1. Web Based Device Independent Mobile Map Applications. The m-Chartis System J. Garofalakis T. Michail A. Plessas Computer Engineering & Informatics Dept. University of Patras Computer Technology Institute

2. Background (1) Mobile devices: mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs, Tablet PCs Recent years: important progress in mobile telecommunications and devices Users requirements: info anytime, anywhere Result development of LBS and map applications

3. Background (2) Most applications are not device independent: Client side approach (downloading the application) Special software needs to be installed Java enabled or i-mode phones PDA or mobile, but not both

4. Constraints of mobile devices Screen size and resolution Number of colors, compared to desktop monitors Limited processing power and storage space Low data transfer rates and high cost Not functional interaction with the user Each limitation is not met in the same extent in all devices

5. Device independence – our approach Our approach takes into consideration handhelds constraints and capabilities: Web based approach (simple web pages) XHTML Mobile Profile pages No dependence on the connection service (WAP 2.0, i-mode etc) Pages designed to have the smallest possible size Possibility to change the size and the zoom level of maps

6. Device independence – testing the application In order to confirm that the application is running properly, it was tested with the following devices: Samsung X460 and D500 (simple phone) Qtek 8020 (smartphone) HP iPAQ hw6510 (PDA)

7. The m-CHARTIS system - overview Aim: management of information for cities that would be accessible through maps in mobile devices Two parts: administrator tool and mobile application Administrator tool: managing information Mobile application: accessing this information The system can serve many uses and function as a tourist or professional guide etc

8. Technical details PHP and GD library MySQL XHTML Mobile Profile Geographic data in digital file format

9. Geographic data Maps produced from the processing of digital spatial data Digital files with spatial coordinates, not images MIF (Mapinfo data interchange format) : text files for the description of digital data Easy processing of data Scaling and resizing without loss of information and quality

10. Administrator tool (1) Secondary web based tool that requires desktop computer Features: Insert, delete and modify cities Insert, delete and modify categories for points of interests. For example museums, restaurants, hotels etc Insert delete and modify points of interests. For example the archeological museum or the Hilton hotel

11. Administrator tool (2) Screenshot: The citys index page

12. Mobile application (1) Specifically designed for mobile devices following special guidelines Features: Select one of the available cities View general information that the administrator has added for each city Navigate through the map of the city. Navigation starts from pre-specified points. Map scaling and resizing available Search for points of interest Search for streets

13. Mobile application (2) Screenshot: Navigation page

14. Mobile application (3) Screenshot: Searching a point

15. Map Drawing A parser reads spatial data from the files and applies the appropriate mathematical transformations to the coordinates The map is generated with the use of functions of the GD library

16. Measurements (1) Usage scenario for bandwidth and time overhead measurements Script execution time (the overall time depends on the network) Total KBs received Use of the application with Samsung X460 (mobile phone), Qtek 8020 (smartphone) and HP PDA

17. Measurements (2) Largest page, maximum script execution time: Mobile phone (128x160) : 7.90 KBs, 0.041 sec Smartphone (176x220): 13.4 KBs, 0.06 sec PDA (240x240): 19,3 KBs, 0.07

18. Conclusions m-CHARTIS system presentation: a mobile map application Aim: dissemination of location based information to mobile users Emphasis on device independence Exploitation of capabilities of each device for better interaction

19. Future work Evaluation and user assessment of the application Improvements based on the conclusions of the evaluation Addition of new features such as finding the shortest path from one location of the map to another

20. End of presentation THANK YOU!!!