Recent development in modern computing has led to a more diverse use of devices within the field of mobility. Many mobile devices of today can, for instance, surf the web and connect to wireless networks, thus gradually merging the wired Internet with the mobile Internet. As mobile devices by design usually have built-in means for creating rich media content, along with the ability to upload these to the Internet, these devices are potential contributors to the already overwhelming content collection residing on the World Wide Web. While interesting initiatives for structuring and filtering content on the World Wide Web exist – often based on various forms of metadata – a unified understanding of individual content is more or less restricted to technical metadata values, such as file size and file format. These kinds of metadata make it impossible to incorporate the purpose of the content when designing applications. Answers to questions such as "why was this content created?" or "in which context was the content created?" would allow for a more specified content filtering tailored to fit the end-users cause. In the opinion of the authors, this kind of understanding would be ideal for content created with mobile devices which purposely are brought into various environments. This is why we in this thesis have investigated in which way descriptions of contexts could be caught, structured and expressed as machine-readable semantics. In order to limit the scope of our work we developed a system which mirrored the context of ubiquitous learning activities to a database. Whenever rich media content was created within these activities, the system associated that particular content to its context. The system was tested during live trials in order to gather reliable and “real” contextual data leading to the transition to semantics by generating Rich Document Format documents from the contents of the database. The outcome of our efforts was a fully-functional system able to capture contexts of pre-defined ubiquitous learning activities and transforming these into machine-readable semantics. We would like to believe that our contribution has some innovative aspects – one being that the system can output contexts of activities as semantics in real-time, allowing monitoring of activities as they are performed.

When looking at the Internet of Things the question arises how people, places and things will be connected to each other in the future. One option to create interoperability between devices and humans for the Internet of Things is to use open web standards. Researchers have named this approach the Web of Things and have studied the vision by showing the technical feasibility and by suggesting software architectures. What has been missing so far is a designer’s view on the challenges of connecting the virtual and the physical world with web technology. This thesis therefore aims to explore how current web technologies can be used as design material for the Web of Things. The results indicate that new web technologies like push notifications work well in the context of ubiquitous computing. Additionally, the repertory grid method was applied to evaluate how users experience the Web of Things. It was found that the prototypes were perceived as easy to use, personal and working instantly but the participants were also clearly aware of the dependency to a working smartphone.

Today’s society has moved towards a greater focus on users experiences from several different perspectives. It applies to the virtual world as well as to the environment outside computers. As markets are becoming saturated with products and services that are relatively similar, staging experiences is a possible way to increase product and service value. Within academic ceremonies at universities, the focus on the guests’ experiences is central. The aim of this thesis is to clarify how three key concepts can lay a ground for better understanding when going forward in the design of experiences in the context of academic ceremonies. The concepts are User Experience, Service Design and Ubiquitous Computing. The results shows that by dividing the processes of designing the ceremonies into smaller pieces and analysing them, using Patrick W. Jordan’s Hierarchy of Consumer Needs the current situation could be defined. A unified approach was taken towards the key concepts, which visualized the means we have to utilize in the possibilities of reaching upwards in the hierarchy and thus designing better experiences.

Abstract Traditional telepresence systems are comprised of a person remotely controlling a robot in a hostile environment while receiving visual feedback from a camera mounted on the robot. While useful for a number of applications, this model is not particularly useful for everyday work applications. The size of the robot is intrusive, the robot needs to be designed for specific interactions and only one person can use the robot at any one time. This work seeks to address this problem by replacing the physical proxy with a virtual proxy. The purpose of this virtual proxy is to enhance the system by providing improved support for multiple users, interaction and navigation in the remote environment. This enhanced, or improved, version of telepresence is termed TeleReality as it combines elements of virtual reality with traditional telepresence technologies. To achieve this goal, the basic building blocks, or constructs, of traditional telepresence systems need to be changed. This thesis identifies and evaluates the base constructs needed to build any TeleReality system. These constructs include the need to support navigation of the remote environment and this is achieved by using a network of cameras and image processing software to calculate the various perspective viewpoints of the users. These constructs govern the means in which this collection of cameras are organised and connected. Each user receives a common set of video images from which they calculate their own perspective viewpoints, and consequently supporting a multi-user system. Interaction within the remote environment is promoted using ad-hoc networks and augmented reality technologies. Constructs also cover security and privacy issues that arise from using multiple cameras by adopting both an organisational and technological viewpoint. The focus is on establishing trust within the system by divesting control to the user. An example of these constructs is given by the implementation of a TeleReality model called a 'Visual Cell' system. The conclusion of this work identifies the constructs that are needed to support a telepresence system using a virtual proxy where the primary interaction framework is informational exchange, although physical interaction can also be supported depending upon the environmental support. This work also identifies the technical issues that require additional research for the implementation of a TeleReality system, from the need for improved image processing, video codec's, broadcast and ad-hoc security protocols, software architecture, registration and the availability of suitable head mounted displays.

Abstract The use of agent systems has increased enormously, especially in the field of mobile services. Intelligent services have also increased rapidly in the web. In this thesis, the utilization of software agent technology in mobile services and decentralized intelligent services in the multimedia business is introduced and described. Both Genie Agent Architecture (GAA) and Decentralized International and Intelligent Software Architecture (DIISA) are described. The common problems in decentralized software systems are lack of intelligence, communication of software modules and system learning. Another problem is the personalization of users and services. A third problem is the matching of users and service characteristics in web application level in a non-linear way. In this case it means that web services follow human steps and are capable of learning from human inputs and their characteristics in an intelligent way. This third problem is addressed in this thesis and solutions are presented with two intelligent software architectures and services. The solutions of the thesis are based on a combination of neural network and agent technology. To be more specific, solutions are based on an intelligent agent which uses certain black box information like Self-Organized Map (SOM). This process is as follows; information agents collect information from different sources like the web, databases, users, other software agents and the environment. Information is filtered and adapted for input vectors. Maps are created from a data entry of an SOM. Using maps is very simple, input forms are completed by users (automatically or manually) or user agents. Input vectors are formed again and sent to a certain map. The map gives several outputs which are passed through specific algorithms. This information is passed to an intelligent agent. The needs for web intelligence and knowledge representation serving users is a current issue in many business solutions. The main goal is to enable this by means of autonomous agents which communicate with each other using an agent communication language and with users using their native languages via several communication channels.

Abstract Technological development and various information services becoming common has had the effect that data from everyday situations is available. Utilizing this technology and the data it produces in an efficient manner is called context-aware or ubiquitous computing. The research includes the specifications of each application, the requirements of the communication systems, issues of privacy, and human - computer interaction, for example. The environment should learn from the user's behaviour and communicate with the user. The communication should not be only reactive, but proactive as well. This thesis is divided into two parts, both representing methodology for enabling intelligence in our everyday surroundings. In part one, three different applications are defined for studying context-recognition and routine learning: a health monitoring system, a context-aware health club application, and automatic device configuration in an office space. The path for routine learning is straight forward and it is closely related to pattern recognition research. Sensory data is collected from users in various different situations, the signals are pre-processed, and the contexts recognized from this sensory data. Furthermore, routine learning is realized through association rules. The routine learning paradigm developed here can utilize already recognized contexts despite their meaning in the real world. The user makes the final decision on whether the routine is important or not, and has authority over every action of the system. The second part of the thesis is built on experiments on identifying a person walking on a pressure-sensitive floor. Resolving the characteristics of the special sensor producing the measurements, which lies under the normal flooring, is one of the tasks of this research. The identification is tested with Hidden Markov models and Learning Vector Quantization. The methodology developed in this thesis offers a step along the long road towards functional and calm intelligent environments.

Abstract Ubiquitous computing transforms physical environments into smart spaces, supporting users in an unobtrusive fashion. Such support requires sensing and interpreting the situation of the user, and providing the required functionality utilizing resources available. In other words, context acquisition, context modelling, and context reasoning are required. This thesis explores rule-based context reasoning from three perspectives: to implement the functionality of ubiquitous applications, to support the creation of ubiquitous applications, and to achieve self-adaptation. First, implementing functionality with reasoning is studied by comparing an application equipped with rule-based reasoning with an application providing similar functionality with hard coded application logic. The scalability of rule-based reasoning is studied with a large-scale student assistant scenario. Reasoning with constrained resources is explored with an application that performs reasoning partially on mobile devices. Finally, distributing a reasoning component that supports smart space interaction is explored with centralized, hybrid, and distributed architectures. Second, the creation of applications with rule-based reasoning is explored. In the first study, rules support building applications from available services and resources based on the instructions that users give via physical user interfaces. The second study supports developers, by proposing middleware that dynamically selects services and data based on the rules written by application developers. Third, self-adaptation is explored with a conceptual framework that adds self-introspective monitoring and control to smart space applications. This framework is verified with simulation and theoretical studies, and an application that fuses diverse data to provide fuel-efficient driving recommendations and adapts decision-making based on the driver’s progress and feedback. The thesis’ contributions include demonstrative cases on using rule-based reasoning from different perspectives, different scales, and with different architectures. Frameworks, a middleware, simulations, and prototypes provide the concrete contribution of the thesis. Generally, the thesis contributes to understanding how rule-based reasoning can be used in ubiquitous computing. The results presented can be used as guidelines for developers of ubiquitous applications. / Tiivistelmä Jokapaikan tietotekniikka muokkaa fyysisen ympäristömme älykkääksi tilaksi, joka tukee käyttäjää häntä häiritsemättä. Tuki toteutetaan asentamalla ympäristöön käyttäjää ja ympäristöä havainnoivia laitteita, tulkitsemalla kerätyn tiedon perusteella käyttäjän tilanne ja tarjoamalla tilanteeseen sopiva toiminnallisuus käyttäen saatavilla olevia resursseja. Toisin sanoen, älykkään tilan on kyettävä tunnistamaan ja mallintamaan toimintatilanne sekä päättelemään toimintatilanteen perusteella. Tässä työssä tutkitaan sääntöpohjaista päättelyä toimintatilanteen perusteella sovellusten toiminnallisuuden toteutuksen, kehittämisen tuen sekä mukautuvuuden näkökulmista. Sovellusten toiminnallisuuden toteuttamista päättelemällä tutkitaan vertaamalla sääntöpohjaisen päättelyn avulla toteutettua toiminnallisuutta vastaavaan suoraan sovellukseen ohjelmoituun toiminnallisuuteen. Sääntöpohjaisen päättelyn skaalautuvuutta arvioidaan laajamittaisessa opiskelija-assistenttiskenaariossa. Niukkojen resurssien vaikutusta päättelyyn arvioidaan päättelemällä osittain mobiililaitteessa. Älykkään tilan vuorovaikutusta tukevan päättelykomponentin hajauttamista tutkitaan keskitetyn, hybridi- ja hajautetun arkkitehtuurin avulla. Sovelluskehityksen tukemiseksi päättelyn säännöt muodostetaan saatavilla olevista palveluista ja resursseista käyttäjän fyysisen käyttöliittymän välityksellä antamien ohjeiden mukaisesti. Toisessa tapauksessa sovelluskehitystä tuetaan väliohjelmistolla, joka valitsee palvelut ja datan dynaamisesti sovelluskehittäjien luomien sääntöjen perusteella. Mukautuvuutta tutkitaan tilan hallintaan ja itsehavainnointiin liittyvän toiminnallisuuden lisäämiseen pystyvän käsitteellisen kehyksen avulla. Kehyksen toiminta varmennetaan simulointien sekä teoreettisten tarkastelujen avulla. Toteutettu useita datalähteitä yhdistävä sovellus antaa ajoneuvon kuljettajalle polttoaineen kulutuksen vähentämiseen liittyviä suosituksia sekä mukautuu kuljettajan ajotavan kehityksen ja palautteen perusteella. Työssä on osoitettu sääntöpohjaisen päättelyn toimivuus eri näkökulmista, eri skaalautuvuuden asteilla sekä eri arkkitehtuureissa. Työn konkreettisia tuloksia ovat kehykset, väliohjelmistot, simuloinnit sekä prototyypit. Laajemmassa mittakaavassa työ edesauttaa ymmärtämään sääntöpohjaisen päättelyn soveltamista ja työn tuloksia voidaankin käyttää suosituksina sovelluskehittäjille.

Abstract The development of mobile and ubiquitous computing has recently been rapid. One of the most promising research and development fields has been location-aware services. These services are challenging as they require a lot of resources for generating maps from spatial data and for visualizing temporary data gathered from the environment. Applying location-awareness and ubiquitous computing in the industry is currently under intensive research and development activities especially because of signs of promising new business opportunities. This thesis studies the development and evaluation of a location-aware system platform called Locawe designed for indoor and outdoor conditions. This decentralized middleware-based platform has been developed at CENTRIA Research and Development, Ylivieska. The main objectives of this research have been primarily to study and develop new ubiquitous features for the Locawe platform with various software and hardware combinations. In addition, during these studies gathered experiences have been used in order to design new versions of the Locawe architecture. These ubiquitous features, covering the use of GPS, RFID and WSAN technologies, have been tested in five field experiments, one laboratory experiment and several industrial pilots. In these evaluations, the author has considered what software and hardware alternatives are feasible and appropriate for improving the newly developed features in the Locawe platform. These features have been evaluated from usability, visualization and communication techniques perspective. As a result the author presents in this thesis main characteristics in location-aware system development from system layers, ubiquitous computing, mobility, and restrictions perspective. The author also suggests that the architeture presented in this thesis enables location-aware system development in indoor and outdoor conditions. With respect of state-of-the-art platforms, the Locawe platform is, at the moment, in some sense unique, although only as a research prototype. This platform combines two approaches, namely research on location platforms, and research on geosensor networks or smart environments. In addition, this platform gives one answer how RFID or WSAN technologies could be integrated under one framework together with mobile devices. Finally, the author also proposes that the research and development approach presented in this thesis can be applied successfully in research and development organizations specialized in applied research. / Tiivistelmä Mobiilin ja sulautetun tietotekniikan kehitys on ollut viime aikoina nopeaa. Yksi lupaavimmista tutkimus- ja kehityskohteista on ollut paikkatietoiset palvelut. Näiden palveluiden kehittäminen on varsin haasteellista, koska kehittämistyö vaatii runsaasti resursseja sekä karttojen generoimisessa paikkatietoaineistoista että ympäristöstä kerättävän väliaikaisen tiedon visualisoinnissa. Paikkatietoisten sovellusten ja sulautetun tietotekniikan soveltaminen teollisuudessa on aktiivisen tutkimus- ja kehittämistoiminnan keskiössä, koska näköpiirissä on selvästi uusia lupaavia liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia. Tässä väitöskirjassa keskitytään Locawe-nimisen paikkatietoisen ohjelmistoalustan kehittämisen ja arvioinnin raportointiin. Locawe-alusta on suunniteltu sekä sisä- että ulko-olosuhteisiin. Tämä hajautettu väliohjelmistopohjainen alusta on kehitetty CENTRIA Tutkimus ja kehityksen Ylivieskan yksikössä. Väitöskirjan tavoitteena on ollut ensisijaisesti tutkia ja kehittää uusia, sulautettua tietotekniikkaa hyödyntäviä ominaisuuksia Locawe-alustaan hyödyntäen erilaisia ohjelmisto- ja laitteistokombinaatioita. Väitöskirjaan liittyvän tutkimustyön aikana käyttäjiltä on useaan otteeseen kerätty käyttökokemuksia. Kokemuksia on hyödynnetty Locawe-arkkitehtuurin seuraavien versioiden suunnittelussa. Uusia, sulautettua tietotekniikkaa hyödyntäviä ominaisuuksia on testattu kaikkiaan viidessä kenttätestissä, yhdessä laboratoriotestissä sekä useissa teollisissa piloteissa. Ominaisuuksien toteuttamisessa käytettiin GPS-, RFID- ja WSAN-teknologioita. Testeissä kirjoittaja arvioi, minkälaiset ohjelmisto- ja laitteistovaihtoehdot ovat toteuttamiskelpoisimpia ja soveliaimpia uusien ominaisuuksien kehittämiseksi Locawe-alustaan. Ominaisuuksia on arvioitu käytettävyyden, visualisoinnin ja viestintätekniikoiden näkökulmista. Tutkimustyön tuloksena kirjoittaja esittelee väitöskirjassa paikkatietoisten järjestelmien kehittämiseen liittyviä ominaispiirteitä järjestelmätasojen, sulautetun tietotekniikan, mobiliteetin ja rajoitteiden näkökulmista. Lisäksi kirjoittaja esittää väitöskirjassa arkkitehtuurin, joka mahdollistaa paikkatietoisen järjestelmän kehittämisen soveltuen niin sisä- kuin ulko-olosuhteisiin. Huomioiden paikkatietoisten alustojen tason maailmanlaajuisesti väitöskirjassa kuvattu Locawe-alusta on tutkimusprototyyppinäkin tällä hetkellä tietyssä määrin ainutlaatuinen. Alustan tutkimisessa on nimittäin keskitytty sekä paikkatietoisten alustojen että geosensoriverkkojen ja älykkäiden ympäristöjen tutkimiseen. Lisäksi Locawe-alusta tarjoaa yhden ratkaisun RFID ja WSAN teknologioiden integrointiin yhdeksi kehykseksi yhdessä mobiililaitteiden kanssa. Lopuksi kirjoittaja esittää, että väitöskirjassa esitetty tutkimus- ja kehittämistoiminnan lähestymistapaa voidaan soveltaa vastaavissa tutkimusorganisaatioissa kuin CENTRIA.

Abstract This dissertation aimed at developing a multi-modal sensing u-healthcare system (MSUS), which reflects the unique properties of a healthcare application in a wireless sensor network. Together with health parameters, such as ECG, SpO2 and blood pressure, the system also transfers context-aware data, including activity, position and tracking data, in a wireless sensor network environment at home or in a hospital. Since packet loss may have fatal consequences for patients, health-related data are more critical than most other types of monitoring data. Thus, compared to environmental, agricultural or industrial monitoring, healthcare monitoring in a wireless environment imposes different requirements and priorities. These include heavy data traffic with wavelike parameters in wireless sensor network and fatal data loss due to the traffic. To ensure reliable data transfer in a wireless sensor network, this research placed special emphasis on the optimization of sampling rate, packet length and transmission rate, and on the traffic reduction method. To improve the reliability and accuracy of diagnosis, the u-healthcare system also collects context-aware information on the user’s activity and location and provides real-time tracking. Waveform health parameters, such as ECG, are normally sampled in the 100 to 400 Hz range according to the monitoring purpose. This type of waveform data may incur a heavy burden in wireless communication. To reduce wireless traffic between the sensor nodes and the gateway node, the system utilizes on-site ECG analysis implemented on the sensor nodes as well as query architecture. A 3D VRML viewer was also developed for the realistic monitoring of the user’s moving path and location. Two communication methods, an 802.15.4-based wireless sensor network and a CDMA cellular network are used by sensors placed on the users’ bodies to gather medical data, which is then transmitted to a server PC at home or in the hospital, depending on whether the sensor is within or outside the range of the wireless sensor network.

Despite substantial effort made by the usable security community at facilitating the use of recommended security systems and behaviors, much security advice is ignored and many security systems are underutilized. I argue that this disconnect can partially be explained by the fact that security behaviors have myriad unaccounted for social consequences. For example, by using two-factor authentication, one might be perceived as “paranoid”. By encrypting an e-mail correspondence, one might be perceived as having something to hide. Yet, to date, little theoretical work in usable security has applied theory from social psychology to understand how these social consequences affect people’s security behaviors. Likewise, little systems work in usable security has taken social factors into consideration. To bridge these gaps in literature and practice, I begin to build a theory of social cybersecurity and apply those theoretical insights to create systems that encourage better cybersecurity behaviors. First, through a series of interviews, surveys and a large-scale analysis of how security tools diffuse through the social networks of 1.5 million Facebook users, I empirically model how social influences affect the adoption of security behaviors and systems. In so doing, I provide some of the first direct evidence that security behaviors are strongly driven by social influence, and that the design of a security system strongly influences its potential for social spread. Specifically, security systems that are more observable, inclusive, and stewarded are positively affected by social influence, while those that are not are negatively affected by social influence. Based on these empirical results, I put forth two prescriptions: (i) creating socially grounded interface “nudges” that encourage better cybersecurity behaviors, and (ii) designing new, more socially intelligent end-user facing security systems. As an example of a social “nudge”, I designed a notification that informs Facebook users that their friends use optional security systems to protect their own accounts. In an experimental evaluation with 50,000 Facebook users, I found that this social notification was significantly more effective than a non-social control notification at attracting clicks to improve account security and in motivating the adoption of promoted, optional security tools. As an example of a socially intelligent cybersecurity system, I designed Thumprint: an inclusive authentication system that authenticates and identifies individual group members of a small, local group through a single, shared secret knock. Through my evaluations, I found that Thumprint is resilient to casual but motivated adversaries and that it can reliably differentiate multiple group members who share the same secret knock. Taken together, these systems point towards a future of socially intelligent cybersecurity that encourages better security behaviors. I conclude with a set of descriptive and prescriptive takeaways, as well as a set of open problems for future work. Concretely, this thesis provides the following contributions: (i) an initial theory of social cybersecurity, developed from both observational and experimental work, that explains how social influences affect security behaviors; (ii) a set of design recommendations for creating socially intelligent security systems that encourage better cybersecurity behaviors; (iii) the design, implementation and comprehensive evaluation of two such systems that leverage these design recommendations; and (iv) a reflection on how the insights uncovered in this work can be utilized alongside broader design considerations in HCI, security and design to create an infrastructure of useful, usable and socially intelligent cybersecurity systems.