X-FACTOR TWEET DATA RESULTS

To highlight that the majority of interaction is made during the show, Figure 1 presents the total X-Factor related tweets during the weeks building up to the live shows on the Saturday and Sunday of each week.

Figure 1. X-Factor Tweets Semi Final/Final Weeks (Monday to Sunday)

Table 1. Program details

Episode	Date	Time
Semi-Final (performances)	04/12/2010	7:40 to 9:25
Semi-Final (results)	05/12/2010	8:00 to 9:00
Final (performance)	11/12/2010	7:00 to 9:00
Final (results)	12/12/2010	7:30 to 9:30

Table 2. Significant events relating to Figure 3

In Show Events
Event No	Event	Event No	Event
1	Show starts	7	Matt song 2
2	Rebecca song 1	8	Mary song 2
3	Mary song 1	9	Cher song 2
4	Matt song 1	10	Rebecca song 2
5	Cher song1	11	One Direction song 2
6	One Direction song 1	12	Show ends

Figure 9. Facebook Likes

Figure 10. Twibbon Support

Figure 10. Tweet device data, final week 05/12/2010 – 13/12/2010

Figure 11. Tweet device data, final performance 11/12/2010 19:00 – 21:00

Figure 12. Tweet device data, final result 12/12/2011 19:30 – 21:30

Figure 2. X-Factor Percentage of Semi Final Week Tweets per Contestant

Figure 3. X-Factor Semi Final Tweets Saturday Show 4/12/2010

Figure 3. X-Factor Semi Final Tweets Saturday Show 4/12/2010

Figure 4. X-Factor Semi Final tTweets Sunday Results Show 5/12/2010

Figure 6. X-Factor Final Tweets Saturday Show 11/12/2010

Figure 7. X-Factor Final Tweets Sunday Show 12/12/2010

Figure 8. X-Factor Phone Votes for Whole Series

To put this into context using Twitters, reported average of 750 tps [25, 27], the X-Factor tweets would represent 1% of the world’s tweets at its peak moments in the live shows. Whilst the live shows represent the most significant periods of activity there are other observable trends. For instance the consistent increase in activity during early evenings and is consistent with studies of general usage of the Internet at home [1]. The very large activity on the Thursday (Figure 1) relates to the press conference before the final that announced which pop stars the finalists would perform duets with during the Saturday show.

Figure 2 presents a more detailed representation of the 29, 482 minute-by-minute tweets for each of the semi-finalists: Cher, Mary, One-Direction, Matt and Rebecca expressed in terms of percentage volume per day. This facilitates a better understanding relative to on-going discussions around each contestant during the week rather than period during the show dominating. From this we can clearly see the two contestants dominating Cher followed by Matt, which is interesting in relation to both the final result and the phone voting patterns, as we shall later discuss.

The minute-by-minute tweets for each contestant are shown in Figure 3 and are expressed as a percentage of the total volume of tweets in each minute. From Figure 3 it is readily apparent that significant changes in volumes for each contestant occur at key points during the show as the audience creates their own parallel narrative of events. Using recordings of the program Figure 3 has been annotated with the times of 12 key events defined in Table 2.

In the half hour preceding the show the tweets are split randomly across the contestants and are generally expressions of support such as:

“RT @(removed): RT if you want OneDirection to win #XFactor”

“I meant, vote for Mary tonight. She needs your votes! #xfactor”

Others are general observations such as:

“Anyone else a little sick of Matt and Mary being constantly sick? #XFactor”

Just before the show starts on the TV, the song list is released which often produces strong reactions. In particular Cher who seems to polarize opinion as she sang in a Rap/Urban style as opposed to the more general middle of the road pop characteristic of the show. It is also worth noting with the exception of One Direction, Cher was the youngest competitor.

“Some weird song choices for tonight’s #XFactor but I’m liking them! Cher – LTWYL, 1D – Only Girl”

“So Cher’s doing an Eminem track tonight. Under the theme of ‘Club Classics.’ Big AHEM #xfactor”

“I hate #Cher #XFactor. She’s a Dick.”

Once the show starts then as Figure 3 illustrates the tweets clearly follow the running order of contestants singing for instance the following sequence of tweets relates to Rebecca’s first song

“Haven’t seen Rebecca move so much during a performance in 8 weeks #xfactor”

“Hey, Rebecca is looking hot tonight! #xfactor”

“Ohmygod. I love Rebecca this week! #xfactor”

“Rebecca is dancing thru lightsabers… clearly a blatant attempt to capture the sci-fi vote. #xfactor”

Once show finishes then more general support tweets once again occur but it noticeably adopts similar percentages in volume of support for each contestant as is seen throughout the week.

In terms of the Sunday results show the format differs in that the show is built up on filling time slots to build up to the vote off, the majority of the show features guest artists (in this case Black Eyed Peas, Alexandra Burke, Cast of Glee) resulting in a very different distribution in Figure 4 to that of the previous figure. These guest artists contribute to the general discussion:

“Black Eyed Peas are laaame on #xfactor”

“I’m still laughing at the black eyed peas #XFactor”

While the rest of the tweets are predominantly conjecture on who should be eliminated. When the bottom two was announced from the phone votes (Mary and Cher) the tweets for these contestants increased considerably albeit from a relatively high base in the case of Cher. The shows format is then that the four judges each vote for who should stay and in case of tie this then goes back to phone vote. The show draws this process out to build tension and this is again reflected within tweet narrative.
“danni pick mary pleeeeeasssssseeeeeeeee!!!!!!! #xfactor”

“Louis sends through Mary, Dannii sends through Cher, Cheryl goes with Cher…it’s down to Simon. #XFactor”

“RT @(removed): simon if you put cher through to the final i swear i will hurt you. #xfactor”

“Grow a pair Simon. Let the public decide! #xfactor”

“Cher deserved to go through. Correct decision. #xfactor”

Figure 5 represents the equivalent of Figure 2 but this time for the finals week and as comments about Mary largely disappear they have not been included. Of the remaining contestants the individual volumes from the 38,555 tweets (a 30% increase from semi final week) would suggest an order of Cher, Matt, Rebecca and then One Direction.

In terms of the finals week Saturday show much of the pre hype surrounded the choice of which established pop stars sang a duet with the remaining contestants. This was manifest in the tweet spike on the Thursday shown in Figure 1 and occurred immediately after the press conference announcing the duets. Whilst this was discussed in pre show tweets most of them were expressions of support as in previous weeks, and a many expressing the view that Cher should be the first to leave the final. As we have presented examples of specific tweets for the semi-final week in the interest of brevity only the general trends will be discussed. In terms of structure once again we see a definite narrative in relation to volume of tweets related to the contestants that correspond directly to the events defined in Table 3.

Note that missing section at 19:22 of Figure 6 represents a short outage in the Twitter service, no doubt due to the very high volumes of traffic, for which we were unable to obtain the data on the Twitter servers.

Similarly Figure 7 presents the results for the final and despite Cher having been eliminated the previous evening she was still subject of significant discussion therefore that data is also included within this figure. From volumes prior to the start of the show we might reasonably deduce that the final is effectively between Matt and Rebecca and One Direction were likely to be eliminated.

This deduction proved accurate as One Direction was the next to leave the final and indeed they only produced any significant volume of tweets when they sang and were eliminated. Interestingly if we consider the tweet volume during the show, but before the actual announcement, for Matt and Rebecca they generated 36 % and 38% respectively which suggests a close result. However, if we consider the tweets over the whole of the final week they generated 31% and 22% respectively suggesting a clear win for Matt.
Having evaluated the narrative of the show through Twitter it is interesting to compare this with other measures. Figure 8 is the actual phone votes received for each contestant during the wholes series (Total votes cast: 15,448,019), [35].

What is very clear is that Matt had the most support from beginning of the show and interestingly the final phones for Matt and Rebecca were 44% and 38% which is a greater difference than the weekly tweet results although confirms greater support for Matt. However, what is very apparent is the anomaly when comparing this to the Twitter stream information is Cher. While there were many negative comments about her and even hashtags sets up by fans that demonstrated the hate for her (#hatecher) which actually became a trending topic on Twitter (a list of popular topics displayed on twitter.com usually consisting of two words relating to an expression that appears most frequent in the Twitter stream, which updates itself on a regular basis [17]). Although the hate for Cher is a factor, our tweet data and other sources showed significant positive support for her online as confirmed by Figure 9, that shows her dominating the number of Facebook ‘likes’ (2,235,322 in total) on the X-Factor web page and from tweets that appeared the morning after the hate hashtag was trending such as:

@(removed) said: ‘*rolls eyes* quite sad that people feel the need to tweet that they hate Cher, i’m not a fan but she sang beautifully last night’.
@(removed) ranted: ‘Can’t believe you guys would be as low as to make HATE CHER trending. That’s a human being you arrogant #haters. @cherlloyd dont listen to ‘em’.

Other tweeters go on to talk about how shocked they are over the amount of abuse she is getting. @(removed) even joined the discussion adding ‘y is hate cher trending at 7 06 am! Ppl need 2get a life’. Amplicate [//amplicate.com], (a social website set up to provide a platform for people to voice their opinions and see those of like minded people) collected 51,137 opinions on Cher, 38% of which were based around ‘Hate Cher’, this outweighed by 31,923 people expressing their opinions of loving her ‘Love Cher’, which again is supported by Figure 9.

There was also a Twibbon campaign (a symbol added to your Twitter or Facebook avatar to express support) although the volume was significantly smaller 11,888 compared to Facebook. This is likely due to Twibbons requiring more effort on behalf of the user and that the youngest contestants (Cher and One Direction) are more likely to appeal to a younger demographic that often use Twitter and Facebook as platforms to voice their opinions [11, 15].

Tweeting Platforms

In order to analyse the platforms used to create tweets source, a classification system of MOBILE, NON-MOBILE and MIXED was adopted from previous research [14] as limitations of Twitters metadata which details the agent used rather than the exact platform. For example, ‘TweetDeck’, as the agent can be considered to have originated from either desktop, mobile, browser app or web means was and is therefore classified as MIXED. Another agent considered to fall into this MIXED category is ‘web’ which relates to Twitter’s main website as some tablets and mobile devices can access Twitter’s full version of the site and others only the mobile version.

During the final week of the TV show 244 unique agents were used, 100 of which were classified as MOBILE, 100 NON-MOBILE and 44 MIXED, the most popular agents for tweeting were ‘Twitter’s web site 36%’, ‘TweetDeck 15%’, ‘Twitter for iPhone 12%’, ‘Twitter for Blackberry 8%’, ‘UberTwitter 7%’, ‘EchoFon 5%’, ‘TwitterFeed 3%’, ‘Twitters Mobile website 2%’ and ‘Twitter for Android 1%’, important here is six our of the nine are classified as mobile. The data presented in Figure 10 confirms the point made by Dick Costello of “40 percent of all tweets come from mobile devices….”.

Figures 11 and 12 illustrate the role, of mobile for tweeting during the actual live TV shows and there is clearly a big difference between the performance show (Figure 11) and the results show.(Figure 12). It seems likely this is due to the difference in show formats as one is performance led sand the other a time slot filled with pieces to make a show before the phone in results are announced. This could suggests that there is perhaps less combined viewing on the main TV screen and thus an increased need for the second screen although this would need to e confirmed with more targeted research. Another interesting distinction is that viewers are more likely to watch the performance show and tweet during the commercials, whereas on the results show, viewers were more likely to engage with discussion and express their support on who they want to win during the show.

X-Factor Semi Final 28/11/2010 – 05/12/2010 Tag Cloud

X-Factor Final 05/12/2010 – 12/05/2010 Tag Cloud

In order to easily visualise what was said in the final weeks of the show, we produced tag clouds (collection of frequently used words indicated by different colours and sizes based on importance of word) from the tweet data collected.

Interestingly within the tag clouds was the appearance of the hashtag TXFSigns, which was a Twitter specific activity, for the audience to send photograph requests, of contestants holding up signs with their Twitter username and message.

These were then posted from the official X-Factor Twitter account. Also apparent in the tag clouds was the fact that ‘Christina’ and ‘Rihanna’ (who duet with Matt and Rebecca) were the artist’s names that appeared most frequent within tweets for the final. Whilst their prominence could be attributed to their appearance with the most popular contestants it is also important to note that both Christina and Rihanna performances resulted in complaints to Ofcom (a record 3,215 complaints for 2010) due them being considered too adult for pre-watershed audience. Some tweets captured this during the actual performance:

@(removed) said: ‘Is it me, or is anyone else shocked at the raunchy performance from Christina Aguilera, being shown before the watershed?’
@(removed) said: ‘Rihanna not so bad but Christina’s was just wrong for 8.30 TV!! seriously inappropriate.’
@(removed) said: ‘OMG Christina Aguilera shocking……….how many complaints will ITV get about #xfactor tonight.’
@(removed) said: Rihanna and Christina’s performance on #TheXFactor were very inappropriate in terms of clothing and dancing. It’s a family show.’

CONCLUSIONS

In this research we presented a study into how the social networking service Twitter is increasingly being used as a channel for real-time inter-audience interaction for TV and implications for the role of mobile as the ‘second screen’. To facilitate this research a system was created that allowed the storage and analysis in real-time of tweets on a minute-by-minute basis for the highly popular UK TV show the X-Factor.

The data clearly illustrates the high levels of interaction, already developing in the use of Twitter as an inter-audience forum, around TV and how the narrative of the show is played out through this interaction. Whilst the narrative is obviously driven in time by events in the show, many of the tweets also exhibit a great deal of humour, and irony which could be considered almost performative in nature, possibly demonstrating the notion of performing to the ‘invisible audience’ [3]. Compared with the previous study on the Presidential Debate which showed little correlation between what was in the tweets and what was said by the debaters in this format there was often a significant correlation between what was appearing on screen and the tweets suggesting a confirmation of the study involving closed captions that visual imagery has a more significant impact for this dual mode interaction.

In terms of using Twitter as a possible guide to predicting events it is clear that whist in this case the Twitter stream did replicate the phone voting in the majority of cases, anomalies do still occur suggesting that there are significant differences, in the demographic of the online community compared with those actually voting. Therefore producers and broadcaster wishing to use real-time Twitter analysis for audience interaction, should consider how best to weight the importance of such interaction in relation to their whole audience, as we have found out that different levels of audience interaction depends on the type of show in question.
As stated previously the tweet data captured provides an indication of who was being talked about and when, however it does not provide us a platform to analyse if this is positive or negative. To perform a deeper analysis the tweet language would have to be taken into consideration, this would be very problematic due to Twitter’s status update constraints (140 characters) as in order to perform a deeper language analysis more words are required [21]. Twitter’s API does provides a simple approach to this by using Emoticons (happy/sad faces depicted by punctuations i.e.  ), however this method for detecting emotion in tweets is limited, as the majority of tweets captured in this study do not contain Emoticons to express emotion. As this research did not consider the motivations of the individual involved it would seem appropriate that further research on this topic addressed these motivations more specifically.

Whilst this study included tweets from a variety of mediums the information obtained about the clients used to up-load the tweets indicates over 40% are from mobile, which is consistent with the figures reported by Twitter. Further, as reported widely in the media in February 2011 an IDC report showed that smartphone manufacturers shipped 100.9 million devices in the fourth quarter of 2010, while PC manufacturers shipped 92.1 million units worldwide in other words smartphones outsold PCs for the first time ever. As this trend is likely to continue then accessing internet services through mobile are likely to increase dramatically in the near future [8].
Overall this study highlights that mobile phones are already becoming the second screen for TV but not through broadcaster provision of personalised services, or service providers enabling them to act as a new form of remote, but rather by audiences themselves creating their own forums for inter-audience interaction. It is therefore important for broadcaster and producers to be able to better understand the nature of this interaction and how it may be utilised to create new forms of interactive TV and thus is a topic requiring further research.

Download High-Res versions of the graphs seen on this page.

REFERENCES

1. Anderson, B., McWilliam, A., Lacohée, H., Clucas, E.and Gershuny, J., Family life in the digital home — domestic telecommunications at the end of the 20th century, BT Technology Journal, Volume 25, Numbers 3-4, pp 301-312, 2007.
2. BBC Tech News, Twitter dismisses $10bn Google deal and talks up mobile, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12462653?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter, last accessed 15/02/2011.
3. Boyd, D., Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life, MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume (ed. David Buckingham). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007.
4. Cesar, P. Bulterman, D. Geerts, D. Jansen, J. Knoche, H. and Seager, W. Enhancing social sharing of videos: fragment, annotate, enrich, and share. In Proceeding of the 16th ACM international conference on Multimedia (MM ’08). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 11-20.
5. ComScore, Facebook and Twitter Access via Mobile Browser Grows by Triple-Digits in the Past Year, http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/3/Facebook_and_Twitter_Access_via_Mobile_Browser_Grows_by_Triple-Digits, last accessed 23/05/2011.
6. Cruickshank, L. Tsekleves, E. Whitham, R. Hill, A. and Kondo, K., Making Interactive TV Easier to Use: Interface Design for a Second Screen Approach, The Design Journal, Volume 10, Number 3, November 2007, pp. 41-53.
7. Dejin Zhao and Mary Beth Rosson. 2009. How and why people Twitter: the role that micro-blogging plays in informal communication at work. In Proceedings of the ACM 2009 international conference on supporting group work (GROUP ’09). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 243-252.
8. Eronen, L. & Vuorimaa, P., User Interfaces for Digital Television: a Navigator Case Study. Proceedings of the working conference on advanced visual interfaces – AVI 2000. Palermo, Italy, 23-26 May 2000, pp.276–279. New York: ACM Press.
9. Harboe, G. Massey, N. Metcalf, C. Wheatley, D. and Romano, G., The uses of social television. Comput. Entertain. 6, 1, Article 8 (May 2008), 15 pages
10. Jensen, J.F. Interactive television: new genres, new format, new content. In Proceedings of the second Australasian conference on Interactive entertainment, IE 2005. Creativity & Cognition Studios Press, Sydney, Australia, Australia, 89-96.
11. Lenhart, A. Purcell, K. Smith, A. and Zickuhr, K.. Social Media and Young Adults. Pew Internet and American Life Project: Washington, D.C., February, 2010, http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults.aspx
12. Nathan, M. Harrison, C. Yarosh, S. Terveen, L. Stead, L. and Amento, B., CollaboraTV: making television viewing social again. In Proceeding of the 1st international conference on Designing interactive user experiences for TV and video (UXTV ’08). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 85-94
13. Park, J., Blythe, M., Monk, A., and Grayson, D. 2006. Sharable digital TV: relating ethnography to design through unuseless product suggestions. In extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, 119-1204. 2006.
14. Perreault, M. Derek, R., The Effect of Mobile Platforms on Twitter Content Generation, ICWSM 2011 Fifth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media 17-21 July 2011, Barcelona, Spain.
15. Reuters, New TV and social media trend among the youth, http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/08/uk-digital-social-tv-idUKTRE7275RZ20110308, last accessed on 08/06/2011.
16. Robertson, S. Wharton, C. Ashworth, C. and Franzke, M., 1996. Dual device user interface design: PDAs and interactive television. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: common ground (CHI ’96), Michael J. Tauber (Ed.). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 79-86.
17. S. Asur, B.A. Huberman, G. Szabo, C. Wang. Trends in Social Media : Persistence and Decay, http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/idl/, Social Computing published by HP publicly on 04/02/2011.
18. Sayaka Akioka, Norikazu Kato, Yoichi Muraoka, and Hayato Yamana. 2010. Cross-media impact on twitter in japan. In Proceedings of the 2nd international workshop on Search and mining user-generated contents (SMUC ’10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 111-118.
19. Semiocast, http://semiocast.com/pr/20110207/Doritos_most_tweeted_brand_during_Super_Bowl, last accessed 13/02/2011.
20. Shamma, D.A. Kennedy, L. and Churchill, E.F., Tweet the debates: understanding community annotation of uncollected sources. In Proceedings of the first SIGMM workshop on Social media (WSM ’09). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 3-10.
21. Simm, W.; Ferrario, M.-A.; Piao, S.; Whittle, J.; Rayson, P.; , “Classification of Short Text Comments by Sentiment and Actionability for VoiceYourView,” Social Computing (SocialCom), 2010 IEEE Second International Conference on , vol., no., pp.552-557, 20-22 Aug. 2010.
22. The Economist, The lazy medium, http://www.economist.com/node/15980817?story_id=15980817, last accessed 23/05/2011.
23. The Guardian, The impact of Twitter on TV, http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/06/twitter-facebook-television-shows, last accessed on 09/06/2011.
24. The New York Times, No shortage of social media…. http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/social-media-takes-the-crown, last accessed on 08/06/2011.
25. Twitter, Big Goals, Big Games, Big Records, http://blog.twitter.com/2010/06/big-goals-big-game-big-records.html, last access on 13/05/2011.
26. Twitter, Celebrating a new year with a new tweet record, http://blog.twitter.com/2011/01/celebrating-new-year-with-new-tweet.html, last access on 15/02/2011.
27. Twitter, Measuring Tweets, 22nd February 2010, http://blog.twitter.com/2010/02/measuring-tweets.html.
28. Twitter, Meet Twitter of Google TV, 4th October 2010, http://blog.twitter.com/2010/10/meet-twitter-for-google-tv.html.
29. Twitter, Live Tweeting with @NoReservations, http://media.twitter.com/1367/no-reservations, last access on 13/05/2011.
30. Twitter, #Superbowl, http://blog.twitter.com/2011/02/superbowl.html, last access on 13/05/2011.
31. Twitter, The #TrumpRoast record, http://media.twitter.com/1391/trump-roast, last access on 13/05/2011.
32. Twitter, The new live TV, http://media.twitter.com/943/vma2010, last access on 13/05/2011.
33. Twitter, Watching together Twitter and TV, http://blog.twitter.com/2011/05/watching-together-twitter-and-tv.html, last access on 13/05/2011.
34. Twitter, Your view from the #Oscars stage, http://media.twitter.com/1341/oscars2011, last access on 13/05/2011.
35. X-Factor, http://xfactor.itv.com/_uploads/userassets/files/vote2010.pdf, last accessed 13/12/2010.

Oscars

We set up a system to capture tweets from Twitter.com using their streaming API, over the course of two days we were able to capture over 90,000 tweets with the hashtag #oscars from the 83rd Annual Academy Awards.

Oscars Tag Cloud

Specific areas of interest include context aware games, mixed and augmented reality, user-generated content, mobile web 2.0, collective intelligence, perpetual beta, mash-ups, location-based applications, community building, reflective applications (for example personal wellbeing, environmental awareness, etc.).

Focus Area Leader: Paul Coulton

Focus Area Members:

• Lancaster University
• Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
• University of Aarhus, Denmark
• New York University, ITP
• Parsons: The New School for Design, New York
• Helsinki University of Art & Design
• ETH, Zurich
• MIT Media Lab

Objectives

• Create a range of novel mobile applications and services which will be tested with real users in real environments
• Promote world-class inter-disciplinary research in these topics and disseminate knowledge and results
• Provide opportunities for non-academic organisations to collaborate in delivering novel user experiences

Upcoming Events

Recent Publications

• Lancaster, DTU, Aarhus, NNYU, Parsons, Helsinki, ETH, MIT.

Videos & Demos

• BOOM!, Bombus, m3Dcam, LocoBlog, TiltRacer, LocoMash, TunnelRun,

Downloads

• Bombus
• BOOM!
• RetroBall
• 4 in a row

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNMiUWF-QbU

WE ARE CURRENTLY MAKING CHANGES TO THE M3DCAM WEBSITE, IN THE MEANTIME KEEP UPLOADING YOUR 3D PHOTOS AND WE WILL BRING BACK THE PHOTO INTERFACE

Mystic Paul sporting a natty pair of Lava Girl glasses

m3Dcam is an application that allows you to use your mobile phone camera to create 3-D anaglyph images.The 3D images can then be either viewed on phone screen (using suitable pair of 3D glasses) or saved to a community website .

Mobile SprayCan (www.mobspray.com)

Since the first appearance of modern man one trait of human behaviour in our interaction with the physical environment appears to be an inherent desire to leave our mark on a particular object or space. ‘SprayCan’ graffiti that appeared in the 1970s is but a modern extension of this phenomenon, yet it divides communities and generations in terms of how it should be dealt with in terms of either complete acceptance or punitive action. In this project we have developed a system that tries to bridge the divide as it both provides writers with a means of tagging their environment, using mobile phones and RFID tags, whilst minimising the physical effects to the landscape for the communities where it resides. Mobile SprayCan Project

Mobile Spray can site marker

TxT Books (www.thetxtbk.com)

Screenshot from www.thetxtbk.com homepage.

TxT Book is an open, collaborative storybook based upon the technique of ‘Exquisite Corpse’ which was developed by surrealists in the 1920’s for creating accidental poetry. Users may only submit a maximum of 160 characters (standard SMS length) to the book at a time and they may only view the previous person’s entry when considering their own. In order to ensure some kind of (shallow) cohesiveness, when a user is submitting their entry, the database is locked-down to ensure that the entries follow on from each other (in a chain). Once a user has entered his/her story (or their allotted timeslot has expired), the database is unlocked to allow others to participate.

Users can submit entries to TxT Book via two different methods – from their PC or from their mobile phone. By allowing different methods of input, TxT Book seeks to compare the popularity of the two.

TxT Book will attempt to examine the spread of information in way which is not intrusive (this is not viral marketing!), free and, hopefully, quite fun. We will initially seed TxT Book by sending out an SMS to friends containing a link to the WAP submission page. Once a user submits an entry to TxT Book, they are then asked if they would like to forward the original SMS to a friend who might be interested in contributing.

On visiting the TxT Book’s homepage, users are automatically served content based upon the capability of their browser (WAP enabled browsers receive dynamically generated WML files, whilst PC users are delivered XHTML content). Users may also subscribe to an RSS feed of the story which contains the latest submissions.

TxT Book Website

A modified version of the thetxbk was created for the Spoken Word tent at Roskilde Rock Festival July 2007.

Roskilde TxT Book 2007

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 the accelerometers and compass enabling users simply point at the object the wish to have information about.

3D Lancaster

Locoblog

LocoBlog consists of a J2ME client application that allows you to link up your phone via Bluetooth to a GPS unit and then create blogs of text and pictures which are the tagged with positional data such as latitude and longitude. The blog is then sent to the LocoBlog Site( via GPRS) where it can be viewed on Google Maps. The service is currently free to use and the application can be downloaded from the site.

Widget Maps

LocoMash (www.locomash.com)

Locomash is a mobile mass observation system to allow groups of individuals equipped with mobile camera phones and GPS to create real time spatial and temporal photographic mash-ups around particular events or places.

LocoMash of the Wray Festival

PAC-LAN is a novel version of the video game PACMAN in which human players play the game on a maze based on Alexandra Park at Lancaster University campus. To play the game the PAC-LAN player collects pills using the mobile which are in the form of colored plastic discs containing RFID tags placed around the maze. Four other players take the role of the ghosts who attempt to hunt down the PAC-LAN. A Java application, running on a mobile phone connects PAC-LAN and the Ghosts to a central game server using GPRS.The server relays to PAC-LAN his current position and that of the ghosts based on the pills he has collected. The pills can also be used by the ghosts, not to gain points, but to obtain PAC-LAN’s last known position which will only be updated when they interact with another pill. The ghosts ‘kill’ PAC-LAN by detecting him via RFID on his clothing (or costume). Similarly when PAC-LAN collects a power pill he is then able to kill the ghosts using the same RFID detection process. Dead ghosts must then return to the central point to be reactivated into the game. Points are allocated on pills collected and ghosts killed. The central point is controlled by the server and a special RFID point to ensure ghosts remain immobile until released. PAC-LAN The Game Site.

Big Game Huntr

Big Game Huntr; a mobile location based game which encourages emergent behaviour by allowing the general public to design their own games around any subject to be played in a place of their own choosing.

Free Londons Monsters

This is an interesting take on a location based game which incorporates user generated content in the form of sketches of monsters. It’s in collaboration between the Mobile Radicals and artist Andrew Wilson who originally ran a workshop at Institute of Contemporary Arts in London where people could sketch there idea of what the London’s monsters might look like. The Mobile Radicals have turned the sketches into a mobile location based game called Free London’s Monsters to be played around the actual locations where the monsters were envisaged. Here is the first prototype which uses the phone camera as the Magic Monstervision Machine (that’s an S60 phone to the uninitiated) to capture monsters when the players enter their lair.

MobHunt

The inspiration for Treasure hunt games arguably started with the early stages of the development of archaeology as this arguably included a significant aspect of treasure hunts and they certainly served to capture public imagination. Treasure Hunt games are either a single player or a group of players trying to find hidden articles, locations or places by using a series of clues. In the earliest versions of these games the clues consisted of pieces of paper secreted at specific location. A modern variant of this is Geocaching which is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called “geocaches” or “caches”) anywhere in the world. In our version of treasure hunt for mobile phones, known as MobHunt,clues are placed on RFID tags which can be read by a suitably equipped mobile phone and information can be changed or added in real-time using the data network.

They Howl (Coming Soon)

This is a location based game written in J2ME and utilises GPS to obtain positional information. The GPS unit is not an integrated part of the phone but rather we exploit the proliferation of GPS units that can be accessed via Bluetooth is cheaper and more readily available than integrated solutions.

The premise for the game itself builds on our experiences from PAC-LAN where sounds were perceived to be the best form of feedback. The sounds in this case are the howls of a wolf pack who are hunting down their prey in a mixed reality landscape. The howls from the wolves enable them to co-ordinate their efforts when following the virtual ‘scent’ trail left by the prey as the flee from the approaching pack.

The prey leaves a trail of virtual scent markers which are automatically generated every two minutes by the application. The wolves can detect a marker by coming within 25 metres of the scent marker. Once a wolf has found a scent marker they howl to the rest of the pack. They howl causes the display on the other wolves’ phones to indicate the direction they must travel to reach that scent marker which appears at the centre of the screen. The wolves must then work together to find the next marker and ultimately track down the prey. The prey also gets an update to his display showing the position of the pack. The prey is caught if two or more wolves come within 25 metres of the prey, having collected all the scent markers, at which point they all let out a group howl indicating their presence while the prey emits a death gurgle. The prey gains points for the length of time within the game and the distance travelled. Wolves gain points for both finding the scent markers and capturing the prey.

Whereas PAC-LAN required a pre formed group to be present at a specific location They Howl is designed for more spontaneous game play that using location although is not tied to a specific location. To facilitate this we have create a lobby system which will allow potential players to gather in any location to play the game. The game area is normally limited to 1 Km square and potential players can be anywhere within that square. Once there are a least three players the game can begin or they can wait for others to join up to a maximum of 10. The game server random selects a player to act as prey whilst the remaining players become wolves.

• Data (often user derived) over software;
• Collective intelligence for example group filtering;
• Open standards “Above the Single Device”;
• Niche markets or the Long Tail;
• Use of context;
• Emergence resulting in constant evolution (perpetual Beta).

At present there are two main types of of mobile widgets these being WidSets widgets and S60 Widgets (Web Run-Time). WidSets Widgets is essentially a Java-based platform. Widgets can be developed using the WidSets Studio, a very easy to use online visual editor for developing simple widgets in a matter of minutes. However, these widgets are essentially limited to picking up RSS feeds (for displaying text and photos). To create custom functionality, developers need to delve into Helium script, a ‘Java like’ language for controlling all aspect of a widget’s behaviour. S60 Widgets are lightweight mobile browser applications developed using familiar, standards-based web technologies such as (x)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and even advanced AJAX. In order to run S60 Widgets, the phone needs the run-time installed.

Bombus

• Bombus

Nabazget

M-Post

RetroBall

• RetroBall

• Data (often user derived) over software;
• Collective intelligence (for example group filtering);
• Open standards “Above the Single Device”;
• Niche markets or the Long Tail;
• Use of context;
• Emergence resulting in constant evolution (perpetual Beta).

Whilst some of these concepts might be alien to traditional console games developers, the very nature of the mobile games environment and the broad demographic of game players would appear to offer enormous potential for this industry. However, if Mobile Games 2.0 is to become more than a mere buzz phrase, we will need to overcome the current fragmentation within the market and provide a platform that facilitates the majority of these features. To achieve the principles of Web 2.0 in Mobile Game 2.0 it is worth seeking inspiration for the by evaluating the solutions that have evolved in that environment, ascertaining their relevance to mobile. In this regard Widgets are seen as a primary enabler of Web 2.0 as they utilise open standards, are easy to distribute, and have a mechanism for continued evolution. As Nokia has recently introduced two flavours of Widgets for mobile, in this project we have explored:

• How Widgets address the concepts previously defined for Mobile Web 2.0;
• Potential mechanisms for social interaction;
• Distribution mechanisms and possible revenue generation.

Boom!

Widget investigating user generated content in games.

• BOOM!

4 in a row

First multiplayer widget game using WidSets channel API.

• 4 in row

3D Bombus

First 3D widget game using WidSets

Mobslinger (mobiles! we dont need no stinkin mobiles!)

Mobslinger is a game that enables spontaneous stimulated social interaction between mobile phone users by utilising proximity information from Bluetooth. This innovative game takes the form of a wild west, quick draw, ‘shoot-em-up’. Mobslinger runs as a background application on Symbian Series 60 smartphone which periodically scans for other users in the vicinity who are also running the mobslinger application. Once detected, a countdown timer is initiated on both phones which alerts the user by sounding an alarm and vibrating the phone. The user then has to ‘draw’ their mobile and enter the randomly generated number which has appeared on the screen as quickly as possible. The person with the fastest time is the winner and the loser is ‘killed’, which means their application is locked out from game-play for a set period of time. The game is playable in a number of different modes that allow different numbers of players and game play. The modes are Quick Draw, Bloodbath, Last Man Standing, and Outlaws.

Lochrie. M and Coulton, P., ‘Mobile phones as second screen for TV, enabling inter-audience interaction’. ACE ’11 Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology. Lisbon, Portugal 8th – 11th November 2011.

Rest In Pixels

Lochire, M and Coulton, P., ‘Rest In Pixels’. Proceedings of the 15th Mindtrek 2011. Paper presented at MindTrek 2011, Tampere, Finland 29th – 30th September 2011.

Participatory Game Design to Engage a Digitally Excluded Community

Lochire, M, Coulton, P. and Wilson, A., ‘Participatory Game Design to Engage a Digitally Excluded Community’. Proceedings of the 5th DiGRA : Think Design Play. Paper presented at DiGRA 2011, Utrecht, Netherlands 14th – 17th September 2011.

Estimating Scale using Depth From Focus for Mobile Augmented Reality

Čopič Pucihar, K. and Coulton, P., ‘Estimating Scale using Depth From Focus for Mobile Augmented Reality’ Accepted at ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, 2011.

NFC Mobile Parlor Games Enabling Direct Player to Player Interaction

Nandwani, A. Coulton, P. and Edward, R., NFC Mobile Parlor Games Enabling Direct Player to Player Interaction, The 4th NFC Congress 2011, Hagenberg, Austria, from February 22nd – 23rd 2011.

Mobile, experimental, public

Buscher, M., Coulton, P., Hemment, D., and Morgensen, P., ‘ Mobile, experimental, public.” Chapter in Book Mobile Methods edited by Buscher, M., Urry, J., and Witchger, K., Routeledge Press 2011, ISBN 9780415492423.

Enabling Emergent Behaviour in Location Based Games

Lund, K., Lochrie, M., and Coulton, P., ‘Enabling Emergent Behaviour in Location Based Games’, Proceedings of the 14th Mindtrek 2010 on Envisioning Future Media Environments, Tampere, Finland, 6th-8th October 2010.

Harnessing Player Creativity to Broaden the Appeal of Location Based Games

Coulton,P., Lund, K., and Wilson, A., ‘Harnessing Player Creativity to Broaden the Appeal of Location Based Games’, Proceedings of The 24th BCS Conference on Human Computer Interaction – HCI2010 – Play is a Serious Buisiness, Dundee, Scotland, 6th-10th September 2010.

Community Generated Location Based Gaming

Lochrie, M., Lund, K., and Coulton, P., ‘Community Generated Location Based Gaming’, Proceedings of The 24th BCS Conference on Human Computer Interaction – HCI2010 – Play is a Serious Buisiness, Dundee, Scotland, 6th-10th September 2010.

Understanding the school journey: integrating data on travel and environment

Pooley, C., Whyatt, D., Walker, M., Davies, G., Coulton, P. and Bamford, W. (2010) ‘Understanding the school journey: integrating data on travel and environment’ Environment and Planning A 42: 948-965

Mobile Kinetic and Physiological Interaction for Persuasive Health

Coulton, P. and Garcia-Wylie, C. (2010) ‘Mobile Kinetic and Physiological Interaction for Persuasive Health’, International Journal of Ubiquitous Computing, Vol 1, No 1, January June 2010.

Intelligent Mobility Systems:Some Socio-technical Challenges and Opportunities

Büscher, M., Coulton,P., Efstratiou, C., Gellersen, H.,Hemment, D., Mehmood, R., and Sangiorgi, D. “Intelligent Mobility Systems:Some Socio-technical Challenges and Opportunities”, Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, ISBN 978-3-642-11283-6 (Print) 978-3-642-11284-3 (online), Pages 140-152, Saturday, December 12, 2009.

A Mobile Geo-wand Enabling Gesture Based POI Search an User Generated Directional POI Photography

Lei, Z., and Coulton, P.,“A Mobile Geo-wand Enabling Gesture Based POI Search an User Generated Directional POI Photography”, 5th Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology Conference, Athens, Greece, October 29-31, 2009.

Ambient Conversations using a Physical Avatar

Lund, K., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “Ambient Conversations using a Physical Avatar”, 13th MindTrek Conference: Everyday Life in the Ubiqutious Era., Tampere, Finland, 30th September 2nd October 2009.

Mobile Persuasive Exergaming

Garcia Wylie, C., Coulton, P., “Mobile Persuasive Exergaming”, The First International IEEE Consumer Electronics Society’s Games Innovations Conference 2009 (ICE-GIC 09), London, UK, 25-28 August 2009.

Talk, technologies and teenagers: understanding the school journey using a mixed-methods approach

Walker, M., Whyatt, D., Davies, G., Pooley, C., Coulton, P., and Bamford, W., ” Talk, technologies and teenagers: understanding the school journey using a mixed-methods approach”, Children’s Geographies Vol. 7, No. 2, May 2009, 107–122.

Mud, Mobiles and a Large Interactive Display

Coulton, P., Bamford, W., and Edwards, R., “Mud, Mobiles and a Large Interactive Display”, to appearat “Public and Situated Displays to Support Communities” Workshop at OZCHI 2008, December 9, 2008, Cairns, QLD, Australia..

Mobile Exergaming

Garcia Wylie, C., Coulton, P., “Mobile Exergaming”, To appear in proceedings of ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances In Computer Entertainment Technology, Yokohama, Japan, 3-5 December 2008.

Motion Controlled Mobile 3D Multiplayer Gaming

Chehimi F., Coulton P “Motion Controlled Mobile 3D Multiplayer Gaming”, To appear in proceedings of ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances In Computer Entertainment Technology, Yokohama, Japan, 3-5 December 2008.

Mobile Social Gaming

Coulton, P., Copic Pucihar, K., and Bamford, W., “Mobile Social Gaming”, to appear in proceedings of International Workshop on Social Interaction and Mundane Technologies 2008, Cambridge, UK, 20-21 November 2008.

Mobile Users: Comparing Trends in Denmark and Britain

Eg Larsen,J., Kristensen, K., Edwards, R., and Coulton, P.,“Mobile Users: Comparing Trends in Denmark and Britain”, Future Mobile Experiences: next generation mobile interaction and contextualization, Workshop at NordiCHI, Lund, Sweden, October 19th 2008..

IMS Based Mobile Presence Service

Lei, Z., and Coulton, P., “IMS Based Mobile Presence Service”, Future Mobile Experiences: next generation mobile interaction and contextualization, Workshop at NordiCHI, Lund, Sweden, October 19th 2008..

Persuasive Mobile Health Applications

Garcia Wylie, C., Coulton, P., “Persuasive Mobile Health Applications”, Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Electronic Healtcare for the 21st Century, London, Sept 8-9, 2008, ISBN 978-963-9799-32-5.

Using ‘Tilt’ as an Interface to control ‘No Button’ 3-D Mobile Games

Gilbertson, P., Coulton, P., Chehimi, F.,and Vajk, T., “Using ‘Tilt’ as an Interface to control ‘No Button’ 3-D Mobile Games”, ACM Computers in Entertainment, Vol 6, Issue 3, Sept, 2008, pp 1-14 .

MobiToss: A novel gesture based interface for creating and sharing mobile multimedia art on large public displays

Scheible, J., Ojala, T., and Coulton, P., “MobiToss: A novel gesture based interface for creating and sharing mobile multimedia art on large public displays ” accepted for ACM International Conference on Multimedia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, October 27 – 31, 2008.

Using Mobile Phones to Reveal the Complexities of the School Journey

Bamford, W., Coulton, P., Moser, M., W.Whyatt, D., Davies, G., and Pooley, C., ” Using Mobile Phones to Reveal the Complexities of the School Journey”, 10th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. MobileHCI 2008 Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2-5 September 2008.

Supporting (Mobile) User Experience at a Rural Village ‘Scarecrow Festival’: A Formative Study of a Geolocated Photo Mashup Utilising a Situated Display

Cheverst, K., Coulton, P., Bamford, W. and Taylor, N. “Supporting (Mobile) User Experience at a Rural Village ‘Scarecrow Festival’: A Formative Study of a Geolocated Photo Mashup Utilising a Situated Display”. In Proc. MobileHCI 08 Workshop on Mobile Interaction in the Real World.

3D Motion Control of Connected Augmented Virtuality on Mobile Phones

Chehimi, F., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “3D Motion Control of Connected Augmented Virtuality on Mobile Phones” proceedings of International Symposium on Ubiquitous Virtual Reality-VR. (ISUVR08) ,GIST, Gwangju, South Korea.10th to 13th July, 2008.

3-D Space-Time Visualization of Player Behavior in Pervasive Location Based Games

Coulton, P.,Bamford, W., Cheverst, K., and Rashid, O., 3D Space-Time Visualization of Player Behaviour in Pervasive Location-Based Games,” International Journal of Computer Games Technology, vol. 2008, Article ID 192153, 5 pages, 2008. doi:10.1155/2008/192153.

Noisy School Kids: Using GPS in an Urban Environment

Whyatt, D., Davies, G., Moser, M.,Pooley, C.,Coulton, P., and Bamford, W., ” Noisy School Kids: Using GPS in an Urban Environment”, GISRUK, 3rd April 2008.

Using a Camera Phone as a Mixed-Reality Laser Cannon

Chehimi, F., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “Using a Camera Phone as a Mixed-Reality Laser Cannon” International Journal of Computer Games Technology, vol. 2008, Article ID 321708, 6 pages, 2008. doi:10.1155/2008/321708.

Games on the Symbian OS

Paul Coulton and Fadi Chehimi chapter “Exploiting the Phone Hardware” in book “Games for the Symbian OS” by Jo Stitchbury, ISBN: ISBN 0470998040, Wiley and Symbian Press, February 2008.

Using a Mobile Phone as a ‘Wii like’ Controller for Playing Games on a Large Public Display

Vajk, T., Bamford, W., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “Using a Mobile Phone as a “Wii-like” Controller for Playing Games on a Large Public Display” International Journal of Computer Games Technology, vol. 2008, Article ID 539078, 6 pages, 2008. doi:10.1155/2008/539078.

Evolution of 3D mobile games development

Chehimi F., Coulton P, and Edwards R.“Evolution of 3D mobile games development”, Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Springer London, Volume 12 Issue 1, January 2008, pp 19-25.doi 10.1007/s00779-006-0129-9.

Providing location based information/advertising for existing mobile phone users

Rashid O., Coulton P, and Edwards R.“Providing location based information/advertising for existing mobile phone users”, Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Springer London, Volume 12 Issue 1 , January 2008, pp 3-10. doi 10.1007/s00779-006-0121-4.

Using NFC to Support and Encourage Green Exercise

Rashid O., Coulton P, and Bird W.“Using NFC to Support and Encourage Green Exercise”,2nd International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare 2008, Tampere, Finland 30 Jan – 1 Feb 2008.

Teaching embedded programming through mobile games development in Symbian

Edwards R. and Coulton P.,“Teaching embedded programming through mobile games development in Symbian”, IJEEE, 44/4, pp 307-318 October. 2007, ISSN 0020-7209.

RFID and NFC on Mobile Phones

Coulton P., Rashid, O., and Edwards, R, “RFID and NFC on Mobile Phones“, Chapter in Book “RFID Handbook: Applications, Technology, Security and Privacy, CRC Press, June 2008,ISBN-10: 1420054996, ISBN-13: 978-1420054996.

Using a Mobile Phone as a ‘Wii like’ Controller

Vajk, T., Bamford, W., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “Using a Mobile Phone as a ‘Wii like’ Controller”, The Third International Conference on Games Research and Development 2007 (CyberGames 2007) Manchester UK10-11 September 2007.

Mobilazer: A Mixed-Reality First-Person Shoot-Em-Up Using Camera Phones

Chehimi, F., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “Mobilazer: A Mixed-Reality First-Person Shoot-Em-Up Using Camera Phones”, The Third International Conference on Games Research and Development 2007 (CyberGames 2007) Manchester UK10-11 September 2007.

Using In-built RFID/NFC, Cameras, and 3D Accelerometers as Mobile Phone Sensors

Coulton P., Bamford W. , Chehimi F. , Gilbertson P., and Rashid, O. “Using In-built RFID/NFC, Cameras, and 3D Accelerometers as Mobile Phone Sensors “, Chapter in Book “Mobile Phone Programming” edited by Frank H. P. Fitzek and Frank Reichert, Springer, July 2007, pp 381-396.

Using Tilt as the Input for 3D Mobile Games

Gilbertson, P., Coulton, P., and Vajk, T., “Using Tilt as the Input for 3D Mobile Games”, The Third International Conference on Games Research and Development 2007 (CyberGames 2007) Manchester UK10-11 September 2007.

Augmented Reality 3D Interactive Advertisements on Smartphones

Chehimi, F., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “Augmented Reality 3D Interactive Advertisements on Smartphones”, The Sixth International Conference on Mobile Business,Ontario,Canada, 9th – 11th July 2007.

Estimating Personal Exposure to Air Pollution on the Journey to and from School using GPS, GIS and Mobile Phone Technology

Whyatt, D., Pooley, C., Coulton, P., Moser, M., Bamford, W., and Davies, G., ” Estimating Personal Exposure to Air Pollution on the Journey to and from School using GPS, GIS and Mobile Phone Technology”, 11th International Conference on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purposes, 2-5 July 2007.

Remote topographic measurement of environmental processes and hazards

James, M.,Coulton, P., Robson, s., Pinkerton, H., Ilic, S., and Quinton, J., ” Remote topographic measurement of environmental processes and hazards”, Sensornet 2007, Lancaster University, UK, 30th May 2007.

Mobile Games: Challenges and Opportunities

Coulton, P., Bamford,W., Chehimi,F.,Edwards, R.,Gilbertson,P.,and Rashid, O., “Mobile Games: Challenges and Opportunities”, Chapter in Advances in Computers Volume 69, Academic Press, June 2007, ISBN-13:978-0-12-373745-8.

Space-Time Travel Blogging using a Mobile Phone

Bamford,W. Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “Space-Time Travel Blogging using a Mobile Phone”,ACM SIGCHI International Conference On Advances In Computer Entertainment Technology, Salzburg, Austria, 13-13 June 2007.

S60 Programming: A Tutorial Guide

Paul Coulton and Reuben Edwards with Helen Clemson “S60 Programming: A Tutorial Guide”, ISBN: 978-0-470-02765-3, Wiley and Symbian Press, February 2007.

Experiencing ‘Touch’ in Mobile Mixed Reality Games

Coulton, P., Rashid, O., and Bamford, W., “Experiencing ‘Touch’ in Mobile Mixed Reality Games”, Proceedings of The Fourth Annual International Conference in Computer Game Design and Technology, Liverpool, 15th – 16th November 2006, pp 68-75, ISBN 1-9025-6014-0.

A Novel 3D Game API for Symbian Smartphones

Chehimi, F., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “A Novel 3D Game API for Symbian Smartphones”, Proceedings of The Fourth Annual International Conference in Computer Game Design and Technology, Liverpool, 15th – 16th November 2006, pp 149-155, ISBN 1-9025-6014-0.

A Serendipitous Mobile Game

Clemson, H., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “A Serendipitous Mobile Game”, Proceedings of The Fourth Annual International Conference in Computer Game Design and Technology, Liverpool, 15th – 16th November 2006, pp 130-134, ISBN 1-9025-6014-0.

PAC-LAN: Mixed reality gaming with RFID enabled mobile phones

Rashid O.,Bamford W.,Coulton P.,Edwards R, and Scheibel J. “PAC-LAN: Mixed reality gaming with RFID enabled mobile phones”, ACM Computers in Entertainment,Vol 4, Issue 4, October, 2006, pp 1-17.

Providing the skills required for innovative mobile game development using industry/academic partnerships

Edwards, R., and Coulton, P., “Providing the skills required for innovative mobile game development using industry/academic partnerships”, ITALICS, The Journal of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, Volume 5, Issue 3,”Learning With Games, Learning by Making Games”, October 2006, pp 1-8.

IP Multimedia Subsystem and Mobile Gaming

Rashid O., and Coulton P.“IP Multimedia Subsystem and Mobile Gaming”, invited presentation at Wireless Communication and Information Conference, FHTW Berlin, 13th October 2006.

‘Getting it up’ with mobile virtual graffiti

Coulton, P., Rashid, 0., and Garner, P., “‘Getting it up’ with mobile virtual graffiti”, Poster/Demo in Proceedings of 5th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, September 20-22, 2006, Cambridge, UK, pp 39-40.

Mobslinger: Creating Urban Outlaws

Coulton, P., Clemson, H., and Edwards, R., “Mobslinger: Creating Urban Outlaws”, Poster/Demo in Proceedings of 5th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, September 20-22, 2006, Cambridge, UK, pp 47-48.

Reducing Processing Time for Real-Time Mobile Hosted Location Based Services

Gilbertson, P., Edwards, R., and Coulton, P., “Reducing Processing Time for Real-Time Mobile Hosted Location Based Services”, 17th Annual IEEE Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications, Helsinki, Finland, 11-14 September, 2006.

Multi-user MIMO CDMA systems using complete complementary sequences

* Khirallah, C., Coulton, P., Rashvand, H., Zein, N., Multi-user MIMO CDMA systems using complete complementary sequences, IEE Proceedings on Communications, Volume: 153, Issue: 4 , August 2006, pp 533-540.

Selling Mobile Applications: the difference in what people buy to what people try

Jamaluddin, J., Edwards, R., and Coulton, P., “Selling Mobile Applications: the difference in what people buy to what people try”, accepted for IEEE International Conference on e-buisiness, Steubal, Portugal, 7-10 August, 2006.

Nodits: Position Triggered Information and Messages

Gilbertson, P., Edwards, R., and Coulton, P., “Nodits: Position Triggered Information and Messages”,The Tenth IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics, St.Petersburg , Russia, June 29 – July 1, 2006, pp 381-383, ISBN 1-4244-0215-8.

QOS Aware CORBA Middleware for Bluetooth

Mutlu, U., Edwards, R., and Coulton, P., “QOS Aware CORBA Middleware for Bluetooth”, The Tenth IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics, St.Petersburg , Russia, June 29 – July 1, 2006,pp 400-406, ISBN 1-4244-0215-8.

XEPS – Enabling card-based payment for Mobile Terminals

Garner, P., Coulton, P.,and Edwards, R., “XEPS – Enabling card-based payment for Mobile Terminals”, The Tenth IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics, St.Petersburg , Russia, June 29 – July 1, 2006,pp 375-380, ISBN 1-4244-0215-8.

C++ Optimisations for Mobile Applications

Chehimi, F., Coulton, P.,and Edwards, R., “C++ Optimisations for Mobile Applications”, The Tenth IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics, St.Petersburg , Russia, June 29 – July 1, 2006, pp 389-394, ISBN 1-4244-0215-8.

Implications of IMS and SIP on the Evolution of Mobile Applications

Rashid, O., Coulton, P.,and Edwards, R., “Implications of IMS and SIP on the Evolution of Mobile Applications”, The Tenth IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics, St.Petersburg , Russia, June 29 – July 1, 2006, pp 369-3743, ISBN 1-4244-0215-8.

A Surrealist Inspired Mobile Multiplayer Game: Fact or Fish?

Bamford, W, Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “A Surrealist Inspired Mobile Multiplayer Game: Fact or Fish?”, 1st World Conference for Fun ‘n Games, June 26-28, 2006, Preston, UK, pp 5-12.

Running with the PAC

Coulton, P., Rashid, O., Bamford, W, and Edwards, R., “Running with the PAC”, 1st World Conference for Fun ‘n Games, June 26-28, 2006, Preston, UK, pp 55-62.

Mobslinger: The Fastest Mobile in the West

Clemson, H., Coulton, P., Edwards, R, and Chehimi, F., “Mobslinger: The Fastest Mobile in the West”, to appear 1st World Conference for Fun ‘n Games, June 26-28, 2006, Preston, UK, pp 47-54.

Mobile Advertising: Practices, Technologies and Future Potential

Chehimi, F., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “Mobile Advertising: Practices, Technologies and Future Potential”, The Fifth International Conference on Mobile Business (ICMB 2006), June 26 – 27, 2006, Copenhagen, Denmark.

EPass Using DRM in Symbian v8 OS and TrustZone : Securing Vital Data on Mobile Devices

Wan Hussin, W., and Edwards, R., “EPass Using DRM in Symbian v8 OS and TrustZone : Securing Vital Data on Mobile Devices”, The Fifth International Conference on Mobile Business (ICMB 2006), June 26 – 27, 2006, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Card-based Macro-payment for Mobile Phones

Garner, P., Edwards, R., and Coulton, P, “Card-based Macro-payment for Mobile Phones”, The Fifth International Conference on Mobile Business (ICMB 2006), June 26 – 27, 2006, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Mobile Phone as a Digital SprayCan

Garner,P., Rashid, O., Coulton, P.,and Edwards, R., “The Mobile Phone as a Digital SprayCan”, ACM SIGCHI International Conference On Advances In Computer Entertainment Technology, Hollywood, USA, 14-16 June 2006, pp 1-7, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1178823.1178837.

PAC-LAN: The Human Arcade

Rashid, O., Bamford,W., Coulton, P.,and Edwards, R., “PAC-LAN: The Human Arcade”, Demo ACM SIGCHI International Conference On Advances In Computer Entertainment Technology, Hollywood, USA, 14-16 June 2006, pp 1-2, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1178823.1178864.

A Massively Multi-Authored Mobile Surrealist Book

Bamford,W. Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “A Massively Multi-Authored Mobile Surrealist Book”, ACM SIGCHI International Conference On Advances In Computer Entertainment Technology, Hollywood, USA, 14-16 June 2006, pp 1-7, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1178823.1178837.

The UK’S Games Industry

Edwards,R., Coulton, P.,” The UK’S Games Industry” contribution to “Exploiting the Opportunities Building a World Class IT Profession in the Era of Global Sourcing”, Report by the British Computer Society Working Party on Offshoring, May 2006.

PAC-LAN: The Demo

Coulton, P., Rashid, O., and Bamford, W., “PAC-LAN: The Demo”, Third International Workshop on Pervasive Gaming Applications – PerGames 2006 ,Dublin, Ireland, 7th May 2006.

Location-based Mobile Blogging

Bamford, W., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “Location-based Mobile Blogging”, International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: From Theory to Applications, 24-28 April 2006, Damascus, Syria. IEEE Catalog Number 06EX1220C, ISBN 0-7803-9522-0

QoS Aware Bluetooth Middleware

Mutlu, U., Edwards, R., and Coulton, P., “QoS Aware Middleware for Bluetooth”, International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: From Theory to Applications, 24-28 April 2006, Damascus, Syria. IEEE Catalog Number 06EX1220C, ISBN 0-7803-9522-0

Advances in 3D Graphics for Smartphones

Chehimi, F., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R., “Advances in 3D Graphics for Smartphones”, International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: From Theory to Applications, 24-28 April 2006, Damascus, Syria. IEEE Catalog Number 06EX1220C, ISBN 0-7803-9522-0

Comprehensive distribution: a new ethos for effective e-development

Huang, H.C, Edwards, R., Coulton, P.,and Khirallah, C., “Comprehensive distribution: a new ethos for effective e-development”, International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: From Theory to Applications, 24-28 April 2006, Damascus, Syria. IEEE Catalog Number 06EX1220C, ISBN 0-7803-9522-0

The Transition from the Culture of Electronic (E) Business to that of Mobile (M) Business: An Educational Perspective

Dudin, B., Coulton, P., and Edwards, R.,”The Transition from the Culture of Electronic (E) Business to that of Mobile (M) Business: An Educational Perspective”, International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: From Theory to Applications, 24-28 April 2006, Damascus, Syria. IEEE Catalog Number 06EX1220C, ISBN 0-7803-9522-0

Mobile Terminated SMS Billing – Exploits and Security Analysis

Garner, P., Mullins, I., Edwards, R.,Coulton, P.,”Mobile Terminated SMS Billing – Exploits and Security Analysis”, in Proceedings of IEEE Third International Conference on Information Technology : New Generations, Las Vegas, April 2006.

Evaluation of Mobile technologies for assessing students’ knowledge improvement

Huang, H., Edwards, R. & Coulton, P. Evaluation of Mobile technologies for assessing students’ knowledge improvement. Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference 2006 (pp. 69-80). Chesapeake, VA, March 2006.

Converging Computer & Home Entertainment Devices in the Consumer Media Network Environment

Gilbertson, P., Edwards, R, and Coulton, P, “Converging Computer & Home Entertainment Devices in the Consumer Media Network Environment”, in Proceedings of IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, Las Vegas, January, 2006.

Extending Cyberspace:Location Based Games Using Cellular Phones

Rashid O.,Mullins I.,Coulton P., and Edwards R. “Extending Cyberspace:Location Based Games Using Cellular Phones”, ACM Computers in Entertainment,Vol 4, Issue 1, January, 2006.

Utilizing RFID for Mixed Reality Mobile Games

* Rashid O., Coulton P., Edwards R. and Bamford W. “Utilizing RFID for Mixed Reality Mobile Games”, in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics, January 2006.

Delivering 3D Advertising to Mobile Phones

Chehimi F., Coulton P. and Edwards R. “Delivering 3D Advertising to Mobile Phones”, in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics, January 2006.

Teaching DSP Techniques on FPGAs Using an Algorithmic Approach in Handel-C

Carline D.,Coulton P.“Teaching DSP Techniques on FPGAs Using an Algorithmic Approach in Handel-C”, in Proceedings of EEUG Workshop 7-8 September 2005.

Experiences of a Problem Solving Approach to Teaching FPGA Programming

Barrat K.,Coulton P.“Experiences of a Problem Solving Approach to Teaching FPGA Programming”, in Proceedings of EEUG Workshop 7-8 September 2005.

Aiding conceptualisation of the mobile channel and the operation of a RAKE receiver using a project developed in SIMULINK

Coulton P., Khirallah C., and Edwards R. “Aiding conceptualisation of the mobile channel and the operation of a RAKE receiver using a project developed in SIMULINK”, IJEEE, 42/, pp 211-222 July. 2005, ISSN0020-7209.

Creating Entertainment Applications for Cellular Phones

Coulton P., Rashid O., Edwards R. and Thompson R. “Creating Entertainment Applications for Cellular Phones”, ACM Computers in Entertainment, Vol 3, Issue 3, July, 2005.

Implementing Location Based Information/Advertising for Existing Mobile Phone Users in Indoor/Urban Environments

Rashid O., Coulton P. and Edwards R. “Implementing Location Based Information/Advertising for Existing Mobile Phone Users in Indoor/Urban Environments”, In Proceedings of IEEE Fourth International Conference on Mobile Business, Sydney Australia, July 2005.*

Evolution of 3D Games on Mobile Phones

Chehimi F., Coulton P. and Edwards R. “Evolution of 3D Games on Mobile Phones”, In Proceedings of IEEE Fourth International Conference on Mobile Business, Sydney Australia, July 2005.*

Mobile Ticketing System Employing TrustZone Technology

Wan Huzaini Wan Hussin, Paul Coulton, Reuben Edwards. “Mobile Ticketing System Employing TrustZone Technology,” In Proceedings of IEEE Fourth International Conference on Mobile Business, Sydney Australia, July 2005 pp. 651-654.

Mobile Information Systems Providing Estimated Time of Arrival for Public Transport Users

Rashid,O. Coulton,P. Fisher,A. Thompson,R. and Edwards,R. “Mobile Information Systems Providing Estimated Time of Arrival for Public Transport Users” VTC-Spring 2005, Stockholm, Sweden, pp 1-5 , ISBN0-7803-8888-7.

Multiple Input Multiple Output Techniques and Their Potential for Beyond 3G Systems

Coulton P., Khirallah C., and Dudin B. “Multiple Input Multiple Output Techniques and Their Potential for Beyond 3G Systems”, ASU/ IEEE International Conference on Telecomputing and Information Technology, September 22-24 2004, Amman, Jordan, pp 125-131.

Symbian, J2ME and Brew: A Comparative Study of Mobile Application Development

Coulton P., Edwards R., and Rashid O., “Symbian, J2ME and Brew: A Comparative Study of Mobile Application Development”, ASU/ IEEE International Conference on Telecomputing and Information Technology, September 22-24 2004, Amman, Jordan pp 142-150.

Current 3G Deployment Status in Jordan and Implications for its Society: A Case Study

Dudin B., Coulton P., Edwards R., and Said S., “Current 3G Deployment Status in Jordan and Implications for its Society: A Case Study”, ASU/ IEEE International Conference on Telecomputing and Information Technology, September 22-24 2004, Amman, Jordan pp 151-158.

QoS Model for Future Wireless Services: Incorporating the Social Dimension

Dudin B., Coulton P., and Edwards R., “QoS Model for Future Wireless Services: Incorporating the Social Dimension”, ASU/ IEEE International Conference on Telecomputing and Information Technology, September 22-24 2004, Amman, Jordan pp 159-163.

An SDR Inspired Design for the FPGA Implementation of 802.11a Baseband System

Coulton P., and Carline D., “An SDR Inspired Design for the FPGA Implementation of 802.11a Baseband System” Proceedings of 2004 IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics, September 1-3, Reading, UK,ISBN 0-7803-8527-6, ISCE_04_059 pp 1-6.

Widening Access to Broadband Hotspots Employing Bluetooth

Jamaluddin J., Nair R., Edwards R., and Coulton P., “Widening Access to Broadband Hotspots Employing Bluetooth” Proceedings of 2004 IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics, September 1-3, Reading, UK,ISBN 0-7803-8527-6, ISCE_04_077 pp 1-5.

Incorporation of User Behavioural Patterns in the Management of Quality–of–Service (QoS) for Future Mobile Networks

Dudin B., Agbetusin O., Coulton P., and Edwards R., “Incorporation of User Behavioural Patterns in the Management of Quality–of–Service (QoS) for Future Mobile Networks” Proceedings of 2004 IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics, September 1-3, Reading, UK,ISBN 0-7803-8527-6, ISCE_04_108 pp 1-5.

A Comparative Study of Mobile Application Development in Symbian and J2ME using the Example of a Live Football Results Service Operating over GPRS

Rashid O, Thompson R., Coulton P., and Edwards R., “A Comparative Study of Mobile Application Development in Symbian and J2ME using the Example of a Live Football Results Service Operating over GPRS” Proceedings of 2004 IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics, September 1-3, Reading, UK,ISBN 0-7803-8527-6, ISCE_04_060 pp 1-5.

Mobile Phone Vulnerabilities: A New Generation of Malware

Jamaluddin J., Zotou N., Edwards R., and Coulton P., “Mobile Phone Vulnerabilities: A New Generation of Malware” Proceedings of 2004 IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics, September 1-3, Reading, UK,ISBN 0-7803-8527-6, ISCE_04_124 pp 1-4.

High Data Rate Enhancement for Beyond 3G Services using Complete Complementary Codes

Khirallah C., Coulton P., Mohsin S., and Zein N. “High Data Rate Enhancement for Beyond 3G Services using Complete Complementary Codes”, 15th IEEE international Symposium on PIMRC 2004, Barcelona, Spain, ISBN 0-7803-8524-1 pp 1-5.

Improving Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access performance in frequency selective fading

Khirallah C., Coulton P., Mohsin S., and Ruan J. “Improving Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access performance in frequency selective fading”, accepted to the IEEE 6th CAS Symposium on Emerging Technologies: Frontiers of Mobile and Wireless Communication”, May 31- June 2, 2004, Shanghai, China.

A Novel Interference Cancellation Technique for MIMO CC-CDMA System

Khirallah C. Coulton P., and Ruan J., “A Novel Interference Cancellation Technique for MIMO CC-CDMA System”, 1st IEEE International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: from theory to Applications – ICTTA- April 19-23, 2004, Damascus, Syria pp 257-258.

A Fixed Point DSP implementation of a novel MIMO P2P Radio Link

Ruan J., Coulton P. , and Khirallah C. “A Fixed Point DSP implementation of a novel MIMO P2P Radio Link”, 1st IEEE International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: from theory to Applications – ICTTA- April 19-23, 2004, Damascus, Syria pp 247-248.

Working Towards 3G Licensing and Deployment in Jordan and the implications for others in the Levantine region

Coulton P., Khirallah C., Dudin B, and Edwards R. “Working Towards 3G Licensing and Deployment in Jordan and the implications for others in the Levantine region”, 1st IEEE International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: from theory to Applications – ICTTA- April 19-23, 2004, Damascus, Syria pp 227-228.

Experiences from 3G Rollout in the UK

Coulton P., Dudin B, and Khirallah C. and Edwards R “Experiences from 3G Rollout in the UK”, 1st IEEE International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: from theory to Applications – ICTTA- April 19-23, 2004, Damascus, Syria.

Enabling Fine Grained Hardware Platforms for Software Defined Radio

Coulton P., and Carline,.D. “Enabling Fine Grained Hardware Platforms for Software Defined Radio”, 1st IEEE International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: from theory to Applications – ICTTA- April 19-23, 2004, Damascus, Syria.

Live Information Update Services using GPRS

Coulton P., Rashid,O. and Amed,.H. “Live Information Update Services using GPRS”, 1st IEEE International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: from theory to Applications – ICTTA- April 19-23, 2004, Damascus, Syria 225-226.

Hotring Advertising Model for Broadband Hotspots

Jamaluddin,J. Edwards,R. and Coulton,P. “Hotring Advertising Model for Broadband Hotspots” accepted to IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference 2004 Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 21-25 March 2004.*

A Hybrid Operating Model for Wireless Hotspot Businesses

Jamaluddin,J., Edwards,R, Coulton,P. and Doherty .M “A Hybrid Operating Model for Wireless Hotspot Businesses” accepted for IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking 2004, Las Vegas, USA, January 5-8 2004.*

A Value Transfer Solution for Bluetooth Mobile Gaming

Garner, P, Mullins, I, Edwards, R. “A Value Transfer Solution for Bluetooth Mobile Gaming”, accepted for IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking 2004, Las Vegas, USA, January 5-8 2004

A simple rate matching technique for DS-CDMA system using Orthogonal Complete Complementary codes

Khirallah C.and Coulton,P “A simple rate matching technique for DS-CDMA system using Orthogonal Complete Complementary codes” 10th Symposium on Communications and Vehicular Technology , Eindhoven, The Netherlands, November 13, 2003, SCVT0305 pp 1-6 .

Conceptualising engineering subjects for wider participation

Edwards,R. and Coulton,P. “Conceptualising engineering subjects for wider participation” Proceedings of IEEE Frontiers in Education, Boulder, USA, November 3-8, 2003, Paper F3D-3, pp1-5, ISBN 0-7803-7962-4.*

Could computer game design become a core subject in engineering

Coulton,P. and Edwards,R. “Could computer game design become a core subject in engineering” Proceedings of IEEE Frontiers in Education, Boulder, USA, November 3-8, 2003, Paper T2F-5, pp 1-5, ISBN 0-7803-7962-4.*

Person to Person Mobile Commerce

Garner, P and Edwards,R “Person to Person Mobile Commerce”, 8th International Workshop on Mobile Multimedia Communications (MOMUC 2003), October 6-8th 2003.

Fixed and Floating Point Implementation of DS-CDMA system using Complete Complementary Codes Under Both Frequency-Selective and Flat Fading channel conditions

Khirallah C., Coulton P., Arora Y., and Ruan J. “Fixed and Floating Point Implementation of DS-CDMA system using Complete Complementary Codes Under Both Frequency-Selective and Flat Fading channel conditions” Proceedings of the IEE Colloquium on DSP Enabled Radio, ISLI, Scotland, UK, September 22-23,2003, Paper 3A.3 pp1-9.

Increasing the Spectral Efficiency in a fixed point-to-point Microwave Radio System using Multiple Antenna Arrays

Coulton P., Khirallah C., Qazi S.,“Increasing the Spectral Efficiency in a fixed point-to-point Microwave Radio System using Multiple Antenna Arrays” Proceedings of the IEE Colloquium on DSP Enabled Radio, ISLI, Scotland, UK, September 22-23,2003, Paper 2B.4 pp1-9.

Partial Reconfiguration on Xilinx Virtex FPGAs: Pitfalls and Solutions for SoC Implementations

Carline D., and Coulton, P., “Partial Reconfiguration on Xilinx Virtex FPGAs: Pitfalls and Solutions for SoC Implementations”, Proceedings of the IEE Colloquium on DSP Enabled Radio, ISLI, Scotland, UK, September 22-23,2003, Paper 2A.2 pp1-9.

32-bit DSP Implementation of Space-Time Mobile Channel Simulator

Ruan J., and Coulton, P., “32-bit DSP Implementation of Space-Time Mobile Channel Simulator”, Proceedings of the IEE Colloquium on DSP Enabled Radio, ISLI, Scotland, UK, September 22-23,2003, Paper P9 pp1-7.

Fixed Point implementation of HSDPA services

Ruan,J., Coulton,P., and Khirallah,C,. “Fixed Point implementation of HSDPA services” Proceedings of 14th IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, Beijing, China, September 7-10 2003, pp 2068-2072.*

A Controlled Date-Path Allocation Model for Dynamic Run-Time Reconfiguration of FPGA Devices

Carline, D., and Coulton, P., “A Controlled Date-Path Allocation Model for Dynamic Run-Time Reconfiguration of FPGA Devices”, Proceedings of 13th International Conference on Field Programmable Logic and Applications, Lisbon, Portugal, Sept 1-3 2003, pp 1115-1118.*

Novel Peer to Peer Payment Mechanism for Personal Area Network Mobile Gaming

Garner,P., Mullins,I. and Edwards, R. “Novel Peer to Peer Payment Mechanism for Personal Area Network Mobile Gaming” Proc. 4th Annual Postgraduate Symposium on the Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting, Liverpool, UK, 2003, ISBN 1-9025-6009-4.

Technologies for Future Run-Time Reconfigurable Scenarios

Carline,D., and Coulton,P. “Technologies for Future Run-Time Reconfigurable Scenarios” Proc. 4th Annual Postgraduate Symposium on the Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting, Liverpool, UK, 2003, pp 309-312, ISBN 1-9025-6009-4.

Applying Spatial Diversity to a Fixed Point-to-Point Microwave Radio System

Khirallah,C., Coulton,P., Qazi,S. and Zein,N,. “Applying Spatial Diversity to a Fixed Point-to-Point Microwave Radio System” Proc. 4th Annual Postgraduate Symposium on the Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting, Liverpool, UK, 2003, pp 256-258, ISBN 1-9025-6009-4.

Using Simulink to Facilitate a Fixed Point DSP implementation of a V-BLAST Receiver

* Ruan,J., Coulton,P and Khirallah,C,. “Using Simulink to Facilitate a Fixed Point DSP implementation of a V-BLAST Receiver” Proc. 4th Annual Postgraduate Symposium on the Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting, Liverpool, UK, 2003, pp 251-253, ISBN 1-9025-6009-4.

Providing a Risk Analysis Framework for Potential Users of Wireless Technology

Jamaluddin,J., Edwards,R, and Coulton,P. “Providing a Risk Analysis Framework for Potential Users of Wireless Technology” Proc. 4th Annual Postgraduate Symposium on the Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting, Liverpool, UK, 2003, pp 72-77, ISBN 1-9025-6009-4.

Paradigm of Instructional Agent System

Huang, H, Edwards, R, “Paradigm of Instructional Agent System”, Proc. 4th Annual Postgraduate Symposium on the Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting, Liverpool, UK, 2003

CORBA in Mobile Communications

Mutlu, U, Edwards, R, “CORBA in Mobile Communications”, Proc. 4th Annual Postgraduate Symposium on the Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting, Liverpool, UK, 2003

Adaptive Real-Time Systems and the FPAA

Colsell, SA, Edwards, R, “Adaptive Real-Time Systems and the FPAA“, 13th International Conference on Field Programmable Logic and Applications”, Lisbon, Portugal, September 2003

Mobile Bluetooth Networking: Technical Considerations and Applications

Garner,P., Edwards,R “Mobile Bluetooth Networking: Technical Considerations and Applications”, Proceedings of the IEE Fourth International Conference on 3G Mobile Communication Technologies, IEE Conference Publication No. 494, London, UK, 25-27 June 2003.

A Channel Estimation Scheme for Space Time HSDPA services

Ruan,J. Coulton,P., and Khirallah,C. “A Channel Estimation Scheme for Space Time HSDPA services”, European Personal Mobile Communications Conference (EPMCC 2003) 22 – 25 April 2003, Glasgow pp 417-421 .*

Per-Survivor Processing Phase Synchronisation Acquisition Techniques for 8PSK DVB-S TCM

Barratt,K.A. Coulton,P. and Honary,B. “Per-Survivor Processing Phase Synchronisation Acquisition Techniques for 8PSK DVB-S TCM”, 2002, Recent Trends in Multimedia Information Processing, pp. 141-146, ISBN: 981-238-243-7

FPAA versus FPGA for Future Mobile Communications

Colsell, SA, Edwards, R, et al, “FPAA versus FPGA for Future Mobile Communications”, 9th International Workshop on System, Signals, and Image Processing, UMIST, UK, November, 2002

Reconfigurable Computing using FPGAs: Is Jbits the Answer?

Carline, D., and Coulton, P., “Reconfigurable Computing using FPGAs: Is Jbits the Answer?”, 2002, Recent Trends in Multimedia Information Processing, pp. 170-174, ISBN: 981-238-243-7

A Novel Watermarking Technique for LUT Based FPGA Designs

Carline, D., and Coulton, P., “A Novel Watermarking Technique for LUT Based FPGA Designs”, Springer-Verlag 2002 Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2438, pp. 1152-1155, ISBN: 3-540-44108-5.

Adaptive Soft-Decision Decoding in Two Dimensions

Peng,X. Coulton,P and Farrell,P. “Adaptive Soft-Decision Decoding in Two Dimensions” Information Coding and Mathematics, Kluwer 2002, ISBN 1-4020-7079-9, pp 299-321.*

Performance of Space-Time Coding for 3GPP HSDAPA Service Under Flat and Frequency Selective Fading Conditions

Kirallah,C. Coulton,P. Zein,N. and Webster,S. “Performance of Space-Time Coding for 3GPP HSDAPA Service Under Flat and Frequency Selective Fading Conditions”, Proceedings of Third International Conference on 3G Mobile Communication Technologies, London, UK, 8-10 May 2002, ISBN 0852967491, pp 133-136.*

Authentication of LUT based FPGA configuration Files

Carline,D. and Coulton,P. “Internet Authentication of LUT based FPGA configuration Files”, Proceedings IPDPS 2002 Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA 15th-18th April 2002, ISBN 0-7695-1573-8.

Defining Performance Limits for Turbo-Code Assisted Synchronization in DVB-S Systems

* Barratt,K.A. Coulton,P. and Honary,B. “Defining Performance Limits for Turbo-Code Assisted Synchronization in DVB-S Systems “, IEEE Transactions on Broadcast, Vol 47, No 4, December 2001, pp 348-356.

Graph Configurations and Decoding Procedures

Paire,J. Coulton,P. and Farrell,P. “Graph Configurations and Decoding Procedures” Cryptography and Coding Proceedings of 8th IMA International Conference, Cirencester, UK, December 2001,pp 158-165, ISBN 3-540-43026-1.

Translational Decoding for Adaptive Trellis Coded Modulation

Palacios, L, Edwards, R, Honary, B, “Translational Decoding for Adaptive Trellis Coded Modulation”, 6th International Symposium on Communication Theory and Applications, Ambleside, pp. 164-167, July 2001

Psychoacoustic Properties of Multi-Channel Audio Signals

Carline, DTF, Edwards, R, Coulton, P, “Psychoacoustic Properties of Multi-Channel Audio Signals”, Proc. 2nd Annual Postgraduate Symposium on The Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking, and Broadcasting, pp. 183-189, June 2001

Reconfigurable Technologies Providing a Platform for Future Mobile Communication Systems

* Colsell, S, Edwards, R, Honary, B, “Reconfigurable Technologies Providing a Platform for Future Mobile Communication Systems”, Proc. 2nd Annual Postgraduate Symposium on The Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking, and Broadcasting, pp. 212-215, June 2001

A Comparative Study of Reconfigurable Digital and Analogue Technologies for Future Mobile Communication Systems

Colsell, S, Edwards, R, “A Comparative Study of Reconfigurable Digital and Analogue Technologies for Future Mobile Communication Systems”, 3G Mobile Communication Technologies, pp. 302-305, March 2001

Performance bounds for double sampling ML-DD feedback timing synchronisers in turbo code systems

Barratt,K.A. Coulton,P. and Honary,B. “ Performance bounds for double sampling ML-DD feedback timing synchronisers in turbo code systems“, IEE Electronic Letters, Volume 37, Number 7, March 29th 2001, pp 442-443.

Multi-user detection in spread spectrum communications using Direction-Of-Arrival (DOA) estimation

Kirallah,C. Coulton,P and Al-Hamad,H. “Multi-user detection in spread spectrum communications using Direction-Of-Arrival (DOA) estimation”, Proceedings of COST 262 workshop on Multi-ser detection in spread spectrum communications. Schloss Reisenburg, Ulm, Germany 17-18 January 2001, pp 133-137

Mirage Space

Motion controlled 3D multiplayer space combat game. Mirage Space uses the same S60 Mirage-X API to create a motion controlled 3D space battle game in which you compete with opponents via Bluetooth to save the galaxy. As can be seen the video shows players first select their space ship and then they must engage in a space dogfight shooting their opponents as they appear on their screen. The player movement is controlled entirely through tilt but speed and fire are controlled via the joypad using up and centre button respectively.

Mobi-Tron

Mobi-Tron in action

The game is based on the old arcade classic Tron which was first released in 1982 to coincide with the Walt Disney picture of the same name. Although the arcade game consisted of four sub-games: Light Cycles; MCP Cone; Input/Output Tower; and Battle Tanks, it is the Light Cycle game most often associated with the title. The game requires the blue player to guide his light cycle around the game arena meanwhile avoiding running into walls or the light trails left by his or the opposing player’s yellow cycle.In the arcade game it could be played as either a two-player game or against an Artificial Intelligence (AI) opponent. Mobi-Tron basically employs the same game play, although there is currently no option to play against the computer. However, it does allow more than two players to be active in a game simultaneously. The players’ names are displayed as their Bluetooth friendly names at the top of the screen and each player starts from opposite corners of the game board. The play continues until one player has either crossed their own or opponents trail or runs into one of the side walls.

Tilt Racer

Tilt Racer is a novel multiplayer game running on a large public display were the players cars are controlled using Nokia 5500 with their in-built 3-D motion sensors via Bluetooth.

Tunnel Run

In terms of games implemented using tilt on mobile phones there have been numerous implementations using the camera and one for the Nokia 5500 using the accelerometers all of which have been based on the marble type games previously described. Whilst these games are no doubt fun, they are replicating the existing game input mechanic of the previous games and in this research we wanted to explore tilt in relation to other game genres. Therefore, for this project we decided to implement a 3D graphics first person driving game which has been called Tunnel Run.

MIRAGE-X

• Mirage Money Experience For Mobile HCI

Since the advent of accelerometers on programmable mobile phones an array of implementations have appeared from navigating through menus without pressing buttons to creating Wii-like game controllers for games running on large public screens as in Tilt Racer and Tunnel Run. However, all of these controllers limited the interaction experience in the 2-D visual plane. The MIRAGE-X API we present here allows the use of the in-built accelerometers on mobile phones to maneuver in 3-D OpenGL ES virtual or augmented reality (mixed reality) worlds with full 3-D motion control. The API is currently implemented for the most prevalent smart phone platform: the Symbian OS. It provides the user with a first-person view which allows for instinctive navigation through the 3-D world by simply moving the phone in the direction the user wishes to go to. According to that movement the relative view direction in the 3-D environments gets updated and displayed on screen.

The game MirageMoney has been developed as the first demonstration of the capabilities MIRAGE-X API. The game is a flight-simulation with the phone screen being the window to the virtual, or augmented, world the player is flying through. The mission of the player is to control his/her plane and ‘fly’ around in the 3-D world collecting the floating silver and gold coins by colliding with them on the screen.

This control is achieved by pitching the phone up or down and rotating it clock-wise or counter clock-wise as in the pictures below. Note that speed through the world is controlled by the joy-pad buttons: up tp speed-up, down to slow-down.

Download Mirage Money application to your phone from MOSH

Mirage Money Forum

Poppet

The system developed is part of a generic framework, which we have termed Poppet , for utilizing on-board phone sensors such as cameras, accelerometers, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)/ Near Field Communications (NFC), which can be linked to games running on large public displays via Bluetooth.

Poppet public display controller framework

Although Poppet is capable of addressing a range of devices, in this section, we specifically describe the design challenges involved in producing a mobile client for the Nokia 5500 together with its on-board accelerometers.

Accessing the 3-D motion sensors requires the use of the Symbian Sensor API which is similar in function to J2ME’s Mobile Sensor API (JSR-256). Both of these APIs provides the potential to access a wide range of sensors such as accelerometers, thermometers, barometers, and humidity monitors, in fact any type of sensor designed to be incorporated in a mobile phone, or those accessible via Bluetooth. Sensors need only be supported by the API library to be usable. The Symbian Sensor API is available from Nokia and requires the use of the Symbian S60 3rd Edition SDK. Whilst there is support for the Symbian Sensor API on several mobile devices, there are currently no mobile phones that include JSR-256. The general Poppet framework uses J2ME, as this is currently the most widely deployed mobile platform. Although the sensor data is not directly accessible from J2ME because of the lack of JSR-256 as previously highlighted, the problem can be overcome by using a socket connection on the mobile phone to allow access to native services. The general solution for accessing native services from J2ME on Symbian S60 phones is by opening a low level socket connection in a Symbian C++ application then connecting to the defined port on the loop-back address from the J2ME application. Thus the Symbian C++ application can retrieve any information from the phone and then the data can be passed to any other application that can process the received information. This solution has been applied in our simple mobile client to allow J2ME applications to access the 3-D sensor data. The connection between the game client and server is based on Bluetooth, which creates a reasonably high bandwidth (data rates can vary between 1 megabit and a few kilobits per second depending upon the type of transfer mode initiated) between the devices. In order to allow a device to become discoverable by others, it is necessary to advertise at least one Bluetooth service. In the case of Poppet, the mobile client implementation uses the official Java Bluetooth API (JSR-82) to alleviate porting issues.

We were 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. We have created not only bespoke mobile application that allows any suitable mobile camera phone to be used for functionality but is programmable for a variety of operating parameters time of operation, frequency etc. The resultant images can be viewed as a series of time lapse photographs at the project site

Mobile sensor cam project in ealy test phase using additional solar panel

River Flow Monitoring

River flow monitoring system

Our influence on the changing natural environment poses many challenges for future generations. One obvious environmental change relates to the increasing regularity of flooding. Monitoring river and stream velocity enables the accurate modelling of flood planes, river bank erosion, and mans influence over the natural environment. The remote monitoring unit developed for this project gives the environmental science community a ‘real time’ cost effective data collection system, freeing up large amounts of time spent out in the field gathering data and eliminating the potential for human error during the recording process. The system incorporates a sensor placed in the river that users Doppler shift to esimate the flow rate of the river. A unit on the bank relays the sensor reading plus a GPS time stamp to a central server using a GPRS connection to the celluar network. With cellular coverage now extended to even the most remote rural of areas systems this project highlights that mass monitoring of stream and river networks is now a practical solution.

Bus ETA

Application showing ETA of bus at selected stop

Whilst it is readily accepted that mobile phones enable users to obtain information quickly and easily in any location, there are a great many ways in which this information can be accessed and provided. Although mobile phone manufacturers are embracing standardization of mobile phone operating systems, as yet there is no clear market leader, which coupled with extremely variable phone feature sets, make porting applications to different platforms a challenging experience. Further to this, is the fact that even within technologically advanced societies large sections of the population are technologically naïve. Thus, the development of information systems that can be accessed by large numbers of the general public from mobile phones, can be problematic, and all too often such systems provide only a single mode access solution, which limits both their acceptance and usefulness. In this project we developed a mobile information system which has been designed so that it can accommodate both the variation in mobile phone features and the technical sophistication of individual users and can be easily deployed for a wide variety of services. The system was demonstrated through an example service which demonstrated information related to the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) of vehicles in a metro-bus public transport system. The solution illustrates that information can be provided in different forms, to suit individual users preferences, from the same mobile information system, without significant increases in the underlying infrastructure.

Heart Angel is a Java ME application making use an Alive ECG Heart-Rate Monitor, and allows users to monitor and record their fitness levels on a mobile phone. The application incorporates two cardio respiratory tests, an independent monitoring application “Jog-Free”, as well as a simple mini-game.

Cardio Respiratory Test:

1. The Tecumseh Step-Test; step cycle of four-steps (R-foot UP, L-foot UP, R-foot DOWN, L-foot DOWN) and users is required to complete 24 cycles per minute for 3 minutes.

2. Rockport Test; Users walks for 1 mile after which an estimate on VO2max (volume of oxygen you can consume while exercising) is calculated using gender, age, weight, and the time taken to complete the walk.

“Free-Jog”:

Allows the use of GPS together with the Alive Heart-Rate Monitor to route data being saved together with time and Heart Rate, allowing users to independently plot exertion maps for analysis and future reference.

Heart Controlled Mini-Game:

A simple “Space Invaders” theme game which makes use of the players Heart Rate. At random intervals the player will be promped with a ‘Bonus-Screen’ at which time they should aim to raise their Heart Rate by 10beats/min. If successful the player is awarded a bonus, otherwise the game simply resumes.

Exertion Maps

Exertion Maps are a convinient way to represent and analyze Heart Rate over time, and position.
The Exertion Map on the left shows two exertion paths, one walked and the other jogged. Both routes starts with an incline, at which point HR is highest, then flaten to finally decline. Half-way through the Jog a break was taken, which explains the decrease in HR.

This 2D map is a convient way to show HR relative to position. But for clearer analysis, 3D Exertion Maps can also be used in which time can be plotted so show HR and position, over time. In the current 2D map how long the Walk/Jog took is not appreciated, as is how long HR was maintained for.
Data was collected using Heart Angel’s “Free-Jop” application.

Example annoucement to Infolab21 visitors

In the emerging world of m-commerce potential users consistently cite location based services as a technology they would be interested in using. However, solutions to obtaining the specific location of the user predominately rely on the provision of additional hardware and/or software within the mobile phone or the system infrastructure. These techniques are often inappropriate for indoor and highly urban environments where the line of sight to the location measurement unit is often unavailable resulting in inaccurate and unreliable positional information. In this project we developed a system that can be used with any current mobile phone system to provide location based information/advertisements to any mobile phone, equipped with Bluetooth technology, without any necessity of installing client side software. The system can be used to provide systems such as location based information for tourist in cities or museums or location based advertisements.

3D Mobile Advertising

Mobile 3D advert for a lovely vase

Providing advertising to mobile phones currently is limited to either: commercial text messages; short-code text-back messages; two dimensional (2D) images; or Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) clickable push links. None of these traditional methods facilitate an advertising approach were consumers can interact with prospective purchases. In this project we have introduced a novel and highly interactive location- and permission based advertising system that allows 3D product adverts to be displayed on users’ mobile phones. With mobile phones and 3D interactive tools, advertising becomes more engaging, rewarding and entertaining and provides marketing executives with new means of directing their campaigns to a more specific target audience.