Intelligent file transfer for smart handheld devices based on mobile cloud computing

Most methods of file transfer between mobile devices have to take considerable time to obtain and input target identifiers. To speed up file sharing of mobile devices, an intelligent file transfer framework is designed based on mobile cloud computing. Only single‐finger action is performed in the proposed framework, which just drags the file to the target face on the touchscreen of a mobile device. The dragged file can be transmitted to the target receiver who can either get the file immediately as her/his mobile device is online or receive the file later after connecting to the Internet. Our framework provides the following features: (i) users do not need to know the target identifier in advance; (ii) users do not need to input identity information by themselves; and (iii) users can select a specific target among multiple candidates from the camera of a mobile device. The intelligent file transfer framework reveals an efficient architecture and innovative user interfaces to transfer files between mobile devices, which can significantly reduce the complexity and difficulty of file sharing. An Android‐based prototype is implemented to verify the feasibility and superiority of our framework. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms existing schemes and can save large amounts of time in file sharing for mobile users. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

系统模块(SiP)和三维封装(3D)在移动通讯中的应用

电子封装业界正遭受着前所未有的来自手机和其他移动通讯终端设备挑战。在这一领域里,IC封装的关键是尺寸微型化,缩减成本和市场时机。这一挑战的背后隐含着手机技术发展的两大趋势:系统模块化和日益增长的复杂性及功能。越来越多的功能正在被组合到手机上即PDA、MP3、照相机、互联网等等。功能的增加需要靠模块化来实现,而模块化又促进了更多功能的组合。同时,模块化使得移动通讯终端设备得以微型化、降低成本和缩短设计周期。业界越来越多地感受到整体射频模块和通讯模块解决方案的必要性。这些整体模块把手机设计师从电路设计的细节中解脱出来,从而能专著于高层的手机应用和系统的设计。为了满足上诉移动通讯产品的苛刻要求,大量的新兴电子封装技术和封装产品应运而生。最引人注目的例子在于对系统模块穴SiP雪和三维穴3D雪封装的重点资金和技术投入。这两项先进封装技术有着各自不同的特征和应用范围。总体介绍先进封装技术在移动通讯中的应用,重点讨论电子封装材料和工艺所面临的挑战和最新发展趋势。对移动通讯带来的新一轮集成化及其所产生的潜在供应链问题也做了适当的讨论。     

Exploring the relationship between urbanized Malaysian youth and their mobile phones: A quantitative approach

Mobile phones have become a ubiquitous consumer item. This paper aims to explore mobile phone usage, extending work beyond teenage years to examine the role of mobile phones among urbanized Malaysian youth, specifically university students. Four main categories were identified, namely, mobile phone purchasing factors and reasons to use, mobile phone usage and also behavioral issues. A mixed-mode approach involving questionnaire surveys and 24-h diaries were used to gather the relevant data. A total of 417 respondents participated in this study. The salient results indicate respondents in this study consider brand, trend and price to be the three most important purchasing factors while socializing and privacy emerged as the two most important reasons to use mobile phones. Behavioral issues related to addiction and inappropriate use of mobile phones was also observed among the respondents. Gender analysis revealed females to use their mobile phones more to socialize, gossip and as a safety device. The findings of this study could prove to be beneficial to those exploring the mobile phone adoption and usage pattern in a developing country such as Malaysia.     

Cloud-assisted Computing for Event-driven Mobile Services

Today, software developers for desktop computing build request and respond applications to do what end users tell them to do and answer what they ask. In mobile computing, software developers will need to develop sense and response applications that will interact with the end user. These applications will notify or ask users what they want based on what they have sensed or on a personal profile. Mobile cloud computing has the potential to empower mobile users with capabilities not found in mobile devices, combining different and heterogeneous data sets. In this work, we discuss the importance and challenges in designing event-driven mobile services that will detect conditions of interest to users and notify them accordingly.     

3D Visualization on mobile devices

This paper discusses current status and recent advancements of 3D graphics on mobile platforms and describes open issues concerning its usage in different applications. We have treated two particular application fields. Firstly, we deal with problems of visualization of complex data structures on mobile devices. The implementation of a 3D visualization renderer on the Symbian platform for mobile devices is written as a C++ application and based on the DieselEngine^® as a rendering engine. 3D visualization of data is generated in the form of a Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) file meaning that actually any kind of 3D content written in VRML file format can be rendered on such a device. It was the result of a project the objective of which was to provide a user interface on a mobile platform displaying visualization of hierarchical Grid monitoring data. Secondly, we describe the system that brings face animation to embedded platforms. Face animation is considered to be one of the toughest tasks in computer animation today and its delivery to mobile platforms brings possibilities for development of new innovative and attractive services for the mobile market.     

Mobile phone ownership and usage among pre-adolescents

Research has revealed that the mobile phone is, for adolescents, a medium which permits communication without the surveillance of parents, families and teachers. Indeed, the current study found this to be the case with younger pupils, too. However, communicating with family members appeared just as important, if not more, for these primary aged children. This study focused on the ownership and usage of mobile phones in a sample (N=351) of 10- to 11-year-old children in Gloucestershire primary schools (N=7). Some 45% of the sample possessed mobile phones. Nearly half of their calls (47%) were used for chatting with family or friends; 26% were to let their parents know their whereabouts; and others (20%) were “convenience” calls, i.e. to ask to be picked up etc. Other uses of the mobile in addition to chatting and making arrangements, although not always positive, were also made apparent. Thus, some two fifths of the children reported that they had made an “emergency” call (examples were given), about 17% had received “frightening” calls. A sizeable minority (20%) reported that their mobile had been damaged or stolen. This research also considers the amount of money that the pupils claimed to spend on their mobile calls every month as well as their means of purchasing the mobile and its up-keep.     

基于微信订阅号的移动辅助教学实践研究

2013年12月4日工信部正式向我国三大运营商发布4G牌照,预示着移动互联网将会大发展、大调整。随着智能手机和其它移动设备的普及,将之用以学习成为未来学习的主流模式,但是与之配套的移动教学并未得到发展,目前高校对移动教学只停留在理论研究,未用于实际课堂教学。本文结合微信的订阅号功能,开展了师生互动平台的移动辅助教学实验,为移动辅助教学实践作参考。     

Biased choice of a mobile telephony tariff type:: Exploring usage boundary perceptions as a cognitive cause in choosing between a use-based or a flat rate plan

Most mobile network operators provide newly acquired or existing customers with the possibility to choose between a monthly flat rate for unlimited voice calls and pay-per-minute price schemes. Consumers who maximize their utility should select the tariff type that leads to the lowest invoice amount given their anticipated service usage volume. However, previous research looking at users of fixed network telephony, broadband Internet access and other services suggests that a significant share of consumers prefers a flat rate to use-dependent price plans even though their invoice will be higher. One cognitive explanation for such biased choices is that consumers consider the ratio of the likelihood of calling enough to justify a flat rate to the probability of not calling enough to save money with a fixed price (= “ratio rule”) when choosing between the two tariff types. In this assessment they overestimate the first likelihood in proportion to the second one. Drawing on a sample of 203 mobile telephony customers in Germany the present study shows that mobile users are biased in favor of a flat rate because they overestimate their future call usage and behave in line with the “ratio rule” when choosing a tariff type. Correlates of cognitively biased tariff choices are explored. With regard to pricing practices it is concluded that managers should not follow the temptation to exploit the overestimation bias in designing pricing and advertising policies pushing customers into fixed price schemes, which do not fit their actual calling patterns.     

Participatory technologies in smart cities: What citizens want and how to ask them

This article deals with the process of prioritization of requirements on one selected participatory technology, which is citizen reporting on issues of public infrastructure (CRIsPI). Reporting is the activity that expresses the interest of citizens about the place they live. Traditionally, older citizens are more active in this activity, but modern technologies have the potential to motivate also young people to become active participants in public issues. There are two objectives of the article: 1) determination of which CRIsPI features would motivate young citizens to higher participation, and 2) comparative analysis of six prioritization methods to select the most appropriate method for engagement of this group of citizens. In total, 155 respondents (students) participated in the study. Results revealed that respondents require easy-to-use tools and positive feedback from the local government. Moreover, they prefer mobile solutions. The most suitable prioritization method, according to five given criteria, is adjusted cumulative voting ($100).     

Response to potential information technology risk: Users’ valuation of electromagnetic field from mobile phones

As information technologies have become embedded in daily life, end-users encounter unexpected dangers from using IT. Electromagnetic field (EMF) risk from mobile phones is an example of those dangers. In this paper, we explore how much users value their tolerance of EMF risk by scrutinizing their preference structure of mobile phone devices. The preference structure was generated from conjoint analysis including three attributes of mobile phone devices: brand, price, and electromagnetic emission. In addition, we examined four groups which were clustered based upon their preference structure. Results show that the risk is differently perceived by user clusters and approximately 80% of respondents are likely to change their mobile phone brands for better protection from EMF risk.     

Mobile application market: A developer’s perspective

Major software companies, such as Apple and Google, are disturbing the relatively safe and established actors of the mobile application business. These newcomers have caused significant structural changes in the market by imposing and enforcing their own rules for the future of mobile application developments. The implications of these changes do not only concern the mobile network operators and mobile phone manufacturers but also bring additional opportunities and constraints for current mobile application developers. Therefore, developers need to assess what their options are and how they can take advantage of these current trends. In this paper, we take a developer’s perspective in order to explore how the identified trends will impact the mobile application development markets. Our preliminary analysis leads us to suggest eight propositions which summarize our findings and can be the starting points for future empirical research.     

Young mobile users: Radical and individual – Not

The use of mobile phones by youth has stirred a plethora of research in different fields. Literature has analyzed in length the changes and adoption patterns related to the evolving telecommunications industry. This body of knowledge often makes assumptions on the changes in consumer profiles and the value of different features. In this study we take an longitudinal approach by analysing the results of 1 928 responses to an online questionnaire conducted in Finland to students of a university in the Spring 2012 and on against the reanalysis of the responses of the Finnish students of upper secondary schools in the Spring 2001 and study on undergraduate students in 2006–2007. The results indicate that the youth and young adults of Finland, often argued to be an advanced country for mobile services, are surprisingly conservative towards new mobile devices and services. The changes in technology and service offering in a decade, has had a limited impact in attitudes and feature valuation, which sets significant implications to increasing adoption and usage.     

Consumers’ willingness-to-pay for mobile telecommunication service bundles

With the advent of 3G and LTE networks, bundled packages that contain free minutes, unlimited text messaging, Internet flat rates and the like became prevalent among telecommunication companies. The paper examines user’s perception of the utility of mobile service bundles. Based on a conjoint analysis of 116 respondents (out of a total of 355 surveyed), findings are reported and the structure of customers’ willingness-to-pay is analyzed. The rank order of relative importance of the presented attributes reveals the pricing aspect as the most important criterion. Nevertheless, minutes included and Internet access also play a vital role in the consumers’ evaluation of mobile telecommunication offers. In contrast, text messaging is displayed as the least important attribute. Further, changes in the predictive validity of the conjoint analysis are investigated. The results show that changing the price parameter from linear to curve fitting for more fine-grained analysis does not thoroughly improve the measurement of consumers’ willingness-to-pay. Overall, results support the recent product bundling strategies followed by the main players in the German mobile market regarding voice calling, Internet access and text messaging. The paper helps marketing managers to create optimal bundles of mobile telecommunication services based on willingness-to-pay data retrieved from conjoint analysis.     

Mobile application driven consumer engagement

The growing popularity of mobile technologies and applications, lead many companies to develop relations with consumers through mobile applications. Therefore, it is important to understand how to design applications based on consumer preferences. This research seeks to understand which features of mobile applications stimulate consumer engagement and lead to continuous use of mobile applications. This study used an online questionnaire to collect data from 246 respondents. The data was analyzed making use of Structural Equations Modeling (SEM). The results indicate that perception of such features as design solutions and information quality will result in higher engagement leading to continuous usage of mobile applications. Moreover, consumer engagement positively influenced users’ intention to continuous usage of mobile applications. Inconsistent with expectation, consumer interaction and functionality features are not found to be positively related to consumer engagement with mobile applications.     

移动设备的安全性研究

智能移动设备不断接近传统计算环境的性能和可扩展性.但这些新的功能和应用使移动设备成为攻击者和恶意软件的攻击目标.本文分析了移动设备所面临的安全挑战,深入研究了移动设备的安全模型.     

3G计费系统的探索:时不我待

3G时代是移动多媒体时代，但是移动多媒体时代并不会等着3G的来临才出现，全球的移动运营商已在2.5G网络上提供移动内容服务并在应对由内容计费带来的新挑战。明确了由于移动内容服务在移动网络中的发展给计费模式带来的挑战，并讨论了计费模式在过渡期的发展，其中还介绍了一些欧洲运营商的经验：它们正面临的问题以及采取的应对方法。     

Nomadic Service Assignment

We consider the problem of dynamically assigning application sessions of mobile users or user groups to service points. Such assignments must balance the trade-off between two conflicting goals. On the one hand, we would like to connect a user to the closest server in order to reduce network costs and service latencies. On the other hand, we would like to minimize the number of costly session migrations, or handoffs, between service points. We tackle this problem using two approaches. First, we employ algorithmic online optimization to obtain algorithms whose worst-case performance is within a factor of the optimal. Next, we extend them with opportunistic heuristics that achieve near-optimal practical average performance and scalability. We conduct case studies of two settings where such algorithms are required: wireless mesh networks with mobile users and wide-area groupware applications with or without mobility.     

"Ring-Ring" Might Soon Mean Ka-Ching

Readers of the technology industry tea leaves could reach one of two conclusions regarding widespread deployment of a global pay-by-mobile-phone infrastructure: either it so close it will be ubiquitous within three or four years or it so overhyped by mobile carriers that it could be a decade away. The GSM Association, the industry umbrella organization of GSM mobile network operators, announced two major initiatives in which mobile phones would serve as transaction devices. One is a mobile money transfer plan that would enable migrant workers to wire money back home to their families more quickly and easily than existing methods. The other is a worldwide "pay-buy mobile" initiative that would enable payment by mobile phones equipped with chips similar to those on smart cards     

基于移动设备的图像体视化系统

设计了一个基于移动设备的图像体视化系统,通过红蓝互补色眼镜,实现图像的立体显示,使用户可以使用移动设备随时随地体验立体图像。实验证明,提出基于移动设备的图像体视化技术具有使用简便易于实现的特点,其体视效果明显,易于观察,对于体视技术在移动设备的应用和研究具有一定的指导意义。     

TapTell: Interactive visual search for mobile task recommendation

Mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous. People use them as personal concierge to search information and make decisions. Therefore, understanding user intent and subsequently provide meaningful and personalized suggestions is important. While existing efforts have predominantly focused on understanding the intent expressed by a textual or a voice query, this paper presents a new and alternative perspective which understands user intent visually, i.e., via visual signal captured by the built-in camera. We call this kind of intent “visual intent” as it can be naturally expressed through a visual form. To accomplish the discovery of visual intent on the phone, we develop TapTell, an exemplary real application on Windows Phone seven, by taking advantages of user interaction and rich context to enable interactive visual searches and contextual recommendations. Through the TapTell system, a mobile user can take a photo and indicate an object-of-interest within the photo via different drawing patterns. Then, the system performs a search-based recognition using a proposed large-scale context-embedded vocabulary tree. Finally, contextually relevant entities (i.e., local businesses) are recommended to the user for completing mobile tasks (those tasks which are natural to be raised and subsequently executed when the user utilizes mobile devices). We evaluated TapTell in a variety of scenarios with millions of images, and compared our results to state-of-the-art algorithms for image retrieval.