Mobile Interaction with Real World Services

This diploma thesis presents a generic approach to complex Physical Mobile Interaction that is based on the exploitation of Semantic Web Services. In this context, a framework is introduced that uses the flexibility and expressiveness of Semantic Web Service descriptions for the automatic and dynamic generation of adaptable user interfaces that support and facilitate Physical Mobile Interaction. Thereby, this diploma thesis focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of a prototype client application that builds upon this framework in order to improve the mobile interaction with physical objects and provide more intuitive means for interactions with associated digital information and services. Based on the results of a preliminary user study and rapid prototyping which confirmed the overall approach, a prototype application was designed and implemented in order to be used with use case scenarios for mobile ticketing. For that purpose, the client application intermediates between Semantic Web Services and Physical Mobile Interaction on a generic level, as it exploits exchangeable Physical Mobile Interaction techniques for the invocation of different services within the framework for their mutual benefit. While the Web Services and their descriptions provide a rich background for complex Physical Mobile Interactions on one hand, their invocation is facilitated through the more familiar mobile interaction with physical objects on the other hand. The current implementation of the mobile client application supports the selection of physical objects through Touching, based on Near Field Communication technology, Pointing, based on the recognition of visual markers, and Direct Input that is implicitly supported by common interface widgets.