Mobile Bristol

Rapid Authoring of Mediascapes

Richard Hul, Ben Clayton, Tom Melamed

This paper presents an authoring system for using location-based data to deliver audio content to a mobile device.

Sensed data is GPS carried with the user's mobile device.

The system is authored on a separate platform and downloaded to the mobile device.

A graphical user interface is used to author the system, allowing the user to specify locations and areas of activity on a map as the users location changes and enters these areas, audio events are triggered in response to the action.

The paradigm is very simple from a sensing perspective, although there are some ambiguities that have to be resolved in relation to the GPS data. GPS data is accurate to 20 meters. Because of this, the actual location of the user may not correspond to the desired audio response the actual position.

The underlying structure uses an XML framework to describe the actions that are taken by the system. In this sense the system is a script-based system with a graphical front end.

The list based action editor is interesting to note. It provides a way to take sensing data and link it to media actions at a course level.

The system is an example of defining a simple set of capabilities to gain access by non-programmers and still maintaining expressive range within the genre it operates within. The program allows a particular type of location based media-presentation experience to be authored.