1. 4/1/2009
History in your hands: The development
of location based applications for the
of location‐based applications for the
public
Tom Pert
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
R lC i i th A i t d Hi t i l
Monuments of Wales
Comisiwn Brenhinol Henebion Cymru
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Wales
The national body of research and record for the historic
environment of Wales
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2. 4/1/2009
Connected Spaces
• How can we combine information and multi‐
media and make it available in formats readily
usable by the public?
• Focus on the use of mobile devices
Focus on the use of mobile devices.
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3. 4/1/2009
Changing technologies
• Mobile platforms, functionality and
performance are constantly developing
f l d l i
• These changes in technology have been
mirrored by the development of mobile
applications by the Royal Commission
applications by the Royal Commission
2005-06: The Ruthin e-trail
Aims:
• Deliver heritage information in new and innovative way to a
wider audience
• Introduce Welsh Baccalaureate students to the
fundamentals of GIS, GPS and mobile technology
• Enable students to develop measurable key skills which will
count towards their attainment of the Welsh Baccalaureate
• Develop our understanding of how to deliver Coflein
information to mobile devices
E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail
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4. 4/1/2009
Basic Equipment
Compact Flash GPS
Receiver
AquaPac
Waterproof
bag
HP IPAQ PDA
ESRI ArcPad
Mobile GIS
E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail
Using the e-trail
Tap on any of the highlighted
buildings to access information
and images from the
Tap Denbighshire Record Office
and RCAHMW’s COFLEIN
web service.
E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail
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5. 4/1/2009
E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail
E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail
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6. 4/1/2009
E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail
Education
Students visiting the Record Office
E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail
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7. 4/1/2009
Welsh Baccalaureate
Students at Ysgol Brynhyfryd,
Ruthin, creating their own E-Trails.
E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail
2007‐08: Blaenavon town e‐trail
Changing Hardware
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8. 4/1/2009
Changing Software
The Blaenavon Town e-trail
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9. 4/1/2009
Blaenavon World Heritage Centre
14 HP iPAQ Travel Companions
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10. 4/1/2009
www.mscapers.com
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11. 4/1/2009
Education – Coleg Gwent IT students
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12. 4/1/2009
Education – Coleg Gwent IT students
Future development
Sensor Range Interaction mode
RFID 1cm Touch
2D barcodes 10cm Focus
Infrared 5m Point
RF pingers 50m Approach
Transition from outdoor to indoor space with use of spatial triggers
other than GPS.
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13. 4/1/2009
2009-10: Casgliad y Bobl / The People’s Collection
Casgliad y B bl / Th P
C li d Bobl The People's C ll ti represents an i
l ' Collection t important O W l
t t One Wales
commitment to develop an innovative approach to collect, interpret, distribute and
discuss Wales' cultural heritage in an online environment. A world class bilingual
online resource which extends an understanding of our culture and heritage both
within Wales and beyond.
An online multimedia
platform providing
bilingual content created
by Welsh museums,
archives and libraries
and user-generated
g
content on Welsh cultural
heritage.
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14. 4/1/2009
Who is providing content?
Initial content will be provided by:
• National Library of Wales
• National Museum Wales
• Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
• Culturenet Cymru
• National Grid for Learning Cymru
• BBC Wales
• Herian
GIS functionality
All content will be tagged spatially, temporally and thematically, enabling it to
be displayed on‐line within a time‐enabled mapping interface.
The GIS interface will allow the user to search in a number of ways:
• Ui
Using a time‐dependent display – moving a slider along a bar would result in
ti d d t di l i lid l b ld lt i
data and base‐mapping being shown or hidden according to the period
selected
• A geographical display allowing collections to be searched by spatial location
• A thematic display of items tagged into thematic groups.
• A free text search.
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15. 4/1/2009
Delivery to mobile phones
• Hardware that virtually everyone has access to
• A platform with a variety of delivery options:
audio, SMS, internet
• People’s Collection will develop a pan‐Wales
system for delivery of heritage information to
mobile phones
mobile phones
Mobile delivery
Different levels of mobile interface will be developed to suit different levels of
phone sophistication and network availability, thereby maximizing potential
audience.
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16. 4/1/2009
2G mobile phone network
Source: Ofcom / GSM Association / Europa Technologies; Q1 2008 Note: Map shows the
number of 2G operators with at least 75% area coverage; not directly comparable to that
published in the 2007 report.
3G mobile phone network
Source: Ofcom / GSM Association / Europa Technologies; Q1 2008 Note: Map shows the
number of 3G operators with at least 75% area coverage; not directly comparable to that
published in the 2007 report.
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17. 4/1/2009
Mobile phone development
• Latest generation iPhone, G1, Blackberry
Storm, HTC Magic
St HTC M i
• Seamless use of 2G, 3G and Wi‐Fi
• Downloadable Applications
• GPS
• Open operating system: Android
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18. 4/1/2009
User‐generated content
Content uploaded by users will eventually form the majority of content available
through the site. Users will be able to choose whether to make this material visible
to all users, specific user groups or just add it to their private scrapbook.
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19. 4/1/2009
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