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A Comparative Evaluation of HTML5 as a Pervasive Media Platform By Tom Melamed HP Labstom@calvium.comtom@calvium.com Ben Clayton HP Labs

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Overview Introduction Motivation Requirements Existing Runtime Environments Evaluation of HTML5+GL Application Trial Discussion and Conclusion

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Pervasive Media Pervasive media is the delivery of content based on context to create a compelling experience Relies on sensor technology and ubiquitous computing Mobile phones are increasingly capable of delivering pervasive media experiences

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HTML5 + GL HTML5 is designed to be ... one coherent development environment for Web Applications. GL stands for Geolocation, a W3C standard for accessing the browsers physical location Still in development phase but already being adopted

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Motivation Pervasive media is an emerging medium It is difficult to create a pervasive application for a significant percentage of mobile devices Distribution is another issue for many developers and devices

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General Requirements In a perfect world any phone platform would: Reach a large number of users Be easy to develop for Enable efficient and compelling applications Could we write once and run anywhere with users actually able to get it?

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Existing application analysis Nine pervasive media applications were analysed to determine their requirements. Bot Fighters Riot! 1831 Stamp the mole Uncle Roy All around you GPS Mission Insectopia Ere Be Dragons Feeding Yoshi REXplorer

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What we found... These features where found to be most common: Play audio Use location Interact with servers Local persistence Sensors beyond location

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Are Existing Environments Suitable? SMS & Voice? Not interactive enough and no sensors J2ME? Too fragmented and distribution problems HTML4? Too sandboxed and no sensor support Flash Lite/Silverlight? No access to sensors and inconsistent distribution Native code? To many different platforms, some with distribution issues

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HTML5 + GL Advantages Potentially large install base Easy distribution Potentially consistent implementation Developer support Access to user location Good media and interaction support Local persistence

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HTML5 + GL Disadvantages Small current install base Already fragmenting (might converge) No access to non-location sensors No content capture API No background services No ability to interrupt the user

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Application trial We built a simple game to test HTML5+GL It runs within a browser No multimedia as iPhone support is very limited Future versions will explore offline storage and multiplayer interactivity Can be played on an iPhone browser at: http://bit.ly/1YggUR

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Discussion and Conclusion Background tasks and notifications are a real problem Other sensors might be added but that could lead to fragmentation HTML5 + GL does offer a useful and viable platform for development HTML5 + GL does solve distribution for most cases and provides an open platform for applications and application researchers but only for certain types of application

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Thank you tom@calvium.com