MPLAT: Technology

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MPLAT Technology
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Wide Range of Ubiquitous Technologies

• Personal Devices
• Mobile Phones (3G, EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth)
• PDAs (Bluetooth, WiFi)
• MP3 Players
• Laptops (Bluetooth, WiFi)
• Cameras/Camera Phones
• Digital audio recorders (Dictaphones/PDAs)
• New generation of integrated devices
• E.g. Hugh has a HP GPS PDA Phone, with GPRS,
  Bluetooth and enough memory to act as an iPod
  Nano
• Located Devices
• Touchscreens, Intelligent Signs
• Desktop PCs
• Location Technologies
• Global Positioning Systems
• Cell based (for mob phones)
• Bespoke (e.g. ultrasonic positioning)

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What are the Contextual Considerations?

• What is permissible in the environment?
• Radio frequency restrictions
• Privacy Issues (photos, audio recording, etc)
• Data protection (if integrating with existing
  systems)
• What is intrusive?
• Notifications (sounds, lights)
• Input mechanisms (keyboards, stylus, mouse,
  voice, touch)
• Mobile devices
• easy to carry/use
• Located Devices
• easy to maintain in the environment

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Other Considerations

• What do students and mentors already own?
• Leverage existing technology infrastructure
• No learning curve
• Easier to incorporate into existing practise
• People may be unwilling to replace their own
  devices (i.e. may want keep their own phones)
• Development effort
• Easier to build apps for laptops than PDAs,
  easier to build apps for PDAs than phones
• Browser based (Web/WAP)?
• Possible to have multi-access (via a range of
  devices)
• Costs
• Are their external contributions?
• Is part of the point to make it affordable?
• What happens if someone loses or breaks a device?

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Technological Aim

• Our aim (although we may not be able to realise
  it - its a lot harder than it sounds) should be
  a toolkit that
• Uses existing devices wherever possible
• Can be accessed in a variety of ways (phones,
  PDAs, Web browsers, etc)
• Is composed of simple apps that are loosely
  coupled (perhaps as REST services)
• Function as independently as possible
• Can be used/combined in a number of ways as needed