Public Pervasive Computing: Making the Invisible Visible
Computer (09/06) Vol. 39, No. 9, P. 60; Kjeldskov, Jesper; Paay, Jeni

Human computer interaction (HCI) researchers, sociologists, and city architects, planners, and designers are investigating the employment of pervasive computing technologies in urban environments; one area of exploration is the Just-for-Us project, a multidisciplinary effort to develop a publicly available mobile Web service that can enable new kinds of interaction by adapting content to the physical and social context of the user. Designing public-use computer systems requires system developers and HCI designers to gain a basic understanding of a physical space and its effects on the social interactions that occur there. Just-for-Us uses a pervasive sensor network to produce a digital layer of information about people, sites, and activities to facilitate physical- and social-context adaptability. Content is dynamically delivered to the user via database queries. The Just-for-Us system architecture includes context-dependent HTML pages, maps and graphics presented on a mobile Web browser, PHP scripts and server-side applications, and MySQL database, while Bluetooth beacons and other Bluetooth-enabled devices feed into the client application. The Just-for-Us interface features a home screen that displays a panorama of a public site as well as annotations about landmarks within the user’s current physical whereabouts and a meter indicating the current level of social activity. The user can raise a Now screen that shows the level and nature of social activity transpiring within the user’s proximity. The Just-for-Us researchers are attempting to update their design concept to accommodate more user content contributions, facilitate socializing between users based on “virtual proximity,” and broaden the system’s area of coverage, among other things.

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