Abstract ‘‘Mobile tourism’’ represents a relatively new
trend in the field of tourism and involves the use of mobile
devices as electronic tourist guides. While much of the
underlying technology is already available, there are still
open challenges with respect to design, usability, portability,
functionality and implementation aspects. Most
existing ‘‘mobile tourism’’ solutions either represent of-theshelf
applications with rigidly defined content or involve
portable devices with networking capabilities that access
tourist content with the requirement of constant airtime,
i.e., continuous wireless network coverage. This paper
presents the design and implementation issues of a ‘‘mobile
tourism’’ research prototype, which brings together the
main assets of the two aforementioned approaches.
Namely, it enables the creation of portable tourist applications
with rich content that matches user preferences.
The users may download these personalized applications
(optimized for their specific device’s model) either directly
to their mobile device or first to a PC and then to a mobile
terminal (through infrared or bluetooth). Thereafter, network
coverage is not further required as the applications
execute in standalone mode and may be updated when the
user returns online. The dynamically created tourist
applications also incorporate a ‘‘push model’’, wherein new
tourist content is forwarded to the mobile terminal with
minimal user intervention as soon as it is added or updated
by the administrator. Our prototype has been developed on
the top of Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) which offers an
ideal platform for the development of full-fledged, interactive
and portable applications tailored for resourceconstrained
mobile devices. The paper presents our
development experiences with J2ME and highlights its
main advantages and shortcomings in relation to the
implementation of such kind of applications. Finally, an
empirical evaluation of user experience with the mobile
application prototype is presented.
Abstract ‘‘Mobile tourism’’ represents a relatively newtrend in the field of tourism and involves the use of mobiledevices as electronic tourist guides. While much of theunderlying technology is already available, there are stillopen challenges with respect to design, usability, portability,functionality and implementation aspects. Mostexisting ‘‘mobile tourism’’ solutions either represent of-theshelfapplications with rigidly defined content or involveportable devices with networking capabilities that accesstourist content with the requirement of constant airtime,i.e., continuous wireless network coverage. This paperpresents the design and implementation issues of a ‘‘mobiletourism’’ research prototype, which brings together themain assets of the two aforementioned approaches.Namely, it enables the creation of portable tourist applicationswith rich content that matches user preferences.The users may download these personalized applications(optimized for their specific device’s model) either directlyto their mobile device or first to a PC and then to a mobileterminal (through infrared or bluetooth). Thereafter, networkcoverage is not further required as the applicationsexecute in standalone mode and may be updated when theuser returns online. The dynamically created touristapplications also incorporate a ‘‘push model’’, wherein newtourist content is forwarded to the mobile terminal withminimal user intervention as soon as it is added or updatedby the administrator. Our prototype has been developed onthe top of Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) which offers anideal platform for the development of full-fledged, interactiveand portable applications tailored for resourceconstrainedmobile devices. The paper presents ourdevelopment experiences with J2ME and highlights itsmain advantages and shortcomings in relation to theimplementation of such kind of applications. Finally, anempirical evaluation of user experience with the mobileapplication prototype is presented.
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