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The iTron Family of Geocast Games
Robert J. Hall
IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics,
2012.
[PDF]
[BIB]
IEEE Copyright
This version of the work is reprinted here with permission of IEEE for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in 2012 , Volume 58, Issue 2, 2012-05-01
Geocast games are a new class of digital multi-player
games, inherently involving vigorous
physical activity in outdoor natural settings such as parks, camps,
or athletic fields. They are designed for commercial location-aware smartphones
carried or worn by players,
without requiring consoles or internet connections.
The iTron Family of geocast games
illustrates how physical athletic play can be combined
with real-time strategic, imaginative, and creative cognitive
play from the domain of digital games to produce sports of
the future appealing to a wide range of
ever more sophisticated players. This paper describes the family
and its variation points, as well as its implementation in a smartphone
prototype, and an initial evaluation.
A Geocast-based Algorithm for a Field Common Operating Picture
Robert Hall
IEEE Military Communications Conference 2012,
2012.
[PDF]
[BIB]
IEEE Copyright
This version of the work is reprinted here with permission of IEEE for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in 2012 , 2012-10-29
{Field operations teams need situational awareness support
in order to efficiently carry out high risk safety critical
tasks. A field common operating picture (FCOP) provides
location tracking, movement history, telemetry, and messaging
in near real time to all operators equally. This paper describes
a novel scalable distributed algorithm for maintaining such a display
using a scalable ad hoc geocast protocol as communication primitive.
The algorithm is evaluated both analytically and through
performance measurements of an implementation running on commercial
smartphones. It is shown to outperform alternative approaches.}
The iTron Family of Geocast Games (Extended Abstract)
Robert Hall
International Games Innovation Conference,
2011.
[PDF]
[BIB]
IEEE Copyright
This version of the work is reprinted here with permission of IEEE for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in International Games Innovation Conference. , 2011-11-02
{Geocast games are a new class of digital multi-player games,
inherently involving vigorous physical activity in outdoor natural
settings such as parks, camps, or athletic fields. They are designed
for commercial location-aware smartphones carried or worn by players,
without requiring consoles or internet connections. The iTron
Family of geocast games illustrates how physical athletic play can be
combined with real-time strategic, imaginative, and creative cognitive
play from the domain of digital games to produce sports of the future
appealing to a wide range of ever more sophisticated players.}
The Capture Calculus Toolset
Robert Hall
2011 IEEE/ACM Intl Conf on Automated Software Engineering,
2011.
[PDF]
[BIB]
IEEE Copyright
This version of the work is reprinted here with permission of IEEE for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in 2011 IEEE/ACM Intl Conf on Automated Software Engineering. , 2011-11-07
{Distributed embedded systems, such as multi-player smartphone games,
training instrumentation systems, and "smart" homes, naturally have
complex requirements. These are difficult to elicit, represent,
validate, and verify. For high confidence, one demands that the
represented requirements reflect realistic uses of the system;
however, such uses, often representing human actions in complex
environments, can have hundreds to thousands of steps and be
impractical to elicit and manage using only declarative or intensional
(computed) representations. Non-functional requirements like
scalability increase this complexity further. In this paper, I show
how one can bootstrap requirements using data captured from initial
prototypes deployed in small scale real world tests. Using such
captures as seeds, I show how a calculus of transformations on
captures, from captures to scenarios, among scenarios, and from
scenarios back to captures can be used in several requirements
engineering tasks. I develop a novel ecosystem of tools and
transformations that implement this capture calculus and illustrate
its use on data obtained from the domain of multi-player outdoor
smartphone games.}
Software engineering challenges of multi-player outdoor smartphone games
Robert J Hall
Proceedings of First ACM Workshop on Games and Software Engineering,
Intl Conf Software Engineering Workshop on Games and Software Engineering (May 2011),
2011.
[PDF]
[BIB]
ACM Copyright
(c) ACM, 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Intl Conf Software Engineering Workshop on Games and Software Engineering (May 2011). , 2011-05-22.
Physical inactivity and social isolation are the demons of computer gaming. To combat these and similar problems, my goal is to create attractive game experiences that require play outdoors, encourage multi-player interaction, and incorporate vigorous physical activity inherently. However, play outdoors in large scale naturalistic environments, using only the equipment (e.g., smartphones) people normally carry with them in the world, brings new challenges to game design. Gone is the central server that coordinates all activities and manages evolution of the game state; gone is perfect communication among all players at all times; and gone are specialized sensors and controllers purpose built for games. This paper lays out the motivation for this style of gaming, as well as the challenges we face in engineering them, from requirements capture through design, coding, and validation. Finally, I summarize first steps that have already been taken and hint at future directions.
Scalable Geocasting for Vehicular Communications
Rajesh Panta, Rittwik Jana, Robert Hall, Josh Auzins, Vaneet Aggarwal
IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference, 2011,
2011.
[PDF]
[BIB]
IEEE Copyright
This version of the work is reprinted here with permission of IEEE for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference, 2011. , 2011-11-14
{This paper presents GeoVCom, a robust geocast
protocol for vehicular networks. GeoVCom allows a vehicle to
send geocast messages to all vehicles in a given geographical area
without the sender having any knowledge about which vehicles
are present in that area. GeoVCom is ad hoc, scalable and can
handle communications under a wide variability of traffic load.
We investigate the performance of GeoVCom in both simulation
and real world tests using an implementation running on smart
phones. Our field deployment and simulation results show that
the number of transmissions per geocast message is kept low,
significantly outperforming conventional flooding algorithms and
at the same time maintaining a high (over 90%) success rate.}
Geocast for Wireless Sensor Networks
Rajesh Panta, Robert Hall, Josh Auzins, Maria Fernandez
IEEE Conference on Network Protocols,
2011.
[PDF]
[BIB]
IEEE Copyright
This version of the work is reprinted here with permission of IEEE for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Submitted to IEEE Conference on Network Protocols. , 2011-10-17
{An important but relatively less studied class of network layer protocol for wireless sensor networks is geocast. It allows a sensor node to send messages to all nodes in a given geographical area without the sender node having any knowledge about which nodes are present in that area. Developing a robust geocast protocol for practical sensor networks poses several challenges. Geocast messages should be reliably delivered to the destination area in the presence of unreliable wireless links, a typical characteristic of practical sensor network deployments. The protocol should minimize the number of radio transmissions and avoid control traffic to save energy, which is a scarce resource in sensor networks. The protocol should be robust against a wide range of network densities. This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of SGcast --- a reliable, robust, and energy-efficient geocast protocol that achieves these goals. For a wide range of experiments conducted using networks of real sensor nodes and simulations, we show that compared to a recent geocast protocol, SGcast achieves up to 11.08x reduction in energy consumption and up to 2.17x improvement in successful delivery of geocast messages to the destination area, while being extremely robust against a wide variability in network densities. }
A Point-and-Shoot Weapon Design for Outdoor Multi-player Smartphone Games
Robert Hall
Sixth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games,
2011.
[PDF]
[BIB]
ACM Copyright
(c) ACM, 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Sixth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games , 2011-06-28.
{Multi-player games played outdoors on smartphones can be designed to improve players� health by requiring vigorous physical activity in an interesting and challenging natural environment, while still providing engaging virtual elements and enabling social interaction. However, to achieve these goals, game elements must not be too screen-oriented, because staring at the device screen degrades one�s skill and safety in running, jumping, and climbing. We should, therefore, design game elements in ways that allow them to be experienced with minimal or no screen reading. However, matching outcomes with user expectations is a major challenge, due to the inaccuracy of device sensors and the realities of communications in outdoor field conditions. This paper describes a design for point-and-shoot weapons that allows the player simply to point the smartphone and tap to shoot. The design includes a computational procedure for engineering implementations to a given accuracy standard and has three variants supporting different types of game experience. We evaluate the design using both Monte Carlo simulations and data gathered from an implemented instance within the iTESS Geocast Game.}
Location-Based Mobile Gaming Application And Method For Implementing the Same Using A Scalable Tiered Geocast Protocol,
Tue Jan 15 14:43:49 EST 2013
A method is disclosed for initiating real-time geo-game using geocast messaging according to a scalable tiered geocast protocol. The method includes a first wireless terminal (WT), programmed with a geo-gaming application and the scalable tiered geocast protocol, geocasting a game declaration to a destination geocast region containing potential participants. The method also includes a second WT, of one of the potential participants, and programmed with the geo-gaming application and the scalable tiered geocast protocol, receiving the game declaration in the destination geocast region and responding by geocasting a response message indicating interest in participating in the real-time geo-game.
System And Method For Mobile Ad Hoc Network,
Tue Jul 10 16:10:58 EDT 2012
A method and system for geocasting data packets in a MANET. The MANET is combined with a long-range network such that a wireless terminal can decide whether to rebroadcast a geocast packet over the MANET, the long-range network, or not at all, depending on the wireless terminal's proximity to the geocast region, the location of the originating wireless terminal, or both. A wireless terminal close to or within the geocast region can rebroadcast on the MANET, whereas a wireless terminal far from the geocast region can rebroadcast on the long-range network.
Method And Apparatus For Monitoring, Reporting, And Charging For Service In An Application Network,
Tue May 15 16:10:27 EDT 2012
A method and apparatus is disclosed for the monitoring of active threads in a network service, such as a content transformation service. A network element periodically samples active threads that are indicative of an active session of a service being provided to a subscriber. Identifiers associated with the active threads are collected and stored in, for example, a network log along with related information, such as the subscriber identifying information associated with the thread and/or the amount of network resources utilized by the thread. The collected information is then made available or displayed for use in, or example, controlling the usage of a network service or billing for services based accurately on the amount of network resources consumed by a subscriber.
System And Method For Geocasting In A Mobile Ad Hoc Network,
Tue Apr 03 16:09:43 EDT 2012
Disclosed is a wireless terminal that determines whether to retransmit a received packet. The wireless terminal is configured to determine a first distance from the wireless terminal to a point (e.g., the center point) in a geocast region. The wireless terminal is also configured to determine a plurality of distances between the point and each of a plurality of wireless terminals from which the wireless terminal has previously received a packet having an identifier that is the same as an identifier of the received packet. The wireless terminal is configured to retransmit the received packet if the first distance is less than each of the plurality of distances.
System And Method For Distributed Content Transformation,
Tue Mar 27 16:09:37 EDT 2012
A distributed transformation network provides delivery of content from a content publisher to a content recipient. Content from the content publisher is received at an entry node of the distributed transformation network and transmitted to a transformation node in the distributed transformation network. The content is transformed according to publisher, recipient or network administrator specifications and transmitting to delivery nodes which deliver the transformed content to the content recipient. The published content may be in an XML-based format and transformed into an XML-related format or any other structured language format as desired in the provided specification.
Policy Based Dissemination Control Of Electronic Messages,
Tue Feb 28 16:09:24 EST 2012
Disclosed is a system and method for policy based dissemination control of controlled content (e.g., electronic messages). Upon detection at a receiving device that a user is attempting further dissemination (e.g., forwarding) of controlled content, the receiving device sends a query to a policy control server. The policy control server uses the information received in the query to perform a database lookup in order to determine dissemination control instructions. The dissemination control instructions are sent to the receiving device and the receiving device enforces the instructions with respect to the attempted dissemination. The dissemination control instructions may, for example, allow further dissemination, deny further dissemination, or allow further dissemination only upon receipt of permission from the content owner. The dissemination control instructions may also indicate that the content owner is to be notified of the attempted dissemination.
Using Symbolic Evaluation To Validate Models That Have Incomplete Information,
Tue Nov 22 16:02:19 EST 2011
An arrangement calculates a description of potential responses of a distributed system in response to at least one input stimulus. The distributed system including nodes whose operation is described by respective node behavior descriptions. The method involves applying symbolic evaluation to plural node behavior descriptions so as to produce plural response descriptions that describe responses of nodes, and combining at least the plural response descriptions so as to arrive at the description of potential responses of the distributed system.
Time-Multiplexed, Two-Tier Wireless Device And Method Therefor,
Tue Oct 11 16:02:16 EDT 2011
Network devices are disclosed where transmission of information over a wireless channel by a device is prevented or allowed during a particular time period based upon a classification of the wireless electronic device, and whether the particular time period is associated with that classification.
Method For Establishing And Operating A Mobile Ad-Hoc Network,
Tue Jun 28 16:02:10 EDT 2011
A method for creating an ad-hoc network that assembles a MANET inductively with no need for any node to request any information, needing only to hear information from an ad-hoc group of at least one node, to select its uplink relay node from the group. The resulting tree-structure network efficiently communicates information upstream to a root node and to all intermediate relay nodes. Downstream communication is enabled by having nodes remember node addresses of information packets arriving from respective downstream nodes.
Arrangements For Efficient Authentication Of Service Request Messages,
Tue May 31 16:02:07 EDT 2011
A server processes a service request message (SRM) including a credential string and information (I) specifying a requested service. The server determines (305) whether or not the received credential string is valid, by comparing the received credential string and a key in an authorization database (FIG. 1 Auth DB; Table 1) that is associated with the server. Records of the authorization database include the key, and zero or more parameters constituting respective restrictions on performing the requested service for the service requester associated with the credential string that matches the key. The server tests (305, and FIG. 4A) any parameter values against the restrictions to judge whether or not the restrictions are met, and causes (322) performance of the requested service if the credential string is determined to be valid and the restrictions are judged to be met. An alternative method involves receiving (352) a credential string, and determining (354) whether or not the received credential string is valid, by comparing the received credential string and an authorization database string from an authorization database (FIG. 1 Auth DB; Table 1) that is associated with the server and that includes a set of records including respective authorization database strings. If the received credential string is determined to be valid, the method further involves receiving (372) the SRM that includes information (I) specifying a requested service, and causing (374) performance of the requested service.
System And Method For Mobile Ad Hoc Network,
Tue Mar 29 16:01:59 EDT 2011
A method and system for geocasting data packets in a MANET. The MANET is combined with a long-range network such that a wireless terminal can decide whether to rebroadcast a geocast packet over the MANET, the long-range network, or not at all, depending on the wireless terminal's proximity to the geocast region, the location of the originating wireless terminal, or both. A wireless terminal close to or within the geocast region can rebroadcast on the MANET, whereas a wireless terminal far from the geocast region can rebroadcast on the long-range network.
Method And Apparatus For Selecting Services Based On Behavior Models,
Tue Feb 15 16:01:50 EST 2011
A method and apparatus for providing service discovery are disclosed. Specifically, each service provider builds or constructs a behavior description or model of its service and, in turn, stores and publishes the behavior description. Each behavior description is implemented in accordance with a set of shared ontology of terms for a particular domain. In turn, a user may generate a query associated with service discovery that will be capable of exploiting the behavior descriptions for a plurality of services.
Using Symbolic Evaluation To Validate Models That Have Incomplete Information,
Tue Nov 02 15:50:43 EDT 2010
An arrangement calculates a description of potential responses of a distributed system in response to at least one input stimulus. The distributed system including nodes whose operation is described by respective node behavior descriptions. The method involves applying symbolic evaluation to plural node behavior descriptions so as to produce plural response descriptions that describe responses of nodes, and combining at least the plural response descriptions so as to arrive at the description of potential responses of the distributed system.
Method And Device For Detecting Computer Network Intrusions,
Tue Oct 26 15:50:42 EDT 2010
A method and device for detecting intrusion on a network utilizes a target server running software that is executed for a network client only upon receiving authorization from a monitoring server to execute the software. When an attempt to execute software on the target server by a client is not authorized, monitoring server notifies the system administrator of the unauthorized attempt.
Method And Device For Detecting Computer Intrusion,
Tue Sep 14 15:50:35 EDT 2010
A method and device for detecting intrusion on a computer system utilizes a target server running software that is executed for a client only upon receiving authorization from a monitoring server to execute the software. When an attempt to execute software on the target server by a client is not authorized, monitoring server notifies the system administrator of the unauthorized attempt.
System And Method For Circumventing Spam Filters,
Tue Apr 13 15:50:25 EDT 2010
A system and method for circumventing schemes that use duplication detection to detect and block unsolicited e-mail (spam.) An address on a list is assigned to one of m sublists, where m is an integer that is greater than one. A set of m different messages are created. A different message from the set of m different messages is sent to the addresses on each sublist. In this way, spam countermeasures based upon duplicate detection schemes are foiled.
Spatially Limited Broadcast For Mobile Ad Hoc Network,
Tue Apr 28 15:38:38 EDT 2009
A method and system for geocasting data packets in a MANET. The MANET is combined with a long-range network such that a wireless terminal can decide whether to rebroadcast a geocast packet over the MANET, the long-range network, or not at all, depending on the wireless terminal's proximity to the geocast region, the location of the originating wireless terminal, or both. A wireless terminal close to or within the geocast region can rebroadcast on the MANET, whereas a wireless terminal far from the geocast region can rebroadcast on the long-range network.
Using Symbolic Evaluation To Validate Models That Have Incomplete Information,
Tue Feb 03 15:38:36 EST 2009
An arrangement calculates a description of potential responses of a distributed system in response to at least one input stimulus. The distributed system including nodes whose operation is described by respective node behavior descriptions. The method involves applying symbolic evaluation to plural node behavior descriptions so as to produce plural response descriptions that describe responses of nodes, and combining at least the plural response descriptions so as to arrive at the description of potential responses of the distributed system.
Method and apparatus for securely connecting a plurality of trust-group networks, a protected resource network and an untrusted network,
Tue Oct 31 18:11:41 EST 2006
A security gateway provides a secure connection among one or more networks and a protected resource network. One of the local networks may be connected to the remote private network via a VPN IPsec tunnel. The networks may be local networks that share resources without compromising the security of the protected resource network. The local networks may have access to an untrusted network such as the Internet, sharing a single connection through the security gateway. Dynamic source network address translation is used to permit access from the network connected to the protected resource network to other, less trusted networks while concealing the actual IP addresses of hosts within that network.
System And Method For Counteracting Message Filtering,
Tue Jul 05 18:10:26 EDT 2005
A system and method for circumventing schemes that use duplication detection to detect and block unsolicited e-mail (spam.) An address on a list is assigned to one of m sublists, where m is an integer that is greater than one. A set of m different messages are created. A different message from the set of m different messages is sent to the addresses on each sublist. In this way, spam countermeasures based upon duplicate detection schemes are foiled.
System and method for counteracting message filtering,
Tue Nov 04 18:08:52 EST 2003
A system and method for circumventing schemes that use duplication detection to detect and block unsolicited e-mail (spam.) An address on a list is assigned to one of m sublists, where m is an integer that is greater than one. A set of m different messages are created. A different message from the set of m different messages is sent to the addresses on each sublist. In this way, spam countermeasures based upon duplicate detection schemes are foiled.
Knowledge-based moderator for electronic mail help lists,
Tue Feb 15 18:05:30 EST 2000
A method of updating a knowledge base containing information about a subject matter, the knowledge base being used to automatically respond to messages containing questions or comments relating to the subject matter, the method includes the steps of logging the message in a log if the knowledge base does not address the message; providing the logged message to a subject matter expert; and permitting the subject matter expert, but not other users of the knowledge base, to update the knowledge base in response to the logged message. The method further includes the steps of sending the logged message to one or more persons on a list of people with knowledge about the subject matter; receiving a message from at least one of the persons and logging the received message in association with the logged message; and the step of providing the logged message further provides the received message to the subject matter expert. The method of the present invention represents and uses stored knowledge to formulate a query for each entry and associate the query with a piece of the stored knowledge so that the piece of stored knowledge is retrieved when a message satisfies the query.
Personal Telephone Agent,
Tue Sep 14 18:05:15 EDT 1999
Often, people have a need to make sets of phone calls in order to collect responses from others and then take some action on the responses. This can be tedious and error-prone, due to the difficulty of reaching people by phone in real time. The current invention automates this process by having a software agent place calls, play recorded (or synthesized) announcements, record and collect the responses, and finally take a preprogrammed action depending on the results. A typical application would be calling several people to arrange a meeting at a time and place acceptable to all and then reserving a conference room at the designated time and place, reporting back acknowledgements to all parties once the reservation is made. Other applications include telephone surveys, advertising calls, and find-me like applications.
Communications Addressing System,
Tue Jul 27 18:05:13 EDT 1999
Unwanted communications (such as email, telephone calls, faxes) present a growing annoyance to many classes of user. Both the volume of unwanted messages and harmful content contained in them decrease the usability and usefulness of the medium. The present patent describes a technique for avoiding unwanted communications based on the idea that if they don't know your address, they can't reach you. Essentially, each user controls a set of unguessable addresses for themselves that they tell to distinct correspondents; this allows the selective revocation of access rights if a correspondent abuses their privilege: just instruct the software to close the channel for that correspondent, leaving the others open. Since one correspondent cannot guess the addresses used by other correspondents (because each address contains a cryptographically strong security string), they are out of luck. The present invention also outlines the design of a Personal Channel Assistant which manages the complexities of channelized addressing so that routine usage is essentially transparent to the user.
A Knowledge-Based Moderator For Electronic Mail Help Lists,
Tue Jun 01 18:05:10 EDT 1999
Providing customer help via electronic mail suffers from three problems: users tend to ask the same questions again and again (frequently asked questions or FAQs); the help organization responding to the questions suffers knowledge loss when their employees leave or forget things; and misdirected administrative questions such as subscription requests or requests for documents annoy people reading the messages. This patent covers an answer-reuse system for moderating the flow of help messages by providing a first reply containing pointers to potentially relevant question answers and including a way to track subsequent messages, if necessary, which answer the question. To judge relevance of an answer to the user's question the system stores a structured query with each question and answer and runs this query over the text of the user's message. This removes the onus of constructing the query from the end-user. The system also provides logging and knowledge maintenance tools to the subject matter experts to help maintain and augment the knowledge over time. Thus, in addition to reducing the volume of help and annoyance messages, the system also provides a stable organizational memory that combats the knowledge loss problem.
