Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1. A passenger accessing Mobile Internet
content through information tags available in a
bus. Note that the symbol indicating the area to be
touched is different in this version of information
tags. It was later changed into an N-like symbol
visible in the other figures.
some 850 high-tech companies based in the Oulu
area, employing some 18,500 people. (Ministry
for Foreign Affairs of Finland, 2009)
Information Tag Trial
In the information tag trial, 2650 NFC tags pro-
viding access points to selected Mobile Internet
content were distributed in public places in the
city of Oulu. The vision of this trial was that tags
placed in our everyday environment can provide
location-aware access to Mobile Internet content
and services for visitors or people passing by.
Service and content access could be provided by
commercial players, public authorities, commu-
nities and even private persons, as NFC tags are
cheap and easy to program. In our trial, the tags
providing a mixed-reality user interface to access
the Mobile Internet were called “information tags”
to depict the specific nature of information access.
Information tags were placed in different
contexts:
•
access to news through a Mobile Internet
version of local newspaper
•
the menu of a local restaurant
•
the menu of a local pub
•
the program of local theatre
•
on parking meters. The parking meters
were placed outside on the pavements.
People parking their cars used the park-
ing meters, and also people walking by
passed the parking meters within touching
distance.
•
an operator portal for city-specific
information
In addition to generic content, theatre, bus
stops and pub-provided content specific to those
environments was given. In the theatre, informa-
tion about plays including, for example, trailers
and the director's comments, could be accessed
through tags placed in posters (as seen in Figure 2).
At bus stops, the users could access real-time bus
schedule information through an information tag.
In the pub, the clients could use the information
tags to access Mobile Internet content describ-
ing the special selection of beers available (see
Figure 3). The total number of tags distributed in
the city was 2,650.
The goal of the information tags was to provide
a generic service for people visiting the places in
which the tags were placed. However, for research
purposes, we needed to recruit users in order to
•
theatre. In a theatre, information tags were
placed on large posters on walls, and on
stands placed on the tables of cafeterias
and halls.
•
restaurant. In a restaurant, information tags
were placed on stands placed on the tables.
•
pub. In a pub, information tags were placed
on the bar and tables for clients.
•
in a bus and at bus stops. In the bus, infor-
mation tags were attached within reach of
the passengers (see Figure 1).
In all contexts, a selected set of tags providing
Mobile Internet content access was provided. This
generic set of content contained the following:
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