Smartphones to Access Hybrid Information Spaces

Smartphones to Access Hybrid Information Spaces

Spyros Veronikis (Ionian University, Greece), Kyriaki Zoutsou (Ionian University, Greece), Giannis Tsakonas (Ionian University, Greece) and Christos Papatheodorou (Ionian University, Greece)
Copyright: © 2011 |Pages: 10
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-250-3.ch014

Abstract

This chapter presents how mobile phones nowadays can be used as a handy and always around medium to interact with information collections of both physical and electronic form. It presents their evolution into powerful computing devices capable of communicating with other computing infrastructures, like the World Wide Web, and assisting them in finding the information of interest in the most convenient form, right when the need arises. It also provides a description of the current interaction modes between users, devices and information objects as well as some examples of first and second-generation mobile services. Furthermore, the authors hope that understanding the potential introduced by mobile phones in the modern information landscape can bring some insight to new information seeking strategies, that enhance exploration and not just querying. This understanding can be used to create new, innovative and novel services to enhance the seeking experience while interacting with hybrid information spaces.
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Background: Smartphones And Mobile Computing

Apple released the first personal digital assistant (PDA) in 1993 and it was a pocket-sized mobile device used for Personal Information Management (PIM). Typical applications included were calendar, address book, calculator, world-clock and note pad. At the same time, IBM released Simon, the first smartphone, which besides PIM functionalities could support mobile telephony and SMS texts over 2G digital cellular telephony networks. In 1995 infrared and wire-line serial communication with nearby devices was implemented as an alternative for data exchange and synchronization. In addition, smartphones could connect to proxies and join other computer networks to retrieve data such as e-mail. The need to transfer quickly and display bigger amounts of data led to faster communication protocols (Bluetooth, EDGE) and 3G telephony networks in early 2000. At that time, cameras and colourful screens were considered standard equipment. By 2005, many smartphones were enabled with open operating systems, rapid transfer protocols (WiFi, USB), touch screens, and solid-state memory cards. Besides telephony, they could support web browsing/email, instant messaging, document viewers and multimedia playback. Nowadays, smartphones are equipped with GPS receivers, multi-touch screens and advanced interaction modalities, such as handwriting recognition and proximity sensing. Smartphones have evolved into powerful communication and computing devices capable of collecting and processing data, anytime/anywhere, and seem to become a universal mobile terminal for communication, control, entertainment and location-based services.

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