The recent advances in mobile computing devices and wireless networking produced the technical platform for multimedia services over thin mobile devices. Nowadays, we are witnessing an important growth in applications using thin mobile devices, such as social networks, virtual walkthrough, media streaming, and augmented reality (AR), just to mention a few. Most of these applications are based on the client-server architecture, however several studies showed that the client-server architecture suffers from various issues, such as the server bottleneck, latency and the lack of scalability. This led most of the systems to switch to the peer-to-peer (P2P)-like environment for its scalability and potential cost saving. P2P multimedia streaming over thin mobile devices-based classes of applications has known a significant growth during the last years. Although P2P video streaming over thin mobile devices received a great deal of attention, the application of 3D streaming over mobile devices was challenging mainly due to the limited mobile resources and capabilities, as well as the wireless medium limitations. Having 3D streaming over Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) is considered more challenging given that the 3D streaming-based system has to deal with a dynamic environment resulting from nodes mobility, which may lead to route breakages and connection loss. Therefore, one of the major difficulties in 3D streaming over MANET is related to the supplying partner's strategy that aims at determining the most suitable source holding the required 3D data to stream it quickly and efficiently to the requesters. In this thesis, we propose our P2P based 3D streaming system which we refer to as MOSAIC as well as a suite of supplying partner strategy protocols for P2P 3D streaming over thin mobile devices. Our proposed suite of protocols selects the potential sources that have the relevant 3D data, based on a set of criteria such as the source location, the mobile device's available resources as well as its residual energy. We also proposed a multihop supplying partner selection protocol that takes into account the signal strength and the nodes mobility when streaming the relevant 3D data. The performance evaluation obtained to evaluate our MOSAIC system as well as our suite of protocols using an extensive set of NS2 simulation experiments, is then reported.

To keep up in the rapidly changing market for smart mobile phones, newways of consuming information is needed. In this master thesis project aPortable Document Format (PDF) viewer with more features than existingPDF viewers for Symbian^3 was developed, called PDF Eagle. PDF Eaglewas implemented using the Qt framework, allowing it to be easily ported todierent platforms. PDF documents have a rich structure and to be fullycompatible with the standard and at the same time responsive enough to berun on a mobile platform is a formidable technical challenge. This reportdescribes the issues that had to be resolved all the way to a functioning "app"that was marketed on the Nokia market in October 2011 with a great success.Among the technical challenges was a way to correctly render coloured objectsin PDFs. A gradient is a way to colour an area in a PDF le. Results of testsshowed that PDF Eagle is more capable of handling gradients, shadows andencrypted PDF les compared to other mobile PDF viewers. The conclusion ofthis report is that PDF Eagle is on par with or outmatches other PDF viewerson the targeted platform. This work also shows the feasibility of incrementallydownloading the pages of a PDF le which provides a better user experienceby faster viewing.

Paper-based user manuals that provide assembly and disassembly instructions often do so with a combination of diagrams supported with textual information that clarifies how to perform the tasks. Mobile devices are emerging as a multimedia platform for providing on-demand training due to their portability. Mobile devices have limited screen size; as a result, the text instructions associated with the diagrams can produce clutter and occlusion on the screen. Also, too much information if fed through a single sensory channel (visual) may result in excessive cognitive load on the working memory of the human brain, thus hindering the learning process. In this work, two user studies were conducted to investigate the tradeoffs of using text, voice, and a combination of both modalities on the learning experience in a just-in-time mobile learning scenario. In such a scenario end-users are managing two very visual tasks at the same time; i.e., the primary task of carrying out the assembly/disassembly job and the secondary task of learning how to perform the task.

The recent advances in mobile computing devices and wireless networking produced the technical platform for multimedia services over thin mobile devices. Nowadays, we are witnessing an important growth in applications using thin mobile devices, such as social networks, virtual walkthrough, media streaming, and augmented reality (AR), just to mention a few. Most of these applications are based on the client-server architecture, however several studies showed that the client-server architecture suffers from various issues, such as the server bottleneck, latency and the lack of scalability. This led most of the systems to switch to the peer-to-peer (P2P)-like environment for its scalability and potential cost saving. P2P multimedia streaming over thin mobile devices-based classes of applications has known a significant growth during the last years. Although P2P video streaming over thin mobile devices received a great deal of attention, the application of 3D streaming over mobile devices was challenging mainly due to the limited mobile resources and capabilities, as well as the wireless medium limitations. Having 3D streaming over Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) is considered more challenging given that the 3D streaming-based system has to deal with a dynamic environment resulting from nodes mobility, which may lead to route breakages and connection loss. Therefore, one of the major difficulties in 3D streaming over MANET is related to the supplying partner's strategy that aims at determining the most suitable source holding the required 3D data to stream it quickly and efficiently to the requesters. In this thesis, we propose our P2P based 3D streaming system which we refer to as MOSAIC as well as a suite of supplying partner strategy protocols for P2P 3D streaming over thin mobile devices. Our proposed suite of protocols selects the potential sources that have the relevant 3D data, based on a set of criteria such as the source location, the mobile device's available resources as well as its residual energy. We also proposed a multihop supplying partner selection protocol that takes into account the signal strength and the nodes mobility when streaming the relevant 3D data. The performance evaluation obtained to evaluate our MOSAIC system as well as our suite of protocols using an extensive set of NS2 simulation experiments, is then reported.

Along with the huge growth of mobile devices in recent years we have seen a matching growth in interest for mobile applications, with location-aware applications experiencing rapid growth for mobile devices. Radiolocation from measurements of radio received signal strength has demonstrated excellent precision, although despite a decade of research there have been no wide-spread deployments of indoor location systems. The majority of the existing research has been focused towards producing improved precision at the cost of increased time requirements for system configuration and maintenance. This thesis proposes taking a step back from increasing complexity by giving up precision in exchange for simplicity and speed of deployment, while still providing sufficient accuracy for many indoor location tasks. This is accomplished by putting aside the standard x, y, z coordinate systems and by using a method based on defined areas. Carefully choosing the defined areas to include Wi-Fi access points and to have signal attenuating walls separating the area from the next, this work demonstrates locational accuracy of over 90% in most cases. While this method is not applicable to wide open areas that lack signal attenuating features, it is highly applicable to many indoor environments. / Graduate

Edge-cloud brings the computation power as close to the clients as possible. This reduces latencies and overall computation time in the cloud. Thanks to the mobile nature of clients we must be able to migrate tasks among different servers. The goal of this thesis is to examine possible problems in communication and propose the architecture of framework. Our framework uses gRPC and is written as module to it. It is platform independent, uses reliable communication and focuses on easy usage. We provide implementation of this framework with some example uses. 1

Mobile applications (“apps”) are increasingly used in medical education and practice. However, many medical apps are of variable quality, lack supporting evidence and fall outside the remit of regulators. In this thesis, I explore how the quality and credibility of apps for healthcare practitioners could be improved. I argue that interdisciplinary collaboration throughout the app life-cycle is critical and discuss how this can be facilitated. My argument rests on prior work in eHealth and neighbouring disciplines, and on original research in transfusion medicine. Blood transfusion can be a life-saving medical treatment. However, it also carries risks. Failures to provide irradiated and cytomegalovirus-negative blood components according to guidelines are frequently reported in the UK. Such incidents put patients at risk of serious complications. Haemovigilance data indicates that enhancing practitioner knowledge may reduce mistakes. Thus, I worked with medical experts to develop and evaluate the Special Blood Components (SBC) mobile learning app. To facilitate this work, I created two tools: the Web App Editor (WAE) and the Web App Trial (WAT). The former is a collaborative editor for building apps in a web browser and the latter is a system for conducting online randomised controlled app trials. The results are reported in five studies. Studies 1 and 2, based on interviews with seven practitioners, revealed shortcomings in an existing transfusion app and the SBC prototype. Study 3 demonstrated how students using theWAE were able to collaborate on apps, including an app in stroke medicine. Study 4, an evaluation of the revised SBC app with 54 medical students, established the ease of use as acceptable. In study 5, a WAT pilot study with 61 practitioners, the SBC app doubled scores on a knowledge test and was rated more favourably than existing hospital guidelines. In conclusion, creating high quality medical apps that are supported by evidence is a considerable undertaking and depends on a mix of knowledges and skills. It requires that healthcare practitioners, software developers and otherswork together effectively. Hence, the WAE and WAT are key research outcomes. They enabled participants to contribute improvements and assess the usability and efficacy of the SBC app. The results suggest that the SBC app is easy to use and can improve practitioner knowledge. Further work remains to pilot and evaluate the SBC app in a hospital setting.

Mobile health (mHealth) message design strategies for low and middle-income countries (LMICs) have quickly gained acceptance in the field of health education. mHealth initiatives focusing on maternal health are frequently implemented with the aim of providing access to information while improving maternal health practices. Within Ghana, access to relevant health information and hospital care within rural settings remain scarce for the majority of citizens (WHO, 2011). However, with the rapid rate of mobile phone adoption, delivering learning opportunities in conjunction with mobile devices may be promising for many individuals in Ghana. The purpose of this study was to examine message design inputs influencing expecting mothers’ maternal health activity. McGuire’s communication-persuasion theoretical framework informed the mix-methods study. I used participatory rapid appraisal techniques while carrying out the study with research team members. I employed surveys to collect quantitative data. To gather qualitative data I engaged in open-ended survey questions, interviews (one-on-one and focus groups), a journal and team reflections. The findings revealed that participants from two communities in Northern Ghana in rural settings had several inputs in the message design which may influence expecting mothers. These include; information source, design and delivery, power dynamics and personal circumstances, and perceived gains. The findings highlight that for many mHealth projects in LMIC's, there is an urgent need to reexamining the culture attributes of the users' local environment. These findings also address critical aspects of a real world problem with intent to support rural community development in Northern Ghana with goals to alleviate the lack of academic knowledge by providing an insider’s perspectives regarding community insights.

The recent advances in mobile computing devices and wireless networking produced the technical platform for multimedia services over thin mobile devices. Nowadays, we are witnessing an important growth in applications using thin mobile devices, such as social networks, virtual walkthrough, media streaming, and augmented reality (AR), just to mention a few. Most of these applications are based on the client-server architecture, however several studies showed that the client-server architecture suffers from various issues, such as the server bottleneck, latency and the lack of scalability. This led most of the systems to switch to the peer-to-peer (P2P)-like environment for its scalability and potential cost saving. P2P multimedia streaming over thin mobile devices-based classes of applications has known a significant growth during the last years. Although P2P video streaming over thin mobile devices received a great deal of attention, the application of 3D streaming over mobile devices was challenging mainly due to the limited mobile resources and capabilities, as well as the wireless medium limitations. Having 3D streaming over Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) is considered more challenging given that the 3D streaming-based system has to deal with a dynamic environment resulting from nodes mobility, which may lead to route breakages and connection loss. Therefore, one of the major difficulties in 3D streaming over MANET is related to the supplying partner's strategy that aims at determining the most suitable source holding the required 3D data to stream it quickly and efficiently to the requesters. In this thesis, we propose our P2P based 3D streaming system which we refer to as MOSAIC as well as a suite of supplying partner strategy protocols for P2P 3D streaming over thin mobile devices. Our proposed suite of protocols selects the potential sources that have the relevant 3D data, based on a set of criteria such as the source location, the mobile device's available resources as well as its residual energy. We also proposed a multihop supplying partner selection protocol that takes into account the signal strength and the nodes mobility when streaming the relevant 3D data. The performance evaluation obtained to evaluate our MOSAIC system as well as our suite of protocols using an extensive set of NS2 simulation experiments, is then reported.

MCom / Department of Business Management / Mobile technology is progressively being used to support students’ learning, extending learning and educator-student contact beyond class hours. Mobile technology has been identified as a potential solution to the problem of scarcity of computers to access online learning materials in higher education institutions. The University of Venda distributed tablet personal computers to students so that they could use them for facilitating and enhancing their studies. However, the provision of tablet PCs to students may not be a panacea for quality learning, especially to a population that is not familiar with latest information technologies. The aim of the study was to investigate the use of digital mobile devices (tablet personal computers and smartphones) for enhancing teaching and learning at the University of Venda. The research questions focused on determining the current level of use of mobile devices, how they could be used effectively for teaching and learning; and the perceptions of students and lecturers on mobile devices as tools for teaching and learning. Case study research design was considered most suitable for this study as it involves collecting and reporting descriptive information about a specific environment. Mixed methods approach was applied with data being solicited from a convenient sample of 370 students, 8 lecturers and 1 IT technician at the University. Semi-structured questionnaires were distributed to students. The results of the study indicated that many students are active and spending much time on the different internet activities. The study also found that students prefer mobile learning and spend much time on the internet surfing information. Lecturers found it easy to communicate with the students via emails and social media platforms where they send study materials. Students use their smartphones and tablet PCs to download learning materials. However, many lecturers and students are not making use of the Learning Management System, the Blackboard due to lack of training. The results of the study are to be used to explicate, forecast, and advance the integration of the digital mobile devices for promoting learning and teaching accomplishments and standard competencies at the University of Venda. Recommendations were made on how students and lecturers can effectively use digital mobile devices for teaching and learning.