Paul Coulton's Forum Nokia Blog

Paul Coulton's Forum Nokia Blog http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/paul-coultons-forum-nokia-blog My principal interest in mobile is to push the boundaries of innovation to create uniquely mobile experiences. I hope my blogs excite and challenge developers to think 'outside the box'. coultonp 2009-11-23T15:12:18Z Point ‘n’ Seek: the return of the geo-wand http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/paul-coultons-forum-nokia-blog/2009/01/06/point-n-seek-the-return-of-the-geo-wand In light of the advancing sensor support on the latest phones I decided to revitalise some of my work in LBS with my student Zhang Lei particularly around the old idea of geo-wands. Whilst many LBS present scenarios for users searching for Points of Interest (POI) that are proximate to the current location whereas geo-wands the commonly observed practice of horizon scanning in which users seek out interesting landmarks within their field of vision of direction of travel (often by pointing at them). This phenomenon is particularly prevalent amongst tourists who often scan their surrounding for interesting buildings or objects which they may then look up on a tourist map to find additional information. Point ‘n’ Seek facilitates this process through a novel gesture based control mechanism using on-board accelerometers and compass (as per the Navigator) enabling users simply point at the object the wish to have information about (compass provides rotational direction whilst accelerometers are used to provide distance control). Additionally Point ‘n’ Seek provides other user centred search facilities through its ‘Torchlight’ functionality where the region around the users or the object the user is pointing at is scanned by a search beam whose width is selectable by the use or alternatively a search beam is presented in the direction of the object/location the user is interested in as illustrated in the figure below. <img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/20409/pointandseek.jpg" /> Thus far we have implemented the software with control from the joy-pad and as yet the compass is the sticking point for the rotational control (anyone from Nokia reading this who can help please feel free to contact me<img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/js/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" />). However, as the following video shows, the joypad solution still has obvious benefits in that it would work for non sensor enabled phones and we hope to get the full solution with more functionality going soon and i will blog again atthat time. <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/--wQg1blJr8" id="ltVideoYouTube"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/--wQg1blJr8" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /> </object>   Connectivity 2009-01-06T14:57:45Z coultonp WidSets the new multiplayer casual games platform http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/paul-coultons-forum-nokia-blog/2008/04/11/widsets-the-new-multiplayer-casual-games-platform I recently encouraged a couple of our MSc students (Klen Copic Pucihar and Leon Laxman) to enter the Forum Nokia sponsored WidSets competition on <a href="http://www.betavine.net/web/guest/projects/students">Betavine</a> . I suggested it would be interesting to have a go with the new 'channels' functionality (this is a very early release) which allows you to allow users to communicate with each other in real-time i.e. you can create multiplayer gaming, chat rooms, instant messaging etc. The result is this very interesting version of the classic 4 in a row game mechanic. As the following video shows you can check who’s on line and who wants to play and then make a challenge. BTW this is in real-time across the mobile network and without a 3G connection! <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/3jKWS5KRPwM" id="ltVideoYouTube"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3jKWS5KRPwM" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /> </object>     Although the game is quite straight forward, and it might be nice to add an in game  chat or taunt facility , it does illustrate the interesting possibilities for WidSets Widgets as a great casual games platform which would seem complimentary to the new n-gage platform. For me the nice thing about WidSets is I can mix games on my dashboard with news and other feeds and I would like to see such a ‘widgety ‘  dashboard as my main phone screen with suitable extensions to access phone features Connectivity 2008-04-11T15:23:35Z coultonp NFC Group Game: Tick! Tick! Boom! http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/paul-coultons-forum-nokia-blog/2008/04/09/nfc-pass-the-bomb-game Here is a very simple game concept my new PhD student Avi Nandwani has been playing with. The game is simple enough and based on the old parlour game pass the parcel. In this case we have replaced the parcel by a bomb which you have to defuse on your turn. You defuse the bomb by cutting one of three wires each of which has a different effect: either increasing the speed of the countdown timer, taking 10 seconds off the countdown time; or resetting the countdown timer speed to normal.  <img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/20409/ptb_game.jpg" />  The countdown is a random time and it’s the person holding the bomb when it reaches zero who gets blown up. To add some tension there is the ticking of the bomb on your phone during your turn. The game is very simple but surprisingly fun and serves to emphasise the beauty of the NFC interface. We are planning a few more party games to test so I will post those as they happen. <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/djT5z_57A5s" id="ltVideoYouTube"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/djT5z_57A5s" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /> </object> Connectivity 2008-04-09T17:54:42Z coultonp NFC is good for you http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/paul-coultons-forum-nokia-blog/2007/11/20/nfc-is-good-for-you As I have just had the paper Using NFC to Support and Encourage Green Exercise accepted for next year’s Pervasive Heath conference in Tampere Finland I thought I would give an insight into the project.It is well accepted that the increasingly sedentary lifestyle of the British population is helping fuel the dramatic rises in type 2 diabetes, chronic heart disease and obesity. It has been widely reported across the various News media that recent estimates suggest that over 40% of school age children are overweight or obese, and by 2010 more than half of children may be obese. In addition to this, depression and mental ill health is set to be one of the fastest growing conditions in UK with 1 in 6 of the population suffering from a neurotic disorder. Whilst the overall reasons for this are complex there are simple things we can all do to improve this situation.  For instance a report by the UK CMO concluded that: “The minimum amount of regular physical activity needed to improve peoples’ health and reduce disease risk is 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity on at least 5 days a week.”  An important element of encouraging activity is the need to provide feedback as it is known to aid both the level and continued engagement in activity. In this project we created a system, which combines elements from a number of technologies and services to support and encourage walking as part of daily activity. These are; Mobile phones; Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in the form of Near Field Communications (NFC); A redeemable points accumulation scheme.   The system developed and field tested around one of the Royal Parks in London works by implying the location of a user at a given time which is triggered when a user scans an NFC tag with their phone. The different locations with distance between each location are known and this is linked to known calorie data for healthy adults undertaking various physical activities such as walking, running and cycling. This information is made available through a website so that users can gauge their level of activity and thus get direct feedback on their activities. Further, extra incentive is provided by the users accumulating Health points which could be redeemed against purchases. At this stage it is too early to ascertain the real effects on users and therefore a long term study with an extended trial is planned for future to document experiences of users within the system and obtain feedback from the participants as to how the system fits into their daily routine. Connectivity Location Based Services Testing 2007-11-20T15:33:57Z coultonp Mobile phones as deployable sensors http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/paul-coultons-forum-nokia-blog/2006/12/11/mobile-phones-as-deployable-sensors I was asked by a colleague in Environmental Science about using a mobile phone to relay pictures back of one of there remote sites every half hour for hopefully about a month. Like most engineers I can’t resist a challenge so we have created an application that provides the functionality ( I roped my student Will in as he could utilse some of the camera work from LocoBlog), taking care to power down the camera between photos, which relays the information back to a <a href="http://www.mobilesensorcam.com">website</a>. We have also integrated a motorbike battery and solar panel to extend the life and we are currently testing the system. <o:p> </o:p> The picture below shows the basic hack set-up and the panel has been waterproofed and placed outside the window as we found the reflective window coating impeded its operation. <o:p> <img height="548" alt="Sensor Camera set-up" width="730" src="https://blogs.forum.nokia.com/file.html?id=313&file=sensor_cam.jpg" /></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p>  So far wehave added a nice feature were we can trigger it via sms but no doubt others may come to mind. Overall it will be interesting to see how effective we can make it work and given the relatively cheap nature and computational power of phones there are lots of possibilities for projects of this kind. It certainly links in with the NRC project and ideas surrounding sensor planet. I will give an update on how its works out in a later blog <o:p> </o:p> Business Opportunities/Services Connectivity General 2006-12-11T17:44:26Z coultonp Flat rate for VOIP and IM over 3G networks http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/paul-coultons-forum-nokia-blog/2006/10/10/flat-rate-for-voip-and-im-over-3g-networks Without naming names I was excited to see that one of the mobile operators in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> has extended its flat fee for data services over mobile to include both <a href="http://www.theregister.com/2006/09/29/tmobile_voip_tariff/">VOIP and IM</a>. As someone developing mobile applications one of the barriers I have most often encountered in promoting new data services is breaking through the cost issue envisaged by the standard user. I am therefore delighted to see this sort of initaitive and it will be very interesting to see if other operators also grab the nettle of what has been a controversial subject. Connectivity General 2006-10-10T17:45:18Z coultonp Is the power of touch rising in the East? http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/paul-coultons-forum-nokia-blog/2006/08/24/is-the-power-of-touch-rising-in-the-east I have been writing up a paper on the experiences of a number of users who have used the touch interface on RFID/NFC enabled mobile phones during three of my mixed reality games (thanks again to Nokia for the phones and SDK). As part of the background for the paper  I came across a news item from a couple of week ago saying that NTT DoCoMo in Japan has now shipped over 5 million RFID enabled mobile phones for use with the Train System. I see similar programs are afoot in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Korea</st1:country-region> and I am told by one of my ex PhD students that the possibilties for RFID enabled phones is gaining considerable interest in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region>.  In the West we seem to be moving at a much slower pace in terms of the technology infiltrating the consciousness of the general public. This seems a pity given that Nokia released the first commercially available device and IMO this technology has enormous potential not only for payments and delivery systems but in partially realising the vision of the so-called internet of things. Is the West in some way more worried about security? Is it down to our greater use of the car than public transport? Is it simply lack of widespread handsets? Or do we just fear change? Thoughts anyone? Business Opportunities/Services Connectivity Enterprise 2006-08-24T18:40:16Z coultonp