CAERUS Context Aware Educational Resource System

1
CAERUSContext Aware Educational Resource System

• Mike Sharples
• Director
• CETADL, University of Birmingham

Caerus, in Greek mythology, was the
personification of opportunity and favourable
moments
2
People

• Laura Naismith, Microsoft Funded Research
  Associate
• Jeffrey Ting, CETADL Systems Manager
• Dan Corlett, CETADL Projects Manager

3
Mobile learning at Birmingham

• World-leading centre for research in mobile
  learning
• Major projects
• EU MOBIlearn and CONNECT
• JISC Interactive logbook
• MLEARN conference series
• Microsoft European reference site for mobile
  learning research
• 10 mobile learning researchers

4
CAERUS

• A complete context aware system for tourist
  locations and educational
• centres

5
The Needs of Visitors

• People have many reasons for visiting a tourist
  or educational site
• but they crowd round a few landmark locations
• A personal guide can offer a much richer
  experience
• Reveal the hidden stories behind the obvious
  sights

6
The Needs of Administrators

• Offer a personalised experience for each
  visitor
• Increase public awareness and virtual access to
  sites and information
• Make better use of the range of exhibits
• All in a cost-effective way

7
Comparison with other systems

• Human guides
• Personal, helpful, but expensive
• Printed guides
• Well presented, high resolution images, but you
  have to know where you are
• Often too much information
• Audio guides
• Appealing, but inflexible
• Multimedia guides
• A richer experience, but not context-aware or
  personalised
• GPS navigation systems
• Context aware, but require specially calibrated
  maps
• Designed to support in-car navigation, not
  exploration on foot

8
Put together.

• a flexible personal guide
• with a rich mix of media
• that knows where you are

9
Who would use it?

• School outdoor centres
• Botanic gardens
• Outdoor museums and collections
• Towns and cities
• Historic sites
• Theme parks
• Health and safety in outdoor sites
• Security and emergency services

10
CAERUS Overview

• Laura Naismith
• Microsoft Funded Research Associate
• CETADL, University of Birmingham

11
CAERUS Overview
Handheld Delivery
Desktop Administration
12
Desktop Administration System

• Import and calibrate maps in any image format
• Define regions and points of interest with a few
  mouse clicks
• Support both free exploration and guided tours
• Transfer files to handheld through standard
  synchronization procedure
• Developed for Windows XP

13
Handheld Delivery System

• Clear, consistent push-button interface
• Minimal required interaction means users
  attention can be directed at the site, not at the
  handheld
• Developed for Pocket PC 2003

14
Demonstration

• PC demonstration of the authoring system
• Hands-on demonstration on the laptops and PDAs
  around the room
• Groups in the garden with GPS units

15
Future possibilities

• Enhanced Positioning
• Range of technologies to support indoor and
  outdoor positioning
• Ability to add new information in the field
• Field notes
• Annotations/virtual graffiti
• Tablet PCs to run both administration and
  delivery system
• Alerts and messaging
• Between visitors
• From administrators to visitors
• Accessibility
• Visually impaired
• Multiple languages

16
Scenario Heritage

• Efficiently provide time-sensitive information on
  historic sites at a country, region or city
  level
• seasonal changes
• restoration activities
• context driven by application or by user
• Seamless transition between indoor and outdoor
  locations
• Assess effectiveness of exhibits by monitoring
  visitor routes and time spent at each location

17
Scenario Education

• Efficiently administer location-based activities
  at a range of education levels
• Students can take notes and contribute their own
  experiences
• Messaging facilities support activity
  administration and group collaboration

18
Scenario Security

• Web-based logging of incidents allows updates in
  real time
• Review incidents exactly where they were logged
• Proactively patrol for suspicious activity

19
Acknowledgements

• CAERUS is supported by funding from Microsoft UK
  and Birmingham City Council

20
Further Information

• Visit us on the web at
• www.caerus.bham.ac.uk
• Email us at
• caerus-info_at_bham.ac.uk