Over the past several years, the press, trade publications and academic literature have reported with increasing frequency on the social concerns caused by ubiquitous computingInformation Technology (IT) embedded in artifacts, infrastructure and environments of daily life. Designers and researchers of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) technologies have spent considerable efforts to address these concerns, which include privacy and data protection issues, information security and personal safety. Yet, designing successful ubicomp applications is still an unreliable and expensive endeavor, in part due to imperfect understanding of how technology is appropriated, the lack of effective design tools and the challenges of prototyping these applications in realistic conditions. I introduce the concept of proportionality as a principle able to guide design of ubiquitous computing applications and specifically to attack privacy and security issues. Inspired by the principle, I propose a design process framework that assists the practitioner in making reasoned and documented design choices throughout the development process. I validate the design process framework through a quantitative design experiment vis--vis other design methods. Furthermore, I present several case studies and evaluations to demonstrate the design methods effectiveness and generality. I claim that the design method helps to identify some of the obstacles to the acceptance of ubiquitous computing applications and to translate security and privacy concerns into research questions in the design process. I further discuss some of the inquiry and validation techniques that are appropriate to answer these questions.

Mobile network equipments are widely popularized and advanced mobile communication services are provided increasingly such that ubiquitous computing environments will come true soon. It is a pleasure for mobile users to work or get recreations in the mobile network environments. However, just as the cases in wireline environments, there are a lot of security threats to mobile network systems and their impact on the security is more serious than that in wireline environments owing to the feature of wireless transmissions and the ubiquity property in mobile network systems. The secret personal information, important data, or classified missives which mobile users carry may be stolen by malicious entities. In order to guarantee the quality of the advanced communication services, the security and privacy would be the important issues when mobile users roam to the mobile networks. In this thesis, an anonymous authentication protocol will be proposed to protect both the security of the mobile network system and the privacy of mobile users. Not only does the proposed scheme provide mutual authentication between each user and the system, but also the identity of each user can be kept secret against anyone else including the system. Although the users are anonymously authenticated by the system, it can still make correct bills to charge these anonymous users. Finally, our protocol also achieves the goal of fair privacy which allows the judge to be able to revoke the anonymity and trace the illegal users when they misused the anonymity property such as they committed crimes.

With the improvement of information technology, the environment of electronic commerce is shifting gradually from M-Commerce to U-Commerce. However, U-Commerce is still in its infancy for most enterprises although it extended from M-Commerce. The knowledge about how the business model and the enabling technology together create the business for inter and intra customers is till vague, while it is important for the success of U-Commerce. Therefore, in this study, we conduct the secondary data analysis and use a value shop model to analyze what determinates the value creation for the customers and what the enabling core components are. The findings of this study provide a great insight for better understanding the value configuration of U-commerce and a leading index for the enterprise to constructing business model and developing IT core components when implementing the U-commerce.

As most application modes of ubiquitous learning need support of Intranet servers or Internet connections and using handheld devices as movable terminal. However, not all learning environments have sufficient information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and the equipments needed might be too expensive. These factors result some learning activities hard to be supported by ICT and also reduce learners¡¦ motivations on using ICT for ubiquitous learning in daily life. This research proposed the concept, architecture, and operational logic of GroupNet to construct a more flexible ubiquitous learning environment. GroupNet is aiming to support small-group face-to-face learning activities anywhere and anytime without sticking in traditional classroom settings and additional infrastructures. The GroupNet architecture consists of four different layers including Network, GroupNet Kernel, GroupNet application and GroupNet application user interface. GroupNet is based on a peer-to-peer wireless ad hoc network and coordinated by GroupNet Kernel which is able to embed in various kinds of mobile devices. GroupNet Kernel consists of connection controller, message manager, online status manager, file sharing manager, and activity controller; these five components serve as the core for supporting upper layer GroupNet applications. We have also implemented the application programming interface (API) for accessing the core functions supported by GroupNet Kernel such that developers can develop GroupNet applications with fewer efforts. A GroupNet application has been developed using the APIs for conducting an experiment on how to reduce groupthink phenomenon using mobile devices in collaborative learning to evaluate the feasibility of GroupNet Kernel and illustrate the effectiveness of GroupNet applications.

An advanced architecture of learning system with flexible, mobile and joyful features for supporting ubiquitous learning is developed in this research. The architecture consists of five hardware key elements and a supporting information system to form a brand-new ubiquitous learning system. We call the designed and developed system as Ubiquitous Open-structured Neo-tech Edutainment (or u-ONE System for short) which includes learning robot, sensing input device, mobile computing device, mobile output device, wireless local network and u-ONE Software. The design and development of u-ONE System is guided by experiential learning theory, constructivism learning theory, and joyful learning element. Instruction, collaboration learning and self-learning of application modes are supported by u-ONE Software for realizing ubiquitous learning. The aim of this research is to design and develop a prototype of u-ONE System includes hardware and software components for supporting children¡¦s learning by using robot and RFID. Instructor and learners can meet at any place with their own gears to form a u-ONE System and start instruction and/or learning activities. Only instructors need to operate the control station for coordination; learners just intuitively interact with learning robot by a natural and person-to-person-liked interaction method. In u-ONE System, learners do not need to have good information technologies literacy such as the keyboarding skills which are especially crucial for the earlier childhood learners. Besides, many parents and educators are concerned of watching computer screen for a long time that may harm children¡¦s eyesight; u-ONE System provides an alternative solution for this. This research¡¦s experiment result found most learners could arouse their learning motivations and help them concentrate on learning activities. The class order is also improved for instructors more easily to control the behaviors of learners during the class.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) for chronic care are increasingly being researched in Human-Computer Interaction. One of the current health management areas where ICTs have been employed is in supporting communications between patients and physicians. This is particularly relevant for patients suffering from chronic diseases since there is evidence that better communication leads to better health outcomes. Researchers are investigating different chronic diseases to design and test technology interventions to promote better chronic disease care. However, few have investigated pediatric asthma as a case study for designing communication technologies. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in 2008 that 300 million people suffer from asthma, and that asthma is the most common chronic illness among children. Asthma interferes with breathing by preventing airflow into the lungs. It is difficult to determine the actual cause of asthma and to predict who will have asthma. These unique challenges provide opportunities to investigate pediatric asthma management. To address these challenges, I have conducted a series of studies with pediatric asthma patients, families, and healthcare providers to better understand their needs, challenges and strategies regarding the use of technologies. I have conducted interviews, a focus group, and a technology probe study to create and refine initial technology designs for children with asthma and their caregivers. Based on the Health Belief Model (HBM), patient-provider communications, and my findings in the prior studies, I designed a mobile and web service to increase asthma knowledge and symptom/management awareness in the child for better health outcomes, and to affect the perceived quality of interaction with healthcare providers. I show the results of my two field deployment studies with total 65 patients to learn how the system affected their practices and health outcomes. My contributions come from an increased understanding in three areas: physician-patient communication via a mobile and web services; ubiquitous communication technology designs to improve current pediatric asthma practices; and controlled evaluation of a ubiquitous communication technology, SMS, in the field.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. Directed by Mustaque Ahamad. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-128).

Ubiquitous computing describes the aspirations of including information systems into the fabric of our daily lives. The emphasis of the user should be on what task needs to be achieved rather than how the system will do it. The interface of applications that are integrated into the home fabric needs to be delicate in the sense that it should give the feeling of being a part of the home rather than a piece of technology. The human computer interaction/interface needs to be cohesive with the environment people live in so as to maximise the interaction possibilities. Photographs are a very affective and efficient way of connecting people to each other. We should not forget the social role photographs have to play. The most important aspect of the picture is the story that it is trying to convey, the people in it, or the place it was taken. Emotions are a very private part of our personal life and how one displays it reflects one’s lifestyle. In recent years increasing efforts have been put into preserving emotions in photos particularly with the advent of digital cameras. Now photographs have become an important part of our lives and have significant social role as they provide an affective communication link between friends and families. This research will be looking at how people relate themselves to pictures and if we could capture their emotions and expressions to store them in a way that is representative of their feelings towards the picture. As emotions can be associated with pictures of family, friends, places, holidays, social gatherings or travel to mention some of the aspects, we will also be analysing as to how emotions change over a period of time and if it could be represented accordingly in association with digital photos. This will allow us to look into the factors, which can make digital photo sharing a more fun and enjoyable experience. This research will involve user based evaluations and a scenario based approach for modelling the photo sharing interface. The creation of photo sharing system, based on this approach, is then investigated using the method of prototyping. The research shows methods, architectures, and tools used to make the development process more efficient and help assess the viability of the system under conditions that simulate to everyday use of the photo sharing software. To generalise and communicate results, the project will seek to simulate the home environment in a laboratory setting, using prototypes based on current high-end computing devices. The .Net technologies used for rapid prototyping is introduced. The aim of this research is to provide a demonstration environment of a photo sharing software for the smart home, which will allow for Reception/Viewing/distribution of photos within the home environment. The data could incorporate Audio/Video/Text/Photos, and user input etc. The research will also help us understand various aspects of how people interact with Digital Photos, what they would like to do, how can storing photos be made simpler, annotation of pictures, how can sharing photo’s made simpler, and how we can design an application which would allow users to attach emotions to pictures. The photo sharing system will provide an effective means to receive and distribute emotional information based on personal and temporal relationships associated with photos. The research also analyses the role of human computer interaction when developing ubiquitous technologies for the smart homes where information is embedded in the environment people live in. The research will present an overview of how photo sharing systems can be developed and evaluated using prototypes and user evaluations.

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Computer Science and Information Systems / Master / Master of Philosophy