Facilitating the development of location-based experiences
Location-based experiences depend on the availability and reliability of wireless infrastructures such as GPS, Wi-Fi, or mobile phone networks; but these technologies are not universally available everywhere and anytime. Studies of deployed experiences have shown that the characteristics of wireless...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
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2009
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14215/ |
| _version_ | 1848791906187739136 |
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| author | Oppermann, Leif |
| author_facet | Oppermann, Leif |
| author_sort | Oppermann, Leif |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Location-based experiences depend on the availability and reliability of wireless infrastructures such as GPS, Wi-Fi, or mobile phone networks; but these technologies are not universally available everywhere and anytime. Studies of deployed experiences have shown that the characteristics of wireless infrastructures, especially their limited coverage and accuracy, have a major impact on the performance of an experience.
It is in the designers’ interest to be aware of technological restrictions to their work. Current state of the art authoring tools for location-based experiences implement one common overarching model: the idea of taking a map of the physical area in which the experience is to take place and then somehow placing virtual trigger zones on top of it. This model leaves no space for technological shortcomings and assumes a perfect registration between the real and the virtual. In order to increase the designers’ awareness of the technology, this thesis suggests revealing the wireless infrastructures at authoring time through appropriate tools and workflows. This is thought to aid the designers in better understanding the characteristics of the underlying technology and thereby enable them to deal with potential problems before their work is deployed to the public.
This approach was studied in practice by working with two groups of professional artists who built two commercially commissioned location-based experiences, and evaluated using qualitative research methods. The first experience is a pervasive game for mobile phones called ‘Love City’ that relies on cellular positioning. The second experience is a pervasive game for cyclists called ‘Rider Spoke’ that relies on Wi-Fi positioning. The evaluation of these two experiences revealed the importance of an integrated suite of tools that spans indoors and outdoors, and which supports the designers in better understanding the location mechanism that they decided to work with. It was found that designers can successfully create their experiences to deal with patchy, coarse grained, and varying wireless networks as long as they are made aware of the characteristics. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:35:57Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-14215 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:35:57Z |
| publishDate | 2009 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-142152025-02-28T11:29:28Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14215/ Facilitating the development of location-based experiences Oppermann, Leif Location-based experiences depend on the availability and reliability of wireless infrastructures such as GPS, Wi-Fi, or mobile phone networks; but these technologies are not universally available everywhere and anytime. Studies of deployed experiences have shown that the characteristics of wireless infrastructures, especially their limited coverage and accuracy, have a major impact on the performance of an experience. It is in the designers’ interest to be aware of technological restrictions to their work. Current state of the art authoring tools for location-based experiences implement one common overarching model: the idea of taking a map of the physical area in which the experience is to take place and then somehow placing virtual trigger zones on top of it. This model leaves no space for technological shortcomings and assumes a perfect registration between the real and the virtual. In order to increase the designers’ awareness of the technology, this thesis suggests revealing the wireless infrastructures at authoring time through appropriate tools and workflows. This is thought to aid the designers in better understanding the characteristics of the underlying technology and thereby enable them to deal with potential problems before their work is deployed to the public. This approach was studied in practice by working with two groups of professional artists who built two commercially commissioned location-based experiences, and evaluated using qualitative research methods. The first experience is a pervasive game for mobile phones called ‘Love City’ that relies on cellular positioning. The second experience is a pervasive game for cyclists called ‘Rider Spoke’ that relies on Wi-Fi positioning. The evaluation of these two experiences revealed the importance of an integrated suite of tools that spans indoors and outdoors, and which supports the designers in better understanding the location mechanism that they decided to work with. It was found that designers can successfully create their experiences to deal with patchy, coarse grained, and varying wireless networks as long as they are made aware of the characteristics. 2009-12-10 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14215/2/PhDThesis-LeifOppermann.pdf Oppermann, Leif (2009) Facilitating the development of location-based experiences. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Location-Based Experiences Authoring Tools Wireless Infrastructure Ubiquitous Computing Pervasive Computing Wireless Networks Visualising Material Layers Characteristics Abstract Location-Model Wi-Fi GSM GPS Smartphone Indoor Outdoor Mobile Human-Computer Interaction HCI Designers Performance-led Research in the Wild Active Ingredient Love City Blast Theory Rider Spoke Equator Inscape IPerG |
| spellingShingle | Location-Based Experiences Authoring Tools Wireless Infrastructure Ubiquitous Computing Pervasive Computing Wireless Networks Visualising Material Layers Characteristics Abstract Location-Model Wi-Fi GSM GPS Smartphone Indoor Outdoor Mobile Human-Computer Interaction HCI Designers Performance-led Research in the Wild Active Ingredient Love City Blast Theory Rider Spoke Equator Inscape IPerG Oppermann, Leif Facilitating the development of location-based experiences |
| title | Facilitating the development of location-based experiences |
| title_full | Facilitating the development of location-based experiences |
| title_fullStr | Facilitating the development of location-based experiences |
| title_full_unstemmed | Facilitating the development of location-based experiences |
| title_short | Facilitating the development of location-based experiences |
| title_sort | facilitating the development of location-based experiences |
| topic | Location-Based Experiences Authoring Tools Wireless Infrastructure Ubiquitous Computing Pervasive Computing Wireless Networks Visualising Material Layers Characteristics Abstract Location-Model Wi-Fi GSM GPS Smartphone Indoor Outdoor Mobile Human-Computer Interaction HCI Designers Performance-led Research in the Wild Active Ingredient Love City Blast Theory Rider Spoke Equator Inscape IPerG |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14215/ |