A Comparative Evaluation of HTML5 as a Pervasive Media Platform

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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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?

7. 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

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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Thank you tom@calvium.com