A historical audio and video guidebook for an Android smartphone/tablet John Reid September 2011 Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree



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A historical audio and video guidebook for an Android smartphone/tablet

John Reid



September 2011

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of
Master of Science in Advanced Computing

Department of Computing Science and Mathematics
University of Stirling

Abstract


With the increase in popularity of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, guidebook applications written for these platforms are an ideal way for tourists and avid historians to learn about particular locations and can offer several advantages over normal guidebooks. However, the majority of existing guidebook applications do not offer a rich, reliable and responsive user experience; ideally combining audio, video and map technology in one application that could be used by a wide a variety of users (for example people who are visually impaired and non-English speaking users).

The aim of the project was to create an application that had an emphasis on accessibility and usability with all of the features mentioned above. To ensure it was responsive, all the content (including the map data) was held locally on the device. This aspect of the application had the additional benefit of allowing it to be used in locations without Wi-Fi or mobile phone coverage, ensuring the data was always available and allowing the application to run more reliably. In recent years, the increases in capacity of internal memory and SD card capacity have made this option practical.

The final system included all of the features outlined in the objectives plus several other features also implemented to make the application more personal and user friendly. Through the use of sign language videos, high contrast text, easily adjustable font sizes and changeable language, the application should be more open to a variety of users. A large amount of user testing was undertaken to ensure the application was both quick and easy to use. From a tourism point of view, the ability to geolock the guidebooks and to display the user’s position on a detailed historical map could encourage people to visit the towns and cities covered by the books. The application was made flexible enough to be used either as an application for a tour guide or for individual use.

Attestation


I understand the nature of plagiarism, and I am aware of the University’s policy on this

I certify that this dissertation reports original work by me during my University project except for the following (adjust according to the circumstances):



  • The “WheelView” widget code discussed in Section 5.1 was open source and was used in accordance with the Apache License 2.0.

  • The osmdroid code discussed in Section 6.1 was open source and was used in accordance with the Creative Commons License 3.0.

  • Parts of the weather code discussed in Section 6.5 were open source and were used in accordance with the GNU General Public License.

  • The historical content in the application was used with the kind permission of Birlinn publishing.

Signature Date 2nd September 2011

Acknowledgements


I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr Marwan Fayed, for his great support and guidance during this project.

I would also like to thank Dr Simon Jones, Dr David Cairns, Andy Brockie and Dorothy Slater for helping to test the system and Kate Howie for advising me on the contents of the questionnaire. Additional thanks to Martin Cook and Carly Deacon for typing in the historical content and allowing me to use their iPhone.

A special thanks to Christopher Fleet and all the team in the maps department at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. Their help in testing the software, assisting me in georeferencing the 1647 James Gordon map and for allowing me to use several of their historical maps was most appreciated.

Finally, I would like to thank Peter Burns at Birlinn publishing and author Hamish Coghill for allowing me to use content from their “Lost Edinburgh” book and Donald Richards the Head of Deaf Studies at Donaldson's school in Linlithgow.


Table of Contents


A historical audio and video guidebook for an Android smartphone/tablet 1

John Reid 1

Abstract i

Abstract i

Attestation ii

Attestation ii

Acknowledgements iii

Acknowledgements iii

Table of Contents iv

Table of Contents iv

List of Figures v

List of Figures v

1 Introduction vi

2 State-of-The-Art x

3 Tools and Design Guidelines xvi

4 User Interface xxiv

5 Features xxxvi

6 Testing and User Trials lii

7 Conclusion lviii

References lxii

References lxii

Appendix 1- HGuide Questionnaire lxvii

Appendix 1- HGuide Questionnaire lxvii

Appendix 2 – User guide lxix

Appendix 2 – User guide lxix

Appendix 3 – Installation guide lxxvi

Appendix 3 – Installation guide lxxvi




List of Figures




Figure 1.The Royal-Mile website x

Figure 2.“Walking Through Time” and “OldMaps” xii

Figure 3.“Edinburgh Wee Guide” and “Edinburgh Walking Tours” xiii

Figure 4.A comparison of other historical guidebooks xv

Figure 5.An example XML guidebook xviii

Figure 6.Android Lifecycle xx

Figure 7.The Android activities used in the application xxi

Figure 8.The application front screen xxv

Figure 9.The content list for the “Old Edinburgh” guidebook xxvii

Figure 10.The Android “ExpandableListView” component xxvii

Figure 11.Messages displayed on the content pages of the application xxviii

Figure 12.The buttons shown on the content page xxix

Figure 13.Sign Language video being played xxx

Figure 14.Application Help Hints xxxi

Figure 15.The resource directories used in the application xxxiii

Figure 16.Application shown in Chinese xxxiv

Figure 17.Application shown in German xxxiv

Figure 18.Georeferencing the 1647 James Gordon map xxxix

Figure 19.Georeferenced file before map tiling process xl

Figure 20.OpenStreetMap tiles of Edinburgh xli

Figure 21.TMS numbered tiled images. xli

Figure 22.Mobile Atlas Creator xliii

Figure 23.Flyover information held in the XML guidebook file xliv

Figure 24.The application map options and map legend xlv

Figure 25.“Handbrake” program being used to recode a video file xlvi

Figure 26.The image displayed in different weather conditions. xlviii

Figure 27.Guidebook geo-locked to location xlix

Figure 28.Geo-locked warning message xlix

Figure 29.The engraving page shown on the Samsung Galaxy Tab emulator liii

Figure 30.A content page shown on the Samsung Galaxy Tab emulator liv

Figure 31.Mock-up of possible timeline widget lx





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