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This article describes experiences with an application in which users read barcoded signs with camera phones to obtain content about their surroundings at seaside locations. The application was made available to the general public in support of 'Coast', a BBC television series about the UK coastline. The article highlights lessons from that trial in terms of what worked well and what was subject to deployment constraints. In particular, it describes how several factors affected the users' engagement with the signs, the places, and other users: the barcode and mobile phone technologies; semantic issues such as signs' relationships to landmarks; and practical issues such as local regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The augmentation of visitor experiences with location-based technologies has been available for some time. Through in-depth studies of users during these experiences the field is building a rich picture of user behaviour in relation to certain location-based technologies. However, little work has explored the use of mobile camera phones and 2D barcodes on situated signs and their properties as a way of delivering such augmented visitor experiences. In this paper we present a study of people engaged in such a location-based experience at London zoo in which they use mobile camera phones to read 2D barcodes on signs at the animal enclosures in order to access related content. Through the fieldwork we highlight the social and collaborative aspects of the experience and how particular characteristics of the mobile phone and barcode technology shape these behaviours. The paper also highlights some of the non-instrumental aspects of the location-based experience, in particular in relation to the importance of collecting location-based content. We explore the social aspects of collecting as well as certain competitive elements it introduces into people’s behaviour. This creates an interesting tension in that aspects of the application encourage cooperation and sharing among the visitors whereas others encourage competition. In the course of presenting the fieldwork, we explore this tension further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study on usage patterns and implications for future products and services related to camera phones as of April 2005. The worldwide boom in mobile phone penetration has forever changed the global technology landscape, and mobile phone operators are looking to further capitalize on this huge market. They have high hopes that, following text messaging's success, picture messaging using camera phones will establish photos as a new genre in mobile communication. Indeed, some grounds, for optimism exist. Statistics in Japan as of 2005 report that camera phone sales exceed 50 percent of the mobile phone market. Furthermore, major operators such as J-Phone have reported that over 70 percent of mobile phone customers also subscribe to multimedia messaging service. However, although sales figures are good for the units themselves, it's not clear to what extent people are using camera phones to send picture messages. Recent media reports have described early results as disappointing. Many possible explanations include obstacles such as cost, reliability, and interface complexity. Alternatively, a camera phone's value might not lie in sending images but in using the captured images for other activities. INSET: Previous Research into Camera Phone Use.

Focuses on the implementation of a ubiquitous computing system in the Exploratorium, an interactive science museum in San Francisco, California. Challenges posed by the physical environment of the museum; Basic functionalities in the deployment of nomadic computing technologies; Deployment and testing of a prototype electronic guidebook.

Identifies characteristics of ubiquitous computing systems. Nonexamples of ubiquitous computing; Physical integration; Discussion on the spontaneous interoperation of ubiquitous computing; Robustness and routine failures.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by J. T. Edward McDonnell and colleagues on the Memory Spot, a new batteryless tagging technology, another by Paul Giner and colleagues on a system for tailoring tagged objects' information to the differing interests of end users and another by Scott Carter and colleagues on the design space of labeled paper documents.

The article refers to the challenges of urban computing and introduces articles in this issue of "IEEE Pervasive Computing."

This article introduces a series of articles which discussed ways to realize the software infrastructure for building and evaluating system software. Ubiquitous computing raises major challenges for system software researchers, mainly because of the heterogeneity and volatility that characterizes it. The set of participating users, hardware, and software in ubiquitous computing environments is highly dynamic and unpredictable. Ubiquitous systems are embedded in everyday physical world. Robert Grimm describes work originating from his doctoral studies at the University of Washington to construct, and learn from the construction of, system support for pervasive applications. According to Xiaohang Wang, Daqing Zhang, Jin Song Dong, ChungYau Chin, and Sanka Ravipriya Hettiarachchi, designers of context-aware computing systems must deal with the representation of, and computational response to, the physical world. The articles draws on work from the Semantic Web community to help solve such problems. Using a situation-aware mobile phone, the authors describe how they adapt Semantic Web methods to represent and reason about context and how they can draw on sources of contextual information from Internet services.

Evaluates the InkLink handwriting system from Seiko. Key features; Advantages of the product; Cost.

Focuses on the developments in Wi-Fi system. Plans of the SBC for the system; Details on the launch of the 3G-based data service in Europe; Advantage of the merger of Wi-Fi and 3G.

Evaluates the product StrataFlash flash memory from Intel. Features of the product; Benefit of the product; Availability of the device.

Evaluates the 7600 cellular telephone from Nokia. Key features; Advantages of the product.