a potential attacker: one of the approaches to this problem is given by the application of spatial obfuscation techniques, actuated by a trusted agent, and consisting in artificial perturbations of the location information collected by sensing technologies, before its disclosure to third parties. In many situations, however, landscape/map information can help a third party to perform Bayesian inference over spatially obfuscated data and to refine the user’s location estimate up to a violation of the original user’s location-privacy requirements. The goal of this paper is to provide a map-dependent obfuscation procedure that enables the release of the maximum possible user’s location information, that does not lead to a violation of the original user’s location-privacy requirements, even when refined through map-based inference.     

Mobrex: visualizing users' mobile browsing behaviors.

This paper deals with the Mobile Browsing Explorer (Mobrex) to give analysts a set of interactive visualizations that highlight various aspects of how users browse an information space. Here, we describe the tool and demonstrate its support of a user study of three browsing techniques for mobile maps. Although we mainly focus here on PDAs and mobile map browsing, Mobrex can easily support analysts studying user interaction with other information spaces and other devices, including mobile phones and desktop computers.     

Spatial cloaking for anonymous location-based services in mobile peer-to-peer environments

This paper tackles a privacy breach in current location-based services (LBS) where mobile users have to report their exact location information to an LBS provider in order to obtain their desired services. For example, a user who wants to issue a query asking about her nearest gas station has to report her exact location to an LBS provider. However, many recent research efforts have indicated that revealing private location information to potentially untrusted LBS providers may lead to major privacy breaches. To preserve user location privacy, spatial cloaking is the most commonly used privacy-enhancing technique in LBS. The basic idea of the spatial cloaking technique is to blur a user’s exact location into a cloaked area that satisfies the user specified privacy requirements. Unfortunately, existing spatial cloaking algorithms designed for LBS rely on fixed communication infrastructure, e.g., base stations, and centralized/distributed servers. Thus, these algorithms cannot be applied to a mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) environment where mobile users can only communicate with other peers through P2P multi-hop routing without any support of fixed communication infrastructure or servers. In this paper, we propose a spatial cloaking algorithm for mobile P2P environments. As mobile P2P environments have many unique limitations, e.g., user mobility, limited transmission range, multi-hop communication, scarce communication resources, and network partitions, we propose three key features to enhance our algorithm: (1) An information sharing scheme enables mobile users to share their gathered peer location information to reduce communication overhead; (2) A historical location scheme allows mobile users to utilize stale peer location information to overcome the network partition problem; and (3) A cloaked area adjustment scheme guarantees that our spatial cloaking algorithm is free from a “center-of-cloaked-area” privacy attack. Experimental results show that our P2P spatial cloaking algorithm is scalable while guaranteeing the user’s location privacy protection.     

User interface design for military AR applications

Designing a user interface for military situation awareness presents challenges for managing information in a useful and usable manner. We present an integrated set of functions for the presentation of and interaction with information for a mobile augmented reality application for military applications. Our research has concentrated on four areas. We filter information based on relevance to the user (in turn based on location), evaluate methods for presenting information that represents entities occluded from the user??s view, enable interaction through a top-down map view metaphor akin to current techniques used in the military, and facilitate collaboration with other mobile users and/or a command center. In addition, we refined the user interface architecture to conform to requirements from subject matter experts. We discuss the lessons learned in our work and directions for future research.     

Evaluation of Reorientation Techniques and Distractors for Walking in Large Virtual Environments

Vir tual Environments (VEs) that use a real-walking locomotion interface have typically been restricted in size to the area of the tracked lab space. Techniques proposed to lift this size constraint, enabling real walking in VEs that are larger than the tracked lab space, all require reorientation techniques (ROTs) in the worst-case situation—when a user is close to walking out of the tracked space. We propose a new ROT using visual and audial distractors—objects in the VE that the user focuses on while the VE rotates—and compare our method to current ROTs through three user studies. ROTs using distractors were preferred and ranked more natural by users. Our findings also suggest that improving visual realism and adding sound increased a user's feeling of presence. Users were also less aware of the rotating VE when ROTs with distractors were used.     

基于用户相关性的差分隐私轨迹隐私保护方案

在使用位置查询服务时需要提供用户真实位置信息,导致用户信息泄露。大部分研究只针对单个用户的隐私保护,而忽略了多用户之间的相关性。针对轨迹隐私保护中多用户相关性的问题,提出了一种基于用户相关性的差分隐私轨迹隐私保护方案。首先,构建历史轨迹树,利用变阶马尔可夫模型预测用户轨迹,从轨迹集合中生成一组高可用性的轨迹数据集;其次,根据用户轨迹之间的相关性获取一组关联性较低的预测轨迹集;最后,通过自定义隐私预算的方法,根据用户不同的隐私需求动态调整每个位置点的隐私预算并为发布轨迹添加拉普拉斯噪声。实验结果表明：与LPADP算法相比,该算法的执行效率提升了10%~15.9%;与PTPP和LPADP算法相比,该算法的数据可用性提升了11%~16.1%,同时提升了隐私保护程度。     

Visualization Techniques via MLBS for Personnel Management in Major Events

Mobile location-based services (MLBS) refer to services around geographic location data. Mobile terminals use wireless communication networks (or satellite positioning systems) to obtain users’ geographic location coordinate information based on spatial databases and integrate with other information to provide users with required location-related services. The development of systems based on MLBS has significance and practical value. In this paper a visualization management information system for personnel in major events based on microservices, namely MEPMIS, is designed and implemented by using MLBS. The system consists of a server and a client app, and it has some functions including map search and query, personnel positioning and scheduling, location management, messaging, and location service. Managers of the events can quickly search and locate the staff on the specific area of the map in real-time, and make broadcasting messages to the staff, and manage the staff. The client app is developed on the Android system, by which staff users can send the positions information to the server timely. The client users can search fuzzily near their peers and list their locations, and also call near peers through sending messages or query the history record of staff locations. In the design of the system, several new proposed techniques, including visual annotation method for overlapping locations, correcting trajectory drift algorithm, microservices-based overall system architecture methodology and other new techniques, which are applied to the implementation of the system. Also, HTML5, JQuery, MLBS APIs (Application Program Interfaces) related programming techniques have been used and combined with loading Ajax asynchronously and Json data encapsulation, map marker optimization techniques, that can improve the positioning accuracy and the performance of the system. The developed system with practical functions can enhance the efficiencies of the organization and management of major events.     

Planning routes through uncertain territory

Planning routes and executing them requires both topological and metric information. A natural implementation of a ‘cognitive map’ might therefore consist of an assertional data base for topological information and a ‘fuzzy map’ for the metric information. A fuzzy map captures facts about objects by recording their relative positions, orientations, and scales in convenient frames of reference. It is fuzzy in the sense that coordinates are specified to lie in a range rather than having fixed values. The fuzzy map allows easy retrieval of information. The same information is also represented in a discrimination tree, which allows an object to be retrieved given its location and other attributes. The problem of constructing a fuzzy map is more difficult; we present a partial solution, an algorithm that assimilates a fact first by imposing constraints on the fuzzy coordinates of the objects involved, then by rearranging or growing the tree of frames of reference. Route planning is modelled as a process of finding the overall direction and topology of the path, then filling in the details by deciding how to go around barriers. It uses the retrieval algorithms. Our program SPAM carries out all these processes.     

位置服务社交网络用户行为相似性分析

基于位置的社交网络(LBSN)能够支持用户分享地理位置信息,网站中保存用户访问真实世界地理位置的记录构成用户的行为轨迹,但LBSN用户相似性的分析并没有从用户的地理位置轨迹上加以考虑。为此,提出基于划分层次,在不同的邻域半径下密度聚类的方法,探索基于位置的服务(LBS)平台上用户地理位置上相似性的度量。该方法在不同空间位置比例尺下观察用户访问各个聚类区域的次数,进而利用向量空间模型(VSM)计算用户在各个层级的相似性,最终以不同权重叠加各层级的用户相似性值,得出用户在地理空间行为上的相似性。基于国内某大型位置社交网站真实用户数据的实验结果表明,该方法能有效识别出访问地理位置相似的用户。     

基于本地差分隐私的众包隐私保护方法

在移动互联网发展的今天,基于位置服务（LBS）技术在移动互联上取得显著进展。针对个人用户进行精确定位时,数据信息隐私存在着泄露风险的问题,本文提出一种基于本地化差分隐私的地理不可区分性的扰动方法。在用户的真实位置数据信息流出客户端前采用地理不可区分性位置扰动方式,作用于真实位置以得到近似位置数据,服务器端收到后制成二级区域网格图,之后采用差分隐私对该图的工人计数进行扰动,最后在空间范围查询下进行实验验证,并与满足ε-本地化差分隐私扰动算法进行对比,精确度提高2.7%,同时与平均划分隐私预算分配方式进行实验对比,提高区域计数精确度4.57%。     

Two-handed tangible interaction techniques for composing augmented blocks

Modeling tools typically have their own interaction methods for combining virtual objects. For realistic composition in 3D space, many researchers from the fields of virtual and augmented reality have been trying to develop intuitive interactive techniques using novel interfaces. However, many modeling applications require a long learning time for novice users because of unmanageable interfaces. In this paper, we propose two-handed tangible augmented reality interaction techniques that provide an easy-to-learn and natural combination method using simple augmented blocks. We have designed a novel interface called the cubical user interface, which has two tangible cubes that are tracked by marker tracking. Using the interface, we suggest two types of interactions based on familiar metaphors from real object assembly. The first, the screw-driving method, recognizes the user??s rotation gestures and allows them to screw virtual objects together. The second, the block-assembly method, adds objects based on their direction and position relative to predefined structures. We evaluate the proposed methods in detail with a user experiment that compares the different methods.     

AudioBrowser: a mobile browsable information access for the visually impaired

Although a large amount of research has been conducted on building interfaces for the visually impaired that allows users to read web pages and generate and access information on computers, little development addresses two problems faced by the blind users. First, sighted users can rapidly browse and select information they find useful, and second, sighted users can make much useful information portable through the recent proliferation of personal digital assistants (PDAs). These possibilities are not currently available for blind users. This paper describes an interface that has been built on a standard PDA and allows its user to browse the information stored on it through a combination of screen touches coupled with auditory feedback. The system also supports the storage and management of personal information so that addresses, music, directions, and other supportive information can be readily created and then accessed anytime and anywhere by the PDA user. The paper describes the system along with the related design choices and design rationale. A user study is also reported.     

Mapping relationships between mobile phone call activity and regional function using self-organizing map

Mobile phone data help us to understand human activities. Researchers have investigated the characteristics and relationships of human activities and regional function using information from physical and virtual spaces. However, how to establish location mapping between spaces to explore the relationships between mobile phone call activity and regional function remains unclear. In this paper, we employ a self-organizing map (SOM) to map locations with 24-dimensional activity attributes and identify relationships between users' mobile phone call activities and regional functions. We apply mobile phone call data from Harbin, a city in northeast China, to build the location mapping relationships between user clusters of mobile phone call activity and points of interest (POI) composition in geographical space. The results indicate that for mobile phone call activities, mobile phone users are mapped to five locations that represent particular mobile phone call patterns. Regarding regional functions, we identified nine unique types of functional areas that are related to production, business, entertainment and education according to the patterns of users and POI proportions. We then explored the correlations between users and POIs for each type of area. The results of this research provide new insights into the relationships between human activity and regional functions.     

Trading privacy with incentives in mobile commerce: A game theoretic approach

In mobile commerce, companies provide location based services to mobile users, who report their locations with a certain level of granularity to maintain a degree of anonymity. This level of granularity depends on their perceived risk as well as the incentives they receive in the form of monetary benefits or improved mobile services. This paper formulates a quantitative model in which information theoretic metrics such as entropy, quantify the anonymity level of mobile users. The individual perceived risks of users and the benefits they obtain are defined as functions of their chosen location information granularity. The interaction between the mobile commerce company and its users is investigated using mechanism design techniques as a privacy game. The user best responses and optimal strategies for the company are derived under budgetary constraints on incentives, which are provided to users in order to convince them to share their private information at the desired level of granularity. Information limitations in the system are analyzed to capture more realistic scenarios where the companies do not have access to user utility functions. Iterative distributed algorithm and regression learning methods are investigated to design mechanisms that overcome these limitations. The results obtained are demonstrated with a numerical example and simulations based on real GPS data.     

Blind evaluation of location based queries using space transformation to preserve location privacy

In this paper we propose a fundamental approach to perform the class of Range and Nearest Neighbor (NN) queries, the core class of spatial queries used in location-based services, without revealing any location information about the query in order to preserve users’ private location information. The idea behind our approach is to utilize the power of one-way transformations to map the space of all objects and queries to another space and resolve spatial queries blindly in the transformed space. Traditional encryption based techniques, solutions based on the theory of private information retrieval, or the recently proposed anonymity and cloaking based approaches cannot provide stringent privacy guarantees without incurring costly computation and/or communication overhead. In contrast, we propose efficient algorithms to evaluate KNN and range queries privately in the Hilbert transformed space. We also propose a dual curve query resolution technique which further reduces the costs of performing range and KNN queries using a single Hilbert curve. We experimentally evaluate the performance of our proposed range and KNN query processing techniques and verify the strong level of privacy achieved with acceptable computation and communication overhead.     

From the private into the public: privacy-respecting mobile interaction techniques for sharing data on surfaces

Interactive horizontal surfaces provide large semi-public or public displays for colocated collaboration. In many cases, users want to show, discuss, and copy personal information or media, which are typically stored on their mobile phones, on such a surface. This paper presents three novel direct interaction techniques (Select&Place2Share, Select&Touch2Share, and Shield&Share) that allow users to select in private which information they want to share on the surface. All techniques are based on physical contact between mobile phone and surface. Users touch the surface with their phone or place it on the surface to determine the location for information or media to be shared. We compared these three techniques with the most frequently reported approach that immediately shows all media files on the table after placing the phone on a shared surface. The results of our user study show that such privacy-preserving techniques are considered as crucial in this context and highlight in particular the advantages of Select&Place2Share and Select&Touch2Share in terms of user preferences, task load, and task completion time.     

基于MVC的协作多用户交互接口设计与实现

针对目前CSCW环境中用户端设备的多样性、用户个性化需求特点，通过对协作多用户接口特性、支撑结构和实现方法的分析，提出了一个便于裁剪、面向用户的MVC结构的协作多用户交互接口模型。在此模型中，充分利用MVC结构视图与控制分离的特点．将协同工作环境中共享信息集中存放于共享空间中，维持一致性：而信息显示和人机交互的语义部分复制在分布的用户接口视图中，使得参与协同工作的多个用户可以采用不同的设备或裁剪自己的显示界面。