Presenting dynamic information on mobile computers

A problem with mobile computing devices is the output of dynamic information owing to their small screens. This paper describes an experiment to investigate the use of non-speech sounds to present dynamic information without using visual display space. Results showed that non-speech sound could be used in a simple share-dealing scenario to present a “sound graph” of share prices. This allowed participants to reduce the workload they had to invest in share-price monitoring as they could listen to the graph whilst they worked in a share accumulation window.     

Teaching digital library concepts using digital library applications

Many digital library topics may be taught using digital library applications, in the context of project-based digital library courses. Several digital library applications exist, and these applications are used as teaching tools to illustrate the functionality of digital libraries as well as the design decisions that go into them. Using digital library applications as teaching tools provides a valuable learning experience for students, and may provide useful feedback to the developers of DL applications. This paper identifies and explores DL topics that may most effectively be taught using DL applications, in the context of project-based DL courses.     

SPIRE: a digital library for scientific information

In this paper we describe the architecture and implementation of a digital library framework for scientific data, particularly imagery, with a focus on support for content-based search. Content is specified by the user at one or more of the following abstraction levels: pixel, feature, and semantic. An object-definition mechanism has been developed that supports example-based and constraint-based specification of both simple and complex query targets.This framework incorporates a methodology yielding a computationally efficient implementation of image processing algorithms, thus allowing the interactive, real-time extraction and manipulation of user-specified features and content during the execution of queries. The framework is well-suited for searching scientific databases, including satellite imagery, and medical and seismic data repositories, where the richness of the information does not allow the a priori generation of exhaustive indexes.     

Metadocuments supporting digital library information discovery

The World Wide Web is a decentralized, unmanaged, dynamically changing repository of digital documents. Waldens Paths provides tools that enable authors to collect, organize, annotate, and present Web-based information to reader communities via a linear metadocument called a path. Waldens Paths includes path authoring and reading interfaces supporting the contextualization of included materials to match authors goals as well as enabling browsing off the path to match readers personal interests. It also provides tools to manage these paths of transient Web materials based on the identification and evaluation of changes to the component pages. Experience with Waldens Paths in educational settings and changes to Web technology as well as the Web-savvyness of users have led to a variety of changes to earlier designs. Current directions of work include the development of methods for evaluating readers understanding via quizzes associated with paths and richer path structures.     

基于移动平台的校园资讯系统设计与实现

为了让高校师生可以快捷方便地获取到校园各类资讯,摆脱时间和空间的限制,设计了一种基于移动平台的校园资讯系统。该系统在PC平台上采用Asp.Net和SQL Server 2005技术,基于B/S的三层网络结构设计,在移动平台上基于C/S模式设计并开发了一个具备相应功能的Android手机客户端应用[1]。该系统具有查询课程、查询教室、查询考试安排、学生交友、发布商品、查询商品等基本功能。该移动平台系统界面友好,操作方便,资讯丰富,极大地方便了高校师生的学习、工作和生活。     

Gendering the digital body: women and computers

As we live in a culture where “everything can be commodified, measured and calculated and can be put in the competitive market for sale, detached from its roots and purpose,” there is need to redefine our humanness in terms of the changing nature of science, technology, and their deeper impact on human life. More than anything else, it is Information Technology that now has tremendous influence on all spheres of our life, and in a sense, IT has become the destiny of our life. And this is where the real trauma lies. On the one hand, our being in the cyberspace opens up new and exciting horizons before us; on the other hand, we ourselves are changed and transformed in the process. The virtual world transforms human users to a problem-solver technocrat. The speed at which Information Technology is changing the way that youth around the world are socializing, playing, and researching, it is the common practice now for a 15-year old to go home and update their MySpace page, followed by playing online games, or looking up the new trendy YouTube video. These forms of technology are often the topic of adolescent conversations as YouTube, blogs, e-magazines, Face book, MySpace, iPhones, and iPods dominate the commercial and social networking market. Some researchers refer to this phenomenon as ubiquitous technology drawing attention to the fact that ubiquitous technology acknowledges the speedy adoption of day-to-day use of technology as a global phenomenon. In this background, this article aims at revisiting the question, “What is to be human in the era of Ubiquitous Technology?” From a feminist perspective, one can still redefine the boundaries between femininity and masculinity in the context of IT and its impact on our lifestyle and thought style. While examining the ways in which our definitions of “woman” and “man” are shifting in this new communication environment, Elizabeth Lane Lawley observes that we cannot fix a single center from which the experiences of women with computer and communication systems can be viewed and that such fixity would only serve to deepen inequities rather than exposing and removing them. She finally submits, “It is possible to use new theoretical perspectives on the shifting boundaries of gender definitions to rethink a previously deterministic view of the effect of new technologies on society, and particularly the effect of those technologies on women. While the gradual absence of the subject from the field of Artificial Intelligence leads to the invisibility of feminine care along with social and relational nature of man, some feminists dismiss the biological sex distinction on such issues and encourage females to ‘imitate man’ and to become more aggressive, assertive and dominating” (Lawley 1993). What are the possible impacts of this new technology on the so-called feminine traits of our human nature? How far our definitions of “woman” and “man” are shifting in this new communication environment? This is what this article seeks to explore.     

A digital library framework for biodiversity information systems

Biodiversity Information Systems (BISs) involve all kinds of heterogeneous data, which include ecological and geographical features. However, available information systems offer very limited support for managing these kinds of data in an integrated fashion. Furthermore, such systems do not fully support image content (e.g., photos of landscapes or living organisms) management, a requirement of many BIS end-users. In order to meet their needs, these users—e.g., biologists, environmental experts—often have to alternate between separate biodiversity and image information systems to combine information extracted from them. This hampers the addition of new data sources, as well as cooperation among scientists. The approach provided in this paper to meet these issues is based on taking advantage of advances in digital library innovations to integrate networked collections of heterogeneous data. It focuses on creating the basis for a next-generation BIS, combining new techniques of content-based image retrieval and database query processing mechanisms. This paper shows the use of this component-based architecture to support the creation of two tailored BIS systems dealing with fish specimen identification using search techniques. Experimental results suggest that this new approach improves the effectiveness of the fish identification process, when compared to the traditional key-based method.     

基于Portlet的数字化校园信息门户的设计

数字化校园信息门户的建设仍存在很多策略和技术问题需要解决.从Portal技术的建设目标出发,探讨了Portal的体系结构、描述技术规范及工作流程.根据校园门户建设的需要,提出了一套基于Portlet技术的校园信息门户建设方案,从而使得在构建数字化校园的过程中系统融合、信息集成和用户服务个性化的问题得到解决.通过Portlet技术构建的校园信息门户,减小了门户的实现难度,降低了管理开销,提高了工作效率,在教字化校园的建设中发挥了重要作用,并取得了良好效果.     

基于信息网格的数字图书馆研究

讨论了信息网格和数字图书馆之间的关系、应用以及构建基于信息网格的数字图书馆的关键技术,并给出了基于织女星信息网格的数字图书馆体系结构。     

A radiology archive using a digital library

Received: 5 April 1997 / Revised: 15 June 1997 / Accepted: 5 August 1997     

AGENT TCL: targeting the needs of mobile computers

Mobile computers have become increasingly popular as users discover the benefits of having their electronic work available at all times. Using Internet resources from a mobile platform, however, is a major challenge. Mobile computers do not have a permanent network connection and are often disconnected for long periods. When the computer is connected, the connection is often prone to sudden failure, such as when a physical obstruction blocks the signal from a cellular modem. In addition, the network connection often performs poorly and can vary dramatically from one session to the next, since the computer might use different transmission channels at different locations. Finally, depending on the transmission channel, the computer might be assigned a different network address each time it reconnects. Mobile agents are one way to handle these unforgiving network conditions. A mobile agent is an autonomous program that can move from machine to machine in a heterogeneous network under its own control. It can suspend its execution at any point, transport itself to a new machine, and resume execution on the new machine from the point at which it left off. Agent Tcl is a mobile agent system whose agents can be written in Tcl, Java, and Scheme. Agent Tcl has extensive navigation and communication services, security mechanisms, and debugging and tracking tools. We focus on Agent Tcl's architecture and security mechanisms, its RPC system, and its docking system, which lets an agent move transparently among mobile computers, regardless of when they are connected to the network     

Towards a digital library theory: a formal digital library ontology

Digital libraries (DLs) have eluded definitional consensus and lack agreement on common theories and frameworks. This makes comparison of DLs extremely difficult, promotes ad-hoc development, and impedes interoperability. In this paper we propose a formal ontology for DLs that defines the fundamental concepts, relationships, and axiomatic rules that govern the DL domain, therefore providing a frame of reference for the discussion of essential concepts of DL design and construction. The ontology is an axiomatic, formal treatment of DLs, which distinguishes it from other approaches that informally define a number of architectural variants. The process of construction of the ontology was guided by 5S, a formal framework for digital libraries. To test its expressibility we have used the ontology to create a taxonomy of DL services and to reason about issues of reusability, extensibility, and composability. Some practical applications of the ontology are also described including: the definition of a digital library services taxonomy, the proposal of a modeling language for digital libraries, and the specification of quality metrics to evaluate digital libraries. We also demonstrate how to use the ontology to formally describe DL architectures and to prove some properties about them, thus helping to further validate the ontology.     

A synergetic mechanism for digital library service in mobile and cloud computing environment

Digital library services in the mobile computing have come into our daily life with the development of wireless communication and the manufacture of mobile devices. Digital libraries have collected large-scaled data for providing information service. However, there are still many problems such as limitations of computing on mobile devices and data transmission problems in the wireless network. This paper proposes a synergetic mechanism for digital library to provide information service in the mobile and cloud computing environment, which combines the digital library servers, mobile hosts and personal cloud space into a synergetic work group seamlessly. The proposed mechanism integrates the strong computing and large-scaled storage ability of cloud computing together with the convenience of mobile computing. It could help promoting knowledge sharing and improve work efficiency of users in the mobile and cloud computing environment.     

Multimedia access to mobile environments using indoor semantic maps

In this paper, we present a semantic map model in order to represent multimedia environments using mobile devices. Our approach makes it possible defining indoor maps and locating the objects of interest. This model is based on an Ontology, which defines both semantic qualities and graphic forms of the objects that exist in the multimedia environment (rooms, doors, cameras, ...). The semantic of the maps enables to query and to reason the map content automatically. For example, in this work, we solve the indoor routing adding a heuristic that exploits the topology of the interior spaces, which has been evaluated by obtaining a significant improvement in indoor spaces. In addition, the proposed Ontology includes the location and the remote services of the multimedia resources, such as ambient cameras and microphones. Thus, users can access in real time to multimedia resources through the maps displayed on mobile devices. The mobile applications have been developed, tested and measured both in light devices and hand-held computers.     

Discovering the campus together: A mobile and computer-based learning experience

One of the most relevant difficulties faced by first-year undergraduate students is to settle into the educational environment of universities. This paper presents a case study that proposes a computer-assisted collaborative experience designed to help students in their transition from high school to university. This is done by facilitating their first contact with the campus and its services, the university community, methodologies and activities. The experience combines individual and collaborative activities, conducted in and out of the classroom, structured following the Jigsaw Collaborative Learning Flow Pattern. A specific environment including portable technologies with network and computer applications has been developed to support and facilitate the orchestration of a flow of learning activities into a single integrated learning setting. The result is a Computer Supported Collaborative Blended Learning scenario that has been evaluated with first-year university students of the degrees of Software and Audiovisual Engineering within the subject Introduction to Information and Communications Technologies. The findings reveal that the scenario improves significantly students’ interest in their studies and their understanding about the campus and services provided. The environment is also an innovative approach to successfully support the heterogeneous activities conducted by both teachers and students during the scenario. This paper introduces the goals and context of the case study, describes how the technology was employed to conduct the learning scenario, the evaluation methods and the main results of the experience.     

Multilingual disaster information system: information delivery using graphic text for mobile phones

A multilingual disaster information system (MLDI) has been developed to overcome the language barrier during times of natural disaster. MLDI is a web-based system that includes templates in nine languages so that translated texts can be made available immediately. Mobile phone e-mail with graphic text is a useful tool for delivering multilingual disaster information. The visibility of graphic text on mobile phones was measured and found to be equivalent to the built-in font. However, visibility deteriorates as the character size becomes smaller, especially, on displays with poor resolution. This article also discusses the necessity of multilingual information and measures for a safe and barrier-free society.     

Disseminating information to mobile clients using publish-subscribe

Providing an up-to-date view on dynamically changing data presents difficulties. While several different data-dissemination platforms address the problem, client mobility is still a major challenge. Volatile wireless connections and resource limitations void the attempt to apply the same mechanisms that work in fixed-wired networks. The Rebeca publish-subscribe middleware implementation introduces several concepts for accommodating client mobility in publish-subscribe systems. We present experimental results that show how intelligent filtering mechanisms can save network bandwidth inside the infrastructure and at mobile clients while preserving the accuracy of client notifications.     

Trajectory estimation algorithm for mobile nodes using encounter information and geographical information

In this paper, we propose a centralized algorithm to estimate trajectories of mobile nodes using a reasonable number of landmarks, ad hoc wireless communication facility and geographical information. The method identifies such trajectories where nodes move between two landmarks with the shortest time, which may be the shortest paths with high possibility, and uses their intermediate positions as “quasi-landmarks” to localize the others. The method can deal with a realistic case where mobile nodes move along pathways among obstacles. From simulation results, we show that the average estimation error is less than 40% of the wireless range under various scenarios.