Informing decisions in agent-based models — A mobile update

A range of tools exists for collecting data to inform decision processes in agent-based models (ABMs), each appropriate to modeling processes at particular scales and each with particular strengths and limitations. The issue of which tools are appropriate to which goals has been discussed in the literature at several points over the last decade, but has not been updated to reflect the way in which the cost of stakeholder engagement will shift in the near future as smartphones and mobile technologies penetrate rural areas across the world along the same path as mobile phones before them. I present the challenge of validating ABMs as closing a series of ‘gaps’ that characterize the separation between a real-world decision and its modeled counterpart, and illustrate the potential for mobile phones and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) to transform the modes with which ABMs are empirically informed.     

Correlating mobile phone usage and travel behavior – A case study of Harbin,China

Information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as mobile phones and the Internet, are increasingly pervasive in modern society. These technologies provide new resources for spatio-temporal data mining and geographic knowledge discovery. Since the development of ICTs also impacts physical movement of individuals in societies, much of the existing research has focused on examining the correlation between ICT and human mobility. In this paper, we aim to provide a deeper understanding of how usage of mobile phones correlates with individual travel behavior by exploring the correlation between mobile phone call frequencies and three indicators of travel behavior: (1) radius, (2) eccentricity, and (3) entropy. The methodology is applied to a large dataset from Harbin city in China. The statistical analysis indicates a significant correlation between mobile phone usage and all of the three indicators. In addition, we examine and demonstrate how explanatory factors, such as age, gender, social temporal orders and characteristics of the built environment, impact the relationship between mobile phone usage and individual activity behavior.     

The role of openness in the effect of ICT on governance*

ABSTRACT

The study investigates how openness influences information and communication technology (ICT) penetration for improved government quality in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2000–2012. Openness is measured in terms of trade and financial globalization whereas ICT is proxied with mobile phone and internet penetration rates. Ten bundled and unbundled governance indicators are used. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments with forward orthogonal deviations. The main findings are First, financial openness has an edge over trade openness when combined with ICT to affect both economic and institutional governance. Second, mobile phones have an edge over internet penetration in complementing (i) trade openness for economic governance and (ii) financial openness for institutional governance. Third, net effects on political governance are consistently negative. Taken together, in the short-run, openness-driven ICT policies are more rewarding in terms of economic and institutional governance than political governance. Fourth, catch-up in governance is facilitated by the interaction between openness and ICT. Contributions of these findings to literature are discussed.     

Cost effective data wiping methods for mobile phone

Thanks to the supply of smartphones, mobile phones have come to store increasingly more personal information of users. To protect users’ information, the information stored in mobile phones should not only be managed safety but also be deleted not to allow restoration. In the filesystems that have been applied to existing mobile phones, even when users have deleted information, data are not completely wiped from the storage. Therefore, the data can be easily recovered by using forensics tools. Considering that mobile phones are always exposed to the risk of robberies and loss, this situation can be misused for personal information spill. The present paper points out problems in the methods of data deleting from smartphones, proposes an efficient data deleting method considering mobile device environments with limitations in battery and hardware performance such as smartphones, and analyzes the efficiency of the techniques in relation to the types of filesystems and data formats.     

Libraries Begin to Engage Their Menacing Mobile Phone Hordes Without Shhhhh!

ABSTRACT

Few libraries are experimenting with using mobile phones to engage their patrons to improve their service experience rather than focusing exclusively on managing phone use behavior: library code of conduct policies, policy enforcement, signage, quiet library space zoning, and strategies for staff and patron buy-in. Over the past 18 months signs of hope have appeared. Libraries are beginning to engage their users via mobile phones in four ways: audio tours, text message reference service, text message alerts, and mobile library collection search engines. They are not waiting for a better mobile phone service development environment. Library staffs are redefining the possible ways to engage their communities.     

The Ten Shades of Silver: Segmentation of Older Adults in the Mobile Phone Market

With the closing of the age-related gap in mobile phone uptake and the aging of the population, older adults have increasingly become a desirable target group for mobile phone providers. Although there is abundant literature describing the use of mobile phones among older adults, segmentation studies on this group of consumers remain scant and inconclusive. Drawing on the benefit and behavioral segmentation, this study presents a segmentation model of older adults in the mobile phone market that incorporates a wide variety of consumer behavior, attitudinal, and acceptance variables relevant for the understanding of mobile phone (non-)usage patterns among users of feature phones and smartphones, as well as among mobile phone nonusers. The model is based on a hybrid approach with a two-step cluster analysis using data collected by a telephone survey from a representative sample (n = 1,581) of adults aged 55 or older in Slovenia in 2015. The analysis yielded two uniquely profiled clusters within each of the five a priori-determined segments, summing to a total of 10 clusters. The results show that older adults still prefer feature phones. Nevertheless, the mobile phone market has become highly heterogeneous, with clusters of older adults having distinguishable feature phone- and smartphone-use patterns as well as socio-demographic and life-course profiles. Since many of these profiles undermine the notion of older adults as “basic” mobile phone users, our findings represent a solid foundation for scholars and marketers to further investigate their specific needs in relation to more advanced smartphone and mobile internet usage.     

Mobile phone purchase and usage behaviours of early adopter groups in Korea

Recent mobile phones known as smartphones offer a variety of applications, such as Web browsing, entertainment tools, and personal calendar and contact management applications of the type that traditionally run on desktop computers. Some of the reasons why smartphones became popular rapidly in Korea may be related to the adoption by the type of user known as the early adopter. Because the early adopter group played a more crucial role in the area of mass consumption and because the mass market is changing more rapidly than before, this study examines mobile phone purchase and usage behaviours of early adopter groups in Korea in order to gain vital insights into establishing marketing strategies for early adopter groups. In this study, segmentation by means of a factor analysis and cluster analysis is conducted to classify early adopter groups in accordance with their activities, interests, and opinion. Specifically, factor analysis is employed to identify the common characteristics among lifestyle variables, and cluster analysis is then adopted for those factors to classify early adopter groups according to their lifestyles. In addition, we analyse the mobile phone purchase and usage behaviours of early adopter groups in Korea. The results of this study can contribute to the effort to classify early adopter groups while also having implications pertaining to mobile phone vendors and mobile service providers who target early adopters depending on their different characteristics.     

Android平台说话人认证系统的并行计算与设计

智能手机技术的快速进步催生了移动商务的蓬勃发展,智能手机移动商务平台的安全性和身份认证问题已经成为移动商务能否进一步发展的关键。说话人识别技术作为一种生物识别认证技术应用到现有的智能手机中非常便利,而且有其他安全认证技术所无法比拟的优势。因此,将说话人识别相关技术应用于Android系统的安全认证中,设计了基于Android平台的说话人认证系统。同时由于智能手机多核性和特征参数提取工作的独立性,为了提高认证系统的效率,提出了基于Android平台的并行算法,并在不同机型上做了相关的实验,通过实验结果可以发现在Android平台采用并行算法能够较大幅度地提高认证系统的效率,从而提高认证系统的用户体验。     

Self-reported neck symptoms and use of personal computers,laptops and cell phones among Finns aged 18–65

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible relation between self-reported neck symptoms (aches, pain or numbness) and use of computers/cell phones. The study was carried out as a cross-sectional study by posting a questionnaire to 15,000 working-age persons, and 15.1% of all respondents (6121) reported that they very often experienced physical symptoms in the neck. The results showed that they also had many other symptoms very often, and 49% used a computer daily at work and 83.9% used cell phones. We compared physical/mental symptoms of persons with symptoms in the neck quite often or more, with others. We found significant differences in the physical/mental symptoms and use of cell phones and computers. The results suggest taking into account in the future that those persons' symptoms in the neck can be associated with use of cell phones or computers.

Practitioner Summary: We investigated the possible relation between neck symptoms and use of computers/cell phones. We found that persons, who very often had symptoms in the neck, had also other symptoms very often (e.g. exhaustion at work). Their use of information and communication technology (e.g. computers) can associate with their symptoms.     

The Paradox of Mobility in the Kenyan ICT Ecosystem: An Ethnographic Case of How the Youth in Kibera Slum Use and Appropriate the Mobile Phone and the Mobile Internet

The Kenyan ICT ecosystem has attracted vast global media and policy attention because of notable mobile phone adoption in the country. However, empirical research of how Kenyans use and appropriate new media and ICTs in the diverse contexts within the country remains limited. In order to contribute to the emerging literature on Sub-Saharan Africa ICT ecosystems as well as the Mobility discussions within Mobiles for Development M4D and Information and Communication Technologies for Development ICT4D, this paper discusses an empirical case of how the youth of Kibera use and appropriate the mobile phone and the mobile Internet. The purpose of this critical realist ethnographic research article is to explicate the events in the historical development of the Kenyan ICT ecosystem as well as the components of social and physical structure in Kibera slum along with the relationships between them. This paper argues that the mobile phone eases communication and strengthens existent social ties for the youth of Kibera. However, it cannot bypass the hierarchical nature of Kenya where “class and place of residence are distinctive social markers in the process of social networking” [Wallis, C. (2011). Mobile phones without guarantees: The promises of technology and the contingencies of culture. New Media & Society, 13(3), 471–485. Wallis, C. (2013). Technomobility in China: Young migrant women and mobile phones. New York, NY: New York University Press]. Therefore, the young Kiberans predominantly use and appropriate the mobile phone to network with those in the same lower income strata. This is because they are widely perceived in Kenyan society as the “other and what does not belong” because they are slum residents [Hall, S. (2013). The spectacle of the other. In S. Hall, J. Evans, & S. Nixon (Eds.), Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (2nd ed., pp. 223–283). Sage. p. 257].     

Development of a web-based survey system for evaluating affective satisfaction

The concept of affective satisfaction is used to measure subjective feelings or impressions toward a product and to provide designers with knowledge about how well users are affectively satisfied. Numerous studies of affective satisfaction toward mobile devices have been conducted in laboratory environments. However, evaluating affective satisfaction whenever a new product is designed can be expensive. Therefore, this study proposes a method to develop a web-based survey system for evaluating affective satisfaction. A case study evaluating the affective satisfaction of thirty mobile phones was conducted by more than three hundred participants. The multiple linear regression technique was applied to build the relationship models between affective satisfaction and design features of the mobile phones. The proposed method can be used for a guideline to evaluate the affective satisfaction over the internet. Moreover, designers can use this method in product families other than mobile phones.

Relevance to industry

The results of this study can be used to evaluate affective satisfaction of consumer electronic products efficiently. Moreover, designers can get feedback on their prototypes of products through analyzing the evaluation results.     

Bridging the gap between students and computers: supporting activity awareness for network collaborative learning with GSM network

The internet has been widely used to promote collaborative learning among students. However, students do not always have access to the system, leading to doubt in the interaction among the students, and reducing the effectiveness of collaborative learning, since the web-based collaborative learning environment relies entirely on the availability of computers and the internet. A web-based collaborative learning scheme based on activity awareness carried out through mobile phones is proposed herein. The proposed mechanism automatically sends SMS messages on a GSM network, based on student identity and learning activity, making the student aware of the collaborative learning context, and further improving the student's learning. A web-based collaborative learning activity was implemented in a Taiwan undergraduate class to examine the proposed scheme. Experiments demonstrated that awareness of the collaborative learning context through mobile phones significantly increased student participation in learning activity and improving student learning performance.     

Design of Mobile Phones for Older Adults: An Empirical Analysis of Design Guidelines and Checklists for Feature Phones and Smartphones

Design guidelines and checklists are suggested as a useful tool in the development and evaluation of interface design of mobile phones for older adults. Given the intense evolution of mobile phone design, understanding how the design guidelines and checklists have taken into account the advances in mobile phone usability for older adults is important for their correct application and future development. Thus, this study explores the usability dimensions of mobile phone design for older adults and the related changes in terms of time and the type of device (feature phones vs. smartphones) based on an expert coding of the eight mobile phone design guidelines and checklists for older adults published between 2006 and 2014. The results of the expert coding show that design guidelines and checklists most frequently deal with visual and haptic issues (e.g., high contrast, button type, and button size), whilst they hardly ever address various elements of textual interface (e.g., ease of text entry, a button’s feedback, and font type). Over time, the design guidelines and checklists have become more complex in terms of the average number of included usability categories and dimensions. For smartphones, the guidelines, on average, put more emphasis on the screen, touchscreen, text, and exterior related issues, whereas the design guidelines for feature phones stress the usability of the keypad and menus. Besides revealing potential usability dimensions that could be further expanded in the guidelines, this study also highlights the need for research that would empirically validate the design guidelines and checklists in the future.     

Increasing participation in the information society by people with disabilities and their families in lower-income countries using mainstream technologies

Assistive technology (AT) has been actively researched, developed and implemented throughout higher-income countries, but is relatively absent from lower-income countries. In lower-income countries, there is very little AT for reading, writing, communicating and for participation in the information society. In order for persons with disabilities in lower-income countries to participate fully in society, mainstream information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as mobile phones should be used as AT. This paper explores the potential for using mainstream ICTs as AT in lower-income countries, keeping in mind current ICT trends, characteristics of the post-PC era and ICT-based AT in higher-income countries. The paper concludes with a case study where mobile phones and SMS were used by people with disabilities and their caregivers to access information in a resourced-limited community in Bogota, Colombia. Mobile phones, a readily available mainstream ICT in this community, were a useful tool for addressing the information exclusion of people with disabilities and caregivers.     

About malicious software in smartphones

Phones with some of the capabilities of modern computers also have the same kind of drawbacks. These phones are commonly referred to as smartphones. They have both phone and personal digital assistant (PDA) functionality. Typical to these devices is to have a wide selection of different connectivity options from general packet radio service (GPRS) data transfer to multi media messages (MMS) and wireless local area network (WLAN) capabilities. They also have standardized operating systems, which makes smartphones a viable platform for malware writers. Since the design of the operating systems is recent, many common security holes and vulnerabilities have been taken into account during the design. However, these precautions have not fully protected these devices. Even now, when smartphones are not that common, there is a handful of viruses for them. In this paper we will discuss some of the most typical viruses in the mobile environment and propose guidelines and predictions for the future.     

Avoidance or boredom: Negative mental health outcomes associated with use of Information and Communication Technologies depend on users’ motivations

Previous research shows that high Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use is associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and overall psychological distress; however, there are few relevant studies on this topic. The current study was conducted to explore the relationship between Internet and mobile phone use and mental health. In Study 1, participants were given questionnaires to assess their manner of mobile phone and Internet use and their levels of depression and anxiety. There were strong positive relationships between lower mental health and problematic ICT use, especially when people turned to ICTs to avoid negative experiences or feelings. However, when participants used ICTs merely to escape boredom, no link was found between ICT use and mental health problems. Study 2 was completed to observe how students utilize their mobile phones to cope or escape from feelings related to an anxiety-inducing situation. Results indicated that the mobile phone may offer a small “security blanket” effect, lowering the initial negative reaction to stress, although the pattern of stress over the course of the experiment was the same for participants in all groups. Our findings suggest that long term utilization of ICTs as an emotional coping strategy may have a negative influence on mental health and/or exacerbate mental health predispositions.     

UX Curve: A method for evaluating long-term user experience

The goal of user experience design in industry is to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through the utility, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product. So far, user experience studies have mostly focused on short-term evaluations and consequently on aspects relating to the initial adoption of new product designs. Nevertheless, the relationship between the user and the product evolves over long periods of time and the relevance of prolonged use for market success has been recently highlighted. In this paper, we argue for the cost-effective elicitation of longitudinal user experience data. We propose a method called the “UX Curve” which aims at assisting users in retrospectively reporting how and why their experience with a product has changed over time. The usefulness of the UX Curve method was assessed in a qualitative study with 20 mobile phone users. In particular, we investigated how users’ specific memories of their experiences with their mobile phones guide their behavior and their willingness to recommend the product to others. The results suggest that the UX Curve method enables users and researchers to determine the quality of long-term user experience and the influences that improve user experience over time or cause it to deteriorate. The method provided rich qualitative data and we found that an improving trend of perceived attractiveness of mobile phones was related to user satisfaction and willingness to recommend their phone to friends. This highlights that sustaining perceived attractiveness can be a differentiating factor in the user acceptance of personal interactive products such as mobile phones. The study suggests that the proposed method can be used as a straightforward tool for understanding the reasons why user experience improves or worsens in long-term product use and how these reasons relate to customer loyalty.     

Multimodal object oriented user interfaces in mobile affective interaction

In this paper, we investigate an object oriented (OO) architecture for multimodal emotion recognition in interactive applications through mobile phones or handheld devices. Mobile phones are different from desktop computers since mobile phones are not performing any processing involving emotion recognition whereas desktop computers can perform such processing. In fact, in our approach, mobile phones have to pass all data collected to a server and then perform emotion recognition. The object oriented architecture that we have created, combines evidence from multiple modalities of interaction, namely the mobile device’s keyboard and the mobile device’s microphone, as well as data from emotion stereotypes. Moreover, the OO method classifies them into well structured objects with their own properties and methods. The resulting emotion detection server is capable of using and handling transmitted information from different mobile sources of multimodal data during human-computer interaction. As a test bed for the affective mobile interaction we have used an educational application that is incorporated into the mobile system.     

Improving Bluetooth Security: What IT Managers and Mobile Device Users Can Do

Abstract

Bluetooth wireless technology is becoming ubiquitous. According to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), Bluetooth weekly shipments passed the 5 million unit mark in the second quarter of 2005, up from 3 million in the third quarter of 2004. Most of this growth has been in the mobile phone and PDA markets; in fact, 20 percent of mobile phones now ship with Bluetooth. In high-end business phones, the penetration rate is even higher, and many business-class phones include Bluetooth.