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Interacting with mobile services: an evaluation of camera-phones and visual tags

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Abstract

We present a study of using camera-phones and visual-tags to access mobile services. Firstly, a user-experience study is described in which participants were both observed learning to interact with a prototype mobile service and interviewed about their experiences. Secondly, a pointing-device task is presented in which quantitative data was gathered regarding the speed and accuracy with which participants aimed and clicked on visual-tags using camera-phones. We found that participants’ attitudes to visual-tag-based applications were broadly positive, although they had several important reservations about camera-phone technology more generally. Data from our pointing-device task demonstrated that novice users were able to aim and click on visual-tags quickly (well under 3 s per pointing-device trial on average) and accurately (almost all meeting our defined speed/accuracy tradeoff of 6% error-rate). Based on our findings, design lessons for camera-phone and visual-tag applications are presented.

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Notes

  1. We chose to study these ranges of diameters and distances because we felt they were typical of those that may be encountered in tag-based interactions with mobile services (e.g. consider the plausible tag sizes and inter-tag distances that may be designed into posters).

  2. Although recorded by computer, the times were measured by the camera-phone itself. This ensured that the latency and jitter of the Bluetooth connection (used by the phone to communicate with the computer) did not affect our data.

  3. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) established that the practice effect on clicking time was statistically significant (for α=0.05): F(1,17)=6.055, p=0.025.

  4. Collapsing across both sessions, linear correlation between error rate and tag diameter yielded r=−0.39, with 99% confidence intervals for ρ of (−0.554, −0.189). Note that this effect was also observed for session 1 and session 2 independently. For session 1, r=−0.30 with 99% confidence intervals for ρ of (−0.48,−0.09); for session 2, r=−0.37 with 99% confidence intervals for ρ of (−0.53,−0.17).

  5. Linear correlation between clicking time and tag diameter yielded r=0.05, with 95% confidence intervals for ρ of (−0.113,0.212).

  6. As a rule of thumb, a number smaller than 3.5 mm requires a user to hold their camera-phone closer to tags than our participants did; conversely, a number greater than 3.5 mm requires users to hold their phones further away from tags.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Rob Ennals for his valuable comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intel Research Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Eleanor Toye & Richard Sharp

  2. Computer Laboratory, Cambridge University, 15 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0FD, UK

    Anil Madhavapeddy, David Scott, Eben Upton & Alan Blackwell

Authors
  1. Eleanor Toye
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  2. Richard Sharp
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  3. Anil Madhavapeddy
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  4. David Scott
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  5. Eben Upton
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  6. Alan Blackwell
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Correspondence to Eleanor Toye.

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Toye, E., Sharp, R., Madhavapeddy, A. et al. Interacting with mobile services: an evaluation of camera-phones and visual tags. Pers Ubiquit Comput 11, 97–106 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-006-0064-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-006-0064-9

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