The latest advancements in mobile device technology are putting ever-higher demands for throughput of wireless networks. This is threatening to outpace the ability of service providers to deploy the necessary infrastructure. Fifth-Generation Mobile Network (5G) technology is experiencing rapid adoption as part of the effort to meet demand, and along with it researchers are continuously seeking new metrics and models for use in predicting the limits of current and future network infrastructure. To succeed, it is key that they have access to methods for simple, effective analysis of the wireless propagation channel in any given location. The typical laboratory test environment lacks the unpredictability and uniqueness of real-world conditions. Additionally, it utilizes equipment whose specifications are often far removed from devices that are actually intended to operate on the mobile network, such as smartphones themselves. This work focuses on the nature of contemporary path loss models and their ability to accurately predict signal levels, seeking to validate their use against observed path loss behavior in outdoor line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios, where the number of active devices can vary significantly over short periods of time. These conditions are typical of public spaces such as parks and city streets where a large number of users may all simultaneously be accessing high-throughput services. To test their validity, statistics are provided for sets of data collected on foot in public spaces using a novel software utility developed expressly for this purpose. The models we use for comparing against our measured results include both experiential models that are built on other data sets, along with stastically-based, large-scale path loss models. These are compared as a function of distance from the base station (BS), and any unique characteristics of the local network are considered. Finally, a combination of environmental imagery, coverage maps with signal strength overlays, and the aforementioned model comparison are used to estimate the signal source and predict performance in nearby areas.

I detta projekt studerade vi digitala påminnelser för ungdomar. En serie fältstudier utfördes vilka visade att digitala påminnelser var väldigt användbara för denna demografiska grupp. Vidare, en digital påminnelse-prototyp, RemindMe, föreslogs och implementerades, och dess användbarhet fastställdes i avslutande användartest. / n this project digital reminders for youths were studied. A series of field studies were conducted where digital reminders were shown to be highly useful for this demographic. Also, a digital reminder prototype, RemindMe, was proposed and implemented, and its usefulness shown through concluding field tests.

Smart mobile devices are becoming increasingly essential daily companions. Applications (apps) are the interface through which the consumer can leverage unique capabilities of smart mobile devices to interact with people, other devices and firms via the supporting mobile ecosystem. Smart mobile devices and apps are influencing how competition is defined and changing how firms do business by improving internal processes and increasing flexibility and convenience for customers. Mobile apps and devices enable users to move from a portable and mobile communication and computing environment to that of a ubiquitous communication and computing environment [u-space]. Discussion in terms of ‘mobile marketing’ is therefore too limiting, our understanding should be ‘ubiquitous marketing’. Six papers explore ubiquitous marketing further. The retail sector provides a contextual setting for paper one and finds that mobile marketing increases value for retailers and consumers. Integration of all retailer / consumer interfaces with mobile marketing to maximise exposure and connectivity between both parties is recommended. Paper two investigates the sources for mobile app ideas in companies and finds that apps developed externally or within the firm with some outside help, were perceived to be more effective. Apps that leverage the mobile devices unique features is central to the methodology proposed for developing an app in paper three. The next three papers examine the impact that mobile apps and devices have on business activities and customer relationships. Paper four finds increased operational efficiency in a Dental  Practice, while paper five identified the opportunity for increased firm-customer interaction in a medical context. Paper six determines that rather than five dimensions of SERVQUAL, financial service quality of apps consists of three dimensions: Reliability, personal and visibles; and that service success can be derived from providing less service. This thesis contributes to a fuller understanding of U-commerce theory. It advances understanding in how apps are making significant changes in how information technology is managed and controlled from an organisational perspective, and how these technology advances can influence consumer interaction. / <p>QC 20160516</p>

Mobile computing devices are increasingly being utilized to support learning activities outside the traditional classroom environment. The text input capabilities of these devices represent a limiting factor for effective support of user-based interaction. The ability to perform continuous character selection and input to complete course exercises is becoming increasingly difficult as these devices become miniaturized to a point where traditional input and output methods are becoming less efficient for continuous text input. This study investigated the design and performance of a prototype mobile text entry keyboard (MobileType) based on characteristics of the linguistic frequency of character occurrence and increasing key size to minimize visual search time and distance during character selection. The study was designed to compare efficiency, effectiveness, and learning effects of the MobileType to the QWERTY keyboard layouts while performing fixed phrase and course exercise text entry tasks in two separate evaluation sessions. A custom software application was developed for a tablet device to display the two keyboard interfaces and capture text entry interaction and timing information. The results of this study indicated the QWERTY text entry interface performed faster in terms of efficiency, while the MobileType interface performed better in terms of effectiveness. In addition, there was an observable increase in the efficiency of the MobileType interface between the two task sessions. The results indicated that the MobileType interface was readily learnable relating to learning effect. Future research is recommended to establish if the performance of the MobileType interface could be increased with further participant familiarization after completing multiple sessions, which would validate the design of MobileType as a possible alternative to the QWERTY text entry interface for mobile devices.

Το αντικείμενο της παρούσας διπλωματικής είναι η μελέτη της διαδικασίας ανάπτυξης εφαρμογών για το λειτουργικό σύστημα Android. Το λειτουργικό σύστημα Android αποτελεί μια τεχνολογία η οποία μέρα με την μέρα κερδίζει μεγαλύτερο μερίδιο στην αγορά των έξυπνων τηλεφώνων. Σήμερα, κατέχει την πρώτη θέση με τετρακόσια εκατομμύρια ενεργές συσκευές. Το γεγονός αυτό καθιστά την αγορά των εφαρμογών Android μία πολλά υποσχόμενη περιοχή για ανάπτυξη επιχειρηματικής δραστηριότητας. Η μελέτη ξεκινά με μία γενική επισκόπηση του κόσμου του Android καθώς και των εργαλεί- ων που είναι απαραίτητα για την ανάπτυξη εφαρμογών σε αυτόν. Στην συνέχεια γίνεται μία σύντο- μη ανάλυση της δομής του λειτουργικού συστήματος και τον τμημάτων που το αποτελούν καθώς και μία παρουσίαση των βασικών αρχών σχεδίασης διεπαφών χρήστη. Τέλος παρουσιάζονται μερι- κές βασικές προγραμματιστικές δομές που είναι απαραίτητες για την συγγραφή εφαρμογών και παρουσιάζεται η διαδικασία υποβολής μίας εφαρμογής στην Google προς πώληση. Για την καλύτερη εξοικείωση του αναγνώστη γίνεται παρουσίαση τεσσάρων απλών εφαρμο- γών που χρησιμοποιούν τις προγραμματιστικές δομές που αναλύονται στο κείμενο. Καλωσορίσα- τε στον κόσμο του ANDROID! / -

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Louise Benjamin / This study examined how health apps influence college students’ health behavior, because about 50 percent of college students do not comply with physical activity recommendations. Because mobile applications (apps) are popular among college students, they hold promise for promoting behavior change in physical activity. This research was conducted through an online questionnaire distributed to a randomized sample of 18-35 year-old Mid-Western university students. Questionnaire data were analyzed from 237 surveys using Pearson’s Product Moment correlation (r) and Pearson’s chi-square test (χ2). This study showed that college students generally perceived health apps to be useful with slightly over half of the participants using health apps (52.3 percent). Bivariate analysis indicated positive attitudes towards health apps and positive attitudes towards physical activity (p < .001). The amount of experience using health apps yielded a positive relationship with attitudes towards physical activity (p = .008). In addition, having strong beliefs towards physical activity indicated a positive correlation with engaging in physical activity (p < .001). This study provides valuable information regarding attitudes towards health apps and the intention to use health apps for physical activity. While health apps do not trigger an intention to do physical activity, having “belief strength” and positive attitudes towards physical activity increases the likelihood for engaging in physical activity. Health communication intervention strategies and health practitioners can use this information to educate individuals about the advantages for their health that can be associated with using health apps.

Accurate estimation of Origin and Destination (O-D) of passengers has been an essential objective for public transit agencies because knowledge of passengers’ flow enables them to forecast ridership, and plan for bus schedules, and bus routes. However, obtaining O-D information using traditional ways, such as conducting surveys, cannot fulfill today’s requirements of intelligent transportation and route planning in smart cities. Estimating bus passengers’ O-D using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals detected from their mobile devices is the primary objective of this project. For this purpose, we collected anonymized passengers’ data using SMATS TrafficBoxTM sensor provided by “SMATS Traffic Solutions” company. We then performed pre-processing steps including data cleaning, feature extraction, and data normalization, then, built various models using data mining techniques. The main challenge in this project was to distinguish between passengers’ and non-passengers’ signals since the sensor captures all signals in its surrounding environment including substantial noise from devices outside of the bus. To address this challenge, we applied Hierarchical and K-Means clustering algorithms to separate passengers from non-passengers’ signals automatically. By assigning GPS data to passengers’ signals, we could find commuters’ O-D. Moreover, we developed a second method based on an online analysis of sequential data, where specific thresholds were set to recognize passengers’ signals in real time. This method could create the O-D matrix online. Finally, in the validation phase, we compared the ground truth data with both estimated O-D matrices in both approaches and calculated their accuracy. Based on the final results, our proposed approaches can detect more than 20% of passengers (compared to 5% detection rate of traditional survey-based methods), and estimate the origin and destination of passengers with an accuracy of about 93%. With such promising results, these approaches are suitable alternatives for traditional and time-consuming ways of obtaining O-D data. This enables public transit companies to enhance their service offering by efficiently planning and scheduling the bus routes, improving ride comfort, and lowering operating costs of urban transportation.

Avec le développement des réseaux informatiques, principalement d'Internet, il devient de plus en plus facile de développer des applications dont l'exécution est répartie entre un ordinateur local, le client, et un ordinateur à distance (à une autre extrémité du canal de transmission), le serveur. Les progrès techniques de ces dernières années au niveau matériel ont rendu possible l'affichage en 3D (jeux, navigation cartographique, mondes virtuels) sur les mobiles. Cependant, l'exécution de ces applications complexes sur le terminal client est impossible, à moins de réduire la qualité des images affichées ou les besoins en calcul de l'application. Différentes solutions ont déjà été proposées dans la littérature mais aucune d'entre elles ne satisfait l'ensemble des besoins. L'objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une solution alternative, c'est à dire une nouvelle architecture client-serveur dans laquelle l'interconnexion des dispositifs mobiles est complètement exploitée. Les principales conditions de mise en œuvre seront traitées: - Minimiser le trafic réseau - Réduire les besoins en puissance de calcul du terminal, et - Préserver l'expérience utilisateur par rapport à une exécution locale. Tout d'abord, un cadre formel est développé afin de définir et modéliser des applications graphiques 3D distribuées. Ensuite, une nouvelle architecture, permettant de dépasser certains inconvénients que l'on trouve dans des architectures de l'état de l'art, est présentée. La conception de la nouvelle architecture client-serveur est validée par l'implémentation d'un jeu et la mise œuvre de simulations. / With the development of the computer networks, mainly the Internet, it became easier to develop applications where the execution is shared between a local computer, the Client, and one located on the other side of the network communication channel, the Server. The hardware advancements in the recent years made it possible to display 3D graphics (games, map navigation, virtual worlds) on mobile devices. However, executing these complex applications on the client terminal is not possible without reducing the quality of the displayed graphics or lowering its processing requirements. Different solutions have already been proposed in academic publications; however none of them satisfies all requirements. The objective of this thesis is to propose an alternative solution for a new client-server architecture where the connectedness of the mobile devices is fully exploited. Several main requirements are addressed: - Minimize the network traffic, - Reduce the required computational power on the terminal, and - Preserve the user experience compared with local execution. First a formal framework is designed that can effectively define and model distributed applications for 3D graphics. Then a model of new architecture is presented, that overcomes the disadvantages of the architectures presented in the state of the art. The core of the architecture is the MPEG-4 standard, which is used to transfer the data between the server and the client in a compressed manner. The last part of explores the design of architectures optimized for running on mobile devices. The design of the new client-server architecture is validated by implementing a game and running simulations.

Low motivation levels experienced by students with exceptionalities in the area of mathematics are often cited as a major factor negatively affecting their potential for success (Baird & Scott, 2009; Reichrath, de Witte, & Winkens, 2010). In the wake of many ongoing experiments using new mobile technology and tablet devices in schools, this study examines the use of iPads from Apple in a secondary mathematics classroom and its potential effect on the motivation of students with exceptionalities. In addition, the study also takes an exploratory approach to documenting the factors impacting the planning, implementation and student use of mobile devices in the classroom. A total of 16 students, 1 teacher and 1 educational assistant participated in this study. A mixed methodology approach was taken which included collecting evidence from surveys and scales as well as from descriptive journals, interviews and observational field notes. In order to assess the students’ level of motivation, the four attributes from Keller’s 2006 ARCS Model were used as the basic analysis framework. These were: attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction (Keller, ARCS Model, 2006). Preliminary analysis of the attributes indicates relative consistency over the course of the study, with some minor oddities explained further in the conclusions. An extensive list of exploratory findings regarding planning, implementation and student use of mobile devices in the mathematics classroom with students with exceptionalities indicated both positive and negative aspects regarding the integration of the devices. Some positive aspects include the ability to meet the needs of different levels, and types, of learners with a number of applications, as well as a noticed increase in the collaboration and healthy competition among students. Contrary to this, some negative aspects include the lack of availability of topic-specific applications and the level of frustration experienced by some student in the initial stages of learning a new application. / UOIT

Mobile devices are increasingly being used to access Web content but lack the resources for proper presentation to the user. To address this problem, content is typically customized to be more suitable for a mobile environment. Automatic customization of web content is a challenging problem because fine-grain adaptation often depends on both the relevance of individual objects on a web page, as well as the context of access (e.g., screen size of device being used, network connectivity, location, etc.). We present Usage-aware Interactive Content Adaptation, an adaptation technique that allows a user who is unsatisfied with the system’s adaptation decision to take control of the adaptation process and make changes until the content is suitably adapted for her purposes. The adaptation system learns from the user’s modifications and adjusts its prediction for future accesses by other users. With this approach, users are empowered to correct bad adaptation decisions made by the system without being overly burdened. We applied the technique in two domains: adapting the quality of images to reduce download times and save energy and bandwidth, and customizing the layout of images to improve the utilization of screen real-estate. The work was evaluated through a series of user studies, and the results show that user feedback can be effectively used to provide appropriate customizations (i) for objects with varying relevance, (ii) when context affects the users adaptation requirements, and (iii) when the same content can be used for multiple purposes by different users.