IST CRUMPET, Creation of User Friendly Mobile Services Personalised for Tourism R. Report

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1 CRUMPET Creation of user-friendly mobile services personalised for tourism Project Number: Project Title: Deliverable Type: IST CRUMPET, Creation of User Friendly Mobile Services Personalised for Tourism R CEC Deliverable Number: Contractual Date of Delivery to CEC: 30/09/02 Actual Date of Delivery to CEC: 11/11/02 Title of Deliverable: WP Contributing to Deliverable: Nature of Deliverable: Dissemination Level Authors IST /PTIN/WP4/D43 Trial Report Heidelberg Report PP Barbara Schmidt-Belz (FhG/FIT), Hidir Aras (EML), Alexander Zipf (EML) Abstract: This Deliverable is a condensed report of the activities and findings of the CRUMPET trial in Heidelberg. It specifies the technical and organisational conditions of the trial, it reports on the activities undertaken and the methods applied, it finally gives an overview of the findings in Heidelberg. A comprehensive summary of all CRUMPET trials is given in Deliverable 4.4, which includes description and analysis of the user validation results in full detail. Keyword List: Mobile Tourism Support, CRUMPET trials, user validation Copyright by Partners of CRUMPET

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This deliverable is a condensed report of the activities and findings of the CRUMPET trial in Heidelberg. It specifies the technical and organizational conditions of the trial; it reports on the activities undertaken and the methods applied, it finally gives an overview of the findings in Heidelberg. The trial in Heidelberg mainly concentrated on location-based services, such as service recommendation, rendering context-sensitive maps, and giving directions. The main scenarios of use in the Heidelberg trail were chosen accordingly. CRUMPET had access to Heidelberg-specific content, mainly tourist attractions and services based on a Geographic Information System (GIS). Another special focus in Heidelberg was to trial two system variants, differing in the client implementation: one was based on the microfipa-os and a Client Agent residing on the PDA, the other one used Windows CE and the standard browser on the PDA. The trial procedure was as follows: 1) Trial people were selected in an ad-hoc manner from a large group of people, who were known to travel a lot. 2) Each participant filled in the first part of the questionnaire, then s/he was introduced to the CRUMPET system. 3) The trial scenario was explained to her/him. 4) S/he was asked to perform a couple of typical tourism activities using the system. 5) Finally, s/he filled in the last part of the questionnaire. Between 6 Sept and 1 Oct 2002, two trial phases took place. 25 users tested the system and answered the questionnaires. Another 38 users have tried the system after this main trial phase. The user validation results are reported in detail in Deliverable 4.4. The Heidelberg trial showed that the CRUMPET system both is technically feasible and offers appealing services to tourists. The trial proved that software agent technology could be implemented successfully to establish a distributed system that provides its users with adaptable services that exploit the spatial context as well as general tourist information. In general, the trial users were satisfied with the CRUMPET services, but a few issues concerning user interface and response times could be identified, which require future improvements. Page 2

3 Table of contents 1 Introduction Technical and organisational conditions Software Hardware Network Set-up Content and Services Activities and Methods Methods Results Technical Validation User Validation Conclusions and FuturE Work Conclusions Future Work Page 3

4 1 INTRODUCTION The trial in Heidelberg was the main trial concerning user validation of the CRUMPET projects. This was for several reasons: In Heidelberg, the project had access to the most-comprehensive content base, well structured and extensive. The project prioritised this trial site so that this was the first to be available and had the longest period of time for trialling. The geographic position and the complementary competences of the two partners EML and FIT allowed a combined effort to perform this trial. This first trial was also a test bed for the agent architecture and other technical solutions in CRUMPET, and allowed some improvements of the system in the late phase of the project. The CRUMPET system was available in Heidelberg in two versions, which differed mainly in the client device installation. Version A was based on the agent architecture as specified in Deliverable 1.8, in particular the client agent residing on the client device, on the microfipa-os platform on Linux, using the browser Dillo ( Version B realized an alternative option on Windows CE, using the Internet Explorer for Pocket PC on the client device, and the client agent residing on a FIPA-OS platform on the fixed network. The wireless access in Heidelberg was achieved by a WLAN installation at two areas of tourist interest in the old town of Heidelberg. The system has been available in Heidelberg for trials from the first week of September to 1 st of October This allowed for several days of user trial, during which a total of 24 1 test users has tried and validated the system. All test users filled in the CRUMPET questionnaire, some filled in the additional SUMI questionnaire. All users were observed and the data from this observation was analysed to add more insight and qualitative data to the statistical analysis. Figure 1: User trial in Heidelberg. Figure 2: Observing user experiences. 1 Meanwhile, after the trial phase, another 38 users have trailed CRUMPET in Heidelberg. Page 4

5 The remainder of this report is structured as follows: Section 2 documents the technical conditions of the Heidelberg trial. Section 3 gives more details of the trial activities and methods applied. Section 4 reports the findings from this trial, for both the technical validation and the user validation. Finally, section 5 draws conclusions and suggests future work in this area. 2 TECHNICAL AND ORGANISATIONAL CONDITIONS 2.1 Software The software architecture of the Heidelberg trial consisted of three parts: 1) The software on the client device, including the GPS positioning software. 2) The agent software on the access node, which realizes the creation of map and tours, and service recommendation (sights) in Heidelberg, besides other agent software and the agent platform. 3) An OpenGIS-compliant CORBA GIS server developed by EML. On the client device, the microfipa-os agent platform running on Familiar Linux version was used, and it hosted three agents, i.e. the CRUMPET Client Agent (CCA) running also a GPS Task, the Monitor Agent (MA), and the Control Agent (CA). The browser being used was the Dillo browser. On the access node, the FIPA-OS agent platform was running on Suse Linux. On top of it the CRUMPET service agents were implemented, i.e. the Dialogue Control Agent (DCA), the User Modelling Agent (UMA), the Geo-Spatial/Spatial Context Agent (GSA/SCA), the Sights Service Agent (SA), the Map Agent (MAPA), the Tour Agent (TA), and the Content Adaptation Service Agent (CASA). The UMA and SA used the Heidelberg domain model and database, which included information provided by the City of Heidelberg and data created/assembled by EML. The GPS device was connected to the mobile device. The positioning software using the GPS localization data was integrated into a task (GPS Task) of the crumpet client agent (CCA). Figure 3: The CRUMPET Version B configuration for Pocket PC. Figure 4: The client device running the agent-based CRUMPET (Version A) during the Heidelberg trial. In addition to this version (referred to as version A) an alternative installation of the system (referred to as Version B) has been implemented in Heidelberg. The CRUMPET system has been tested also using an alternative installation and configuration without having agent platform and agents in the CRUMPET mobile device. Page 5

6 Table 1: Software configuration Version A Version B Server side: Linux, FIPA-OS, DCA,UMA, GIS and service agents, CASA, MA and CA Client side: Linux, microfipa-os, MA, CA, CCA including GPS task Server side: Linux or Windows, DCA, UMA, GIS and service agents, CASA, CCA incl. client-/server version of the GPS task Client side: Windows CE, Java GPS-client (using GEODE Java VM), Pocket Internet Explorer In Version B, the entire CRUMPET system including the CCA and the GPS positioning agent was installed on the server side. The positioning information was sent to the server using a java GPS client. This was realized as a client-/server version of the GPS task, used by the Crumpet Client Agent (CCA). The interaction with the user-interface was done by a http proxy configuration on the client device running Windows CE and Pocket Internet Explorer as a browser. The following table lists the characteristics of both versions. Table 2: CRUMPET Versions A and B compared. Supported services QoS monitoring Proactivity Context awareness User adaptation Memory and processor capacity Network traffic Wireless protocol Web browser Version A Sights, GIS, Map, Tour yes yes yes yes high high Proprietary (bitefficient code ) Dillo Version B Sights, GIS, Map, Tour no no Yes (restricted) no low low HTTP, TCP for GPS Internet Explorer for Windows CE 2.2 Hardware The client device was Compaq ipaq H3630 running Linux Familiar operating system. The memory configuration was: 32MB of ROM and 32MB of RAM. The WLAN controller was Lucent Technologies WaveLAN IEEE b PC card. The GPS used was Etrex from Garmin. 2.3 Network Set-up The network configuration consisted of two WLAN hotspots built using Lucent and D-Link Technologies. The configuration used the network of the University of Heidelberg to run a virtual private network, allowing the user to access the access node and the services running at the European Media Lab. The WLAN covered two squares in Heidelberg, i.e. the Karlsplatz and Universitäts-Platz. 2.4 Content and Services The content provided to the test user consisted of a Heidelberg sites database. The content included text and images. The map information was generated by the Map service using geographic raw data provided by the City of Heidelberg. In order to provide tours the tour service had to access geographical information and a topology of the Heidelberg streets network 2. 2 The streets topology has been computed by EML members during the project period. Page 6

7 3. ACTIVITIES AND METHODS 3.1 Methods The methodology applied for the CRUMPET user trials has been carried out as devised in Deliverable 4.1 the trial plan. It was not necessary to have any major revisions. The user validation has been achieved by a field experiment carried out in Heidelberg by EML and Fraunhofer FIT. Users tested the CRUMPET system in the old town of Heidelberg carrying out a range of typical tourist tasks. Figure 4: The CRUMPET welcome page. Figure 5: The available CRUMPET services at the Heidelberg trial. Figure 6: The Overview Map service showing the current user position. The evaluation was carried out as follows: The user was provided with the CRUMPET device and given an introduction. Once s/he was familiar with the device, notably with the pen entry and with the CRUMPET user interface, s/he proceeded to go through the test scenario. The test scenario consisted of some typical goals a tourist might have in this environment, and that are supported by the CRUMPET services. Examples are "You are unfamiliar with this area; find out where exactly you are." or "You see some interesting buildings on this square. Find information about them.". While using the system, the user was observed in order to get more detailed insight in his/her experiences. Before testing the system, the user answered the first part of the CRUMPET questionnaire. After testing the system, the user filled in the second part of the questionnaire. Some Users also filled in the additional SUMI questionnaire. The following text and figures shall illustrate a test of the CRUMPET system. The first test task after logging into the system, i.e. to find his/her current location in Heidelberg, could be achieved by requesting an overview map (using the Overview Map service) that highlighted the current user position. In order to better identify his/her surroundings, the user could zoom in/out and pan the map by using icons for Map Interaction located on top of the map GUI. Page 7

8 Figure 7: Map after Zoom In. Figure 8: The Recommend Sights page. Then the user had to ask the CRUMPET system for available sights (Recommend Sights) nearby that might be of personal interest for her. In order to do this, the user had to choose a distance that determined a search region around his current position. After the request had been sent, the system selected corresponding sights from the GIS database, and a list with sights nearby was presented to the user. Figure 9: The list of sights returned from the CRUMPET system. Figure 10: The initial information page for the sight Castle. Figure 11: The detailed information about the "Castle. For each sight the name, the distance to the user, the address and a set of categories was displayed. The categories are a description of the objects, corresponding to the domain model used by the User Modelling agent. The user could select a sight (Get Info) by clicking on the title, in order to get an initial information page of the specific sight. From there s/he could ask for more detailed information using Get Details and Get Images. S/he also could ask for a map, which showed the site and the user position, or a tour indicating the shortest path between user position and the site on a map. Page 8

9 Figure 12: The available images of the Heidelberg Castle. Figure 13: The map showing the Castle and the user position. Besides reading the historical and other information about the sight, the user could request a map (Get Map) showing the exact location of the specific sight. If s/he decided to visit the sight s/he could request a tour, which was calculated by the Compute Tour service of CRUMPET. A Map with a tour from the current user position to the specified sight was displayed on a map. Figure 14: Map interaction Zoom Out. Figure 15: The map showing a tour from the user position to the Castle. The CRUMPET system also offered Proactive Tips. If the user had enabled the proactive tips mode, CRUMPET would give tips in a proactive manner, when s/he gets close to a sight or object s/he might be interested in. This means that when the user comes close to sights that might be of interest to her according to her user model a page with this sight (or a list of sights if there are several sights close together) is being generated and displayed on the CRUMPET device. In order to do this, CRUMPET needs to take the user interests (stored in his user profile) into account, as well as his/her position. Page 9

10 Figure 16: Enabling the Proactive Tips. Figure 17: The proactive tips list page generated by the CRUMPET system. While the user has enabled the proactive tips mode all other functions like Overview Map, Map Interaction, Recommend Sight, Get Details, Get Images, Compute Tour etc. are still available and work in the same way as usual. 4 RESULTS 4.1 Technical Validation In the Heidelberg trial, the technical validation concentrated on the personalized location-based services, i.e. the services making use of GPS positioning data and relating the user position to the GISbased services, the map rendering and the tour planning. Besides this, the Heidelberg trial included the adaptation to wireless communication conditions, the proactive mode of the system, and the user modelling. The technical validation comprised two phases: In the first phase intensive testing of every component and interoperability between components was carried out. The CRUMPET developers performed this first phase. In the second phase, the technical validation was continued during the user trial of the CRUMPET system. Technical validation in both the phases proved the overall CRUMPET concept and system to be workable. Each component and interaction between components worked with minor exceptions according to their functional specifications. The trial proved that software agent technology could be implemented successfully to establish a distributed system that provides its users with adaptive services. The technical validation proved that the CRUMPET system is mature enough to be further developed and implemented as a commercial product. By the technical validation several issues could be identified that need improvement, such as the accuracy of the positioning information. 4.2 User Validation The user validation has been performed according to the plan devised in 4.1. Overall, the user assessment of CRUMPET was very positive and corroborated the approach chosen. The results are documented in full detail in the deliverable D4.4. Page 10

11 5 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK 5.1 Conclusions The Heidelberg trial showed that the CRUMPET system both is technically feasible and offers appealing services to tourists. The trial proved that software agent technology could be implemented successfully to establish a distributed system that provides its users with adaptive services that exploit the spatial context as well as general tourist information. In general, the users were satisfied with the CRUMPET services and its features. A few issues concerning user interface and response times could be identified, which require future improvements. 5.2 Future Work Plans for future work include further development of the map, tour and GIS services. Beside this, a layered model is planned that uses multiple positioning techniques in order to increase the accuracy of the positioning information, for example, when using the system in narrow alleys. Further interesting issues include a more enhanced proactiveness and user modelling. Page 11