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Wednesday, February 09, 2005
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Thursday, July 29, 2004
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@ Running on air...
As someone who does a bit of running to keep fit, I can testify to the psychological importance of measuring one's performance. Most of the time, I feel the need to time my runs. Of course, I am looking for improvement, or at least consistency.
I am also interested to know how far I have run. With a friend from Motorola, I brain-stormed possible measuring apparatus for precision distance measurement. Most of the time, we gravitated toward optical measurement solutions using cameras, akin to the way an optical mouse works.
I was intrigued to find out about a pair of training shoes, I think by Nike, that include a microprocessor. I instantly assumed this was for such measurements, but it turns out to be a real-time controller for pumping goo around the sole of the shoe to adjust damping. I did think this might prove useful, with some kind of bio-feedback, to help avoid injuries.
It seems that Philips/Nike have now addressed the measurement problem. As one might expect, the solution is also an entertainment device, centred on music - or audio, playback. MP3 of course, hence the name, MP3Run. Fantastically, the sensor that straps on the shoe, communicating via Bluetooth back to the main arm- or body-strapped unit, uses 2D accelerometers to do the sensing. As a user of an air-mouse, I have an enthusiasm for these groovy sensors, so I was enthused by their use in this application.
Just take a read of Philip's whitepaper about the device to appreciate the processing power of the solution:
When the player is used for the first time, the runner does not necessarily have to input information on aspects such as length of stride beforehand. The sensor on the shoe measures 1000 times per second acceleration/deceleration of each stride using a 2 dimensional acceleration sensor. This information is used by a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to re-construct the actual gait and be finally able to give precise information about momentary speed and hence distance.
That’s what I called a usable system, at least on paper. No messing with stride measurements and the usual pedometer configurations – just strap, listen and run. Or, at least, I hope it isn’t listen, run and strap, after tripping on a kerb whilst fiddling with the controls. Let’s wait and see. I think I’m in the market for one of these goodies. Due out in August.
Now, how can we combine this unit with Spatial Messaging solutions? I'm thinking on that one......
9:29:00 PM 
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Friday, July 23, 2004
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@ Mobile Location Spam...
There is a lot of excitement about the potential of location-based services. All kinds of applications are being dreamt up, but what they have in common is interrupting the user with a message when they enter into a zone of interest. The problem is how to set up rules sufficiently intelligent that the messages received are actually wanted, or useful. Clearly, careful opt-in schemes are one solution, but rather crude. This option denies the genuine possibility of receiving useful information without expressly signing up for it.
Opt-in is really a defence mechanism, not an information filter. In a "whole product" seamless information experience, one might argue that "the system" ought to know what I'm interested in and send me useful stuff without me asking for it. In other words, opt-in is clumsy.
Intelligent push of location-sensitive information requires an agent that understands our interests and habits. This requires a wider scope than just retailing. Someone interested in archaeology might be willing to receive information about important sites as they drive past. If this sounds mundane (“I don’t want that...”), the trick is to ponder on which convergence of information and spatial contexts would interest you. Experience of giving many courses in this area has taught me that everyone eventually comes up with not just one, but many such contexts that suit them.
Nonetheless, spam is still a real problem. In the email world, it is potentially a killer for wireless email without effective defences. Any wireless email solution has to include spam-defence as a must-have, in addition to a variety of other context sensitive filters, adjusting content by the moment, movement, and for “me” (as discussed in my book).
In Europe, the law is clear that mobile push advertisement services must be explicit opt-in. In the US, similar legal trends are emerging, following on the heels of the CAN-SPAM edict against email spamming. Brian McWilliams describes a lawsuit filed last month by Verizon against 50 unidentified “John Does” who are spamming mobiles.
Clearly, a strong legal deterrent is useful, but we need to tread carefully. How do we cater for intelligent location-based advertising? For example, would it be legally justifiable to say, “I knew that Joe Soap was interested in buying a new Mazda (from his web surfing 3rd party cookies - see previous post), which is why I sent the message”? Is it a variation on the “open gate” invitation to the front door in UK case law?
10:38:50 AM
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Wednesday, July 21, 2004
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@ Cookies - Spyware - Mobilisation
In my course "Complete Anatomy of a Wireless Application", I have begun exploring the potential of 3rd party cookies for mobile services. There seems to be a plethora of possibilities.
Cookies get used to store information about your browsing sessions. Information you view, sites you visit, ads you click....all this is potentially trackable with cookies.
One of the most interesting possibilities is using cookies to understand what a user is currently "up to", especially in terms of shopping interests, and then to tie this in with location-sensitive advertising, (not "spamming") and information services.
I am more intrigued by the potential seamlessness of the experience. That we could go out into public spaces and enjoy a continuum of our home broadband environment. Our information grazing habits on the home PC (and work one, possibly) would be reflected in our information views and interruptions generated by our mobile devices.
Whilst we are tempted to think of spam at this point and annoying mobile coupons from the nearest coffee shop, there is no need to assume that an external agent is mining our data and interrupting us with their ads. I think that increasingly, companies will realise that they have to broadcast their essential real-time data through Web Services channels on the Internet. For example, B&Q will have to broadcast all their current offers, every day, 24*7, via Web Services channels. My smart mobile device will subscribe to these channels and pick up any interesting products that might be meaningful to me, given my recent grazing habits. If I've been looking at the prices of fitted showers, then info on this topic will be siphoned from the B&Q Web Services channel, especially, or only, when I get near one of their stores.
Seamlessness is the key: context-dependent information delivery on the mobile device, which takes into account all my current info-grazing habits. Cookies on websites is just one possible way of doing this, but there are plenty of others that will become more apparent as we get nearer to a true "anywhere area network". From a recent experience with a class, one student came up with the idea of a shared shopping list application. The idea itself was interesting enough, but I have not been able to drop the concept ever since it was raised. Shopping is something most of us do regularly and with all kinds of emotional, physical and financial investments. It seems so obvious as a candidate to bring this activity completely into the digital, and mobile, world. I can already think of so many benefits, especially using mobile technology, that will be hard to let go off once we become habituated to putting our shopping lists into the digital domain......
....watch this space for more thoughts on the topic.
12:21:20 AM
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Wednesday, July 14, 2004
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@ WHOLE PRODUCT DESIGN....
How are we going to cross the chasm from techno-gadgetry to mass consumption whilst still not designing decent mobile services? We need "ENTIRE PRODUCT" design, not just itty-bitty applications that provide a function that no one can get to because the rest of the environment doesn’t allow it.
For example, take wireless email. Is the product "Wireless POP3 access to my mail server???" ABSOLUTELY NOT….this is not a product…this is a facility. If the interface sucks, then we can't get to this facility….if the air-interface is unreliable…we can't get to this facility…if we can't easily enter email addresses….we can't get to this facility….we need a WHOLE PRODUCT….not a facility.
Most "wireless email" solutions are still this bad....the Motorola v600 has an IMAP client with zero filtering. On GPRS, that means....sit and wait for ages poking buttons, enduring delays, until you get to the message you actually want. Why's it called messaging when it takes so much effort to get the message?
11:27:43 PM
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Sunday, July 11, 2004
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:: Is this the future ? ::
http://www.tapwave.com/zodiac.html
It's a mobile games device. It's got Bluetooth, which makes it interesting. It's also built on a Palm OS platform, which means any Palm app will run on it too. It would make an interesting platform for Visual Radio, although it lacks built-in cellular. Alternatively, what about a portable video player - http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/pmp-120.aspx.
I think these devices are not quite getting it right. Any portable device must be worth carrying. What compels someone to carry something around with them? In my opinion, it’s interruption that matters. The device must interrupt the user to grab his/her attention, preferably by receiving messages. What they say, and who sends them, is another matter – but messaging is a paradigm essential to portable devices.
1:05:59 AM
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Wednesday, July 07, 2004
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:: Nokia Visual Radio ::
Recently on the Mobile Applications Club at Ecademy there was a group discussion about device types. Barbara Ballard states:
.. I foresee (and intend to make happen) a plethora of devices that step outside the current phone/PDA/pager/game device taxonomy. I envision a future in which everybody has a general purpose "communications and control" device (exact feature set and design varies per segment), a general purpose computing/work device (again, exact feature set varies), and an "entertainment" device.
The taxonomies suggested could be argued, but I think the idea is valid. The current mobile industry is voice-centric and devices have evolved accordingly. Text messaging has not impacted device evolution at all - it is an additional feature of what remains a telephone. Notwithstanding a variety of service issues (including price) the fact that MMS is struggling suggests that it is possibly the wrong service for a communications device. Perhaps the better use for MMS is within an entertainment framework, which brings me to the entertainment device category.
Nokia are promoting their visual radio platform, which allows visual and interactive content to be received by special devices that receive FM radio. Nokia call these devices "media devices". This seems a clear attempt to create a new device family and certainly seems to confirm Barbara's thinking that the future of user interface design will be affected by the emergence of classes of devices leading to design strategies per class, rather than per device.
Of course, there is the issue of adoption. Without enough radio stations signing up to provide content into the parallel visual channels, the adoption rate might be problematic. However, this assumes that the only possibility is augmented FM radio. There is nothing to stop niche channels being created that are entirely digital. For example, I would propose that the in-store "Blockbuster TV" in Blockbuster video stores might make an ideal channel. A whole range of products could be offered: postal DVD rentals, retail DVD sales, film-related ringtones, wallpaper etc.
There is also no reason why visual-shopping services can't be so niche as to allow retailers to provide services for device users actually visiting a shop. I can't interact with the Blockbuster TV in the store, but with a suitable device, I could. The same goes for any other shop, whether they currently run in-store channels or not. Technologies like Cell Broadcast could be used to allow users to quickly "tune in" to nearby stores. Regardless of such enhancements, what's important is a device type design for this type of service and that any content provider can confidently design for.
It is currently my view that the emergence of entertainment devices will be the most likely business evolution for operators. Last on their list will be support for a general-purpose mobile computing industry.
5:21:03 PM
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:: Nokia Visual Radio ::
Recently on the Mobile Applications Club at Ecademy there was a group discussion about device types. Barbara Ballard states:
.. I foresee (and intend to make happen) a plethora of devices that step outside the current phone/PDA/pager/game device taxonomy. I envision a future in which everybody has a general purpose "communications and control" device (exact feature set and design varies per segment), a general purpose computing/work device (again, exact feature set varies), and an "entertainment" device.
The taxonomies suggested could be argued, but I think the idea is valid. The current mobile industry is voice-centric and devices have evolved accordingly. Text messaging has not impacted device evolution at all - it is an additional feature of what remains a telephone. Notwithstanding a variety of service issues (including price) the fact that MMS is struggling suggests that it is possibly the wrong service for a communications device. Perhaps the better use for MMS is within an entertainment framework, which brings me to the entertainment device category.
Nokia are promoting their visual radio platform, which allows visual and interactive content to be received by special devices that receive FM radio. Nokia call these devices "media devices". This seems a clear attempt to create a new device family and certainly seems to confirm Barbara's thinking that the future of user interface design will be affected by the emergence of classes of devices leading to design strategies per class, rather than per device.
Of course, there is the issue of adoption. Without enough radio stations signing up to provide content into the parallel visual channels, the adoption rate might be problematic. However, this assumes that the only possibility is augmented FM radio. There is nothing to stop niche channels being created that are entirely digital. For example, I would propose that the in-store "Blockbuster TV" in Blockbuster video stores might make an ideal channel. A whole range of products could be offered: postal DVD rentals, retail DVD sales, film-related ringtones, wallpaper etc.
There is also no reason why visual-shopping services can't be so niche as to allow retailers to provide services for device users actually visiting a shop. I can't interact with the Blockbuster TV in the store, but with a suitable device, I could. The same goes for any other shop, whether they currently run in-store channels or not. Technologies like Cell Broadcast could be used to allow users to quickly "tune in" to nearby stores. Regardless of such enhancements, what's important is a device type design for this type of service and that any content provider can confidently design for.
It is currently my view that the emergence of entertainment devices will be the most likely business evolution for operators. Last on their list will be support for a general-purpose mobile computing industry.
5:20:50 PM
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© Copyright
2005
Paul Golding.
Last update:
3/26/2005; 8:58:16 PM.
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