Title: Pervasive services and mobile devices may support human memory and enhance daily efficiency

Authors: Mauro Migliardi; Marco Gaudina; Andrea Brogni

Addresses: Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua, Via Gradenigo 6, 35131 Padua, Italy; Centro Ingegneria Piattaforme Informatiche (CIPI), Via Opera Pia 13, 16145 Genoa, Italy. ' Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via Morego, 30, 16163, Genova, Italy. ' Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via Morego, 30, 16163, Genova, Italy

Abstract: A service capable of supporting human memory requires complex computational tasks that are still unavailable in mobile devices; however, broadband connectivity allows weaving together server side computational power with client side rich content delivery. In this paper, we provide a complete description of the 4W (what-where-when-who) project and its current prototype. The system aims at providing a service that mitigates the negative effects of stress or aging on the memorisation capability of humans leveraging both client side and server side state of the art solutions. The prototype is capable of capturing user needs/to-dos, reasoning to identify where those needs/tasks can be fulfilled/performed efficiently and providing timely and localised hints about the identified sweet-spots. We have tested with real users both the general efficacy of the system and the different level of efficiency of several hint-notification modes: we present our results and we provide a discussion of our findings.

Keywords: smartphones; memory support; wearable devices; pervasive services; mobile devices; human memory; efficiency improvement; stress; aging.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSC.2012.048898

International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing, 2012 Vol.2 No.3, pp.175 - 186

Received: 14 Mar 2012
Accepted: 29 Jun 2012
Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

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