A Comparative Evaluation of HTML5 as a Pervasive Media Platform

By Tom Melamed HP Labs tom@calvium.com Ben Clayton HP Labs

Overview

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

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

HTML5 + GL

• HTML5 is designed to be “... one coherent development environment for Web Applications.”

• GL stands for Geolocation, a W3C standard for accessing the browser’s physical location

• Still in development phase but already being adopted

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

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?

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

What we found...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you

tom@calvium.com