1. MPLAT: Technology

2. Wide Range of Ubiquitous Technologies: Personal Devices: –Mobile Phones (3G, EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth) –PDA’s (Bluetooth, WiFi) –MP3 Players –Laptops (Bluetooth, WiFi) –Cameras/Camera Phones –Digital audio recorders (Dictaphones/PDAs) –New generation of integrated devices E.g. Hugh has a HP GPS PDA Phone, with GPRS, Bluetooth and enough memory to act as an iPod Nano Located Devices –Touchscreens, Intelligent Signs –Desktop PCs Location Technologies: –Global Positioning Systems –Cell based (for mob phones) –Bespoke (e.g. ultrasonic positioning)

3. What are the Contextual Considerations? What is permissible in the environment? –Radio frequency restrictions –Privacy Issues (photos, audio recording, etc) –Data protection (if integrating with existing systems) What is intrusive? –Notifications (sounds, lights) –Input mechanisms (keyboards, stylus, mouse, voice, touch) –Mobile devices easy to carry/use –Located Devices easy to maintain in the environment

4. Other Considerations What do students and mentors already own? –Leverage existing technology infrastructure –No learning curve –Easier to incorporate into existing practise –People may be unwilling to replace their own devices (i.e. may want keep their own phones) Development effort –Easier to build apps for laptops than PDAs, easier to build apps for PDAs than phones –Browser based (Web/WAP)? Possible to have multi-access (via a range of devices) Costs –Are their external contributions? –Is part of the point to make it affordable? –What happens if someone loses or breaks a device?

5. Our Aim (it's a lot harder than it sounds) - should be a toolkit that: –Uses existing devices wherever possible –Can be accessed in a variety of ways (phones, PDAs, Web browsers, etc) –Is composed of simple apps that are loosely coupled (perhaps as REST services) –Function as independently as possible –Can be used/combined in a number of ways as needed