Quality of Perception in M-Commerce

In an m-commerce setting, the underlying communication system will have to provide a quality of service (QoS) in the presence of two competing factors—network bandwidth and, as the pressure to add value to the business-to-consumer (B2C) shopping experience by integrating multimedia applications grows, increasing data sizes. In this chapter, developments in the area of QoS-dependent multimedia perceptual quality are reviewed and are integrated with recent work focusing on QoS for e-commerce. Based on previously identified user perceptual tolerance to varying multimedia QoS, we show that enhancing the m-commerce B2C user experience with multimedia, far from being an idealised scenario, is in fact feasible if perceptual considerations are employed.

Multimedia Messaging Peer

The evolution in mobile messaging and mobile devices has made it possible to provide multimedia rich messaging capabilities to personal digital assistants (PDAs). The need for this arises simply because mobile service providers want to provide an enhanced messaging experience to the user. It also opens up new avenues for business, such as a shopping mall scenario. This chapter discusses the development of a multimedia messaging client for a PDA and a kiosk providing multimedia messages composition, search, share, and sending capabilities. This chapter also discusses the various messaging technologies, enabling wireless technologies, and the peer-to-peer model. The peer-to-peer technology used was Jxta, an XML-based and language agnostic peer-to-peer platform specification from Sun Microsystems. The peers (PDA client and the kiosk) were implemented using the application programming interfaces provided by the Personal Java reference implementation and the Jxta platform’s Personal Java port.

Modeling the Dynamics of Emerging Mobile Data Services Markets

Like the Internet, a critical mass is essential in recovering the initial costs of development and deployment of mobile data services (MDS). Thus, MDS deployment must create new value and generate new behaviors in specific social contexts over time. Some behaviors of interest include making decisions to acquire the enabling technology, learning to use it, applying it, and then, by word-of-mouth, encouraging others to join in. This chapter examines the evolving MDS phenomenon and recommends a multimodal approach to research in emergent MDS markets based on recent findings. This work draws on field research by Nanyang Business School’s Information Management Research Center (IMARC) focused on the application of innovation diffusion theory to market segmentation. The authors also describe the enabling technology and applications, discuss the value propositions, and propose a model to segment the MDS market.

Mobile Banking-A Strategic Assessment

The banking industry has enjoyed excellent success in the application of sophisticated information technologies. It has the capital resources to make significant investments in technology infrastructure, and over the years this investment has paid major dividends in reduced costs and extended service offerings. Information technologies have actually reshaped the nature and size of the financial industry sector. In developed economies this has most recently translated into Internet-based banking, including transactions for equities trading, account enquiry, transfers between accounts, bill presentment, bill payment, as well as transfers between people. Digital wireless technologies to a variety of terminal devices have now enabled wireless and mobile Internet access. Mobile banking seems a natural extension. This chapter examines the strategic considerations of mobile banking from technical, business, and regulatory perspectives. We conclude that there are very different challenges influencing the evolution of this application, depending on the particular economy and culture in which the opportunity is located.

Short Message Service (SMS) and its Applications

The use of short message service (SMS) has grown tremendously in the past few years. Billions of users use this service to send text messages. Various applications have been introduced by service providers, e.g., mobile banking, summons checkpoint, SMS chat, etc., all of which have become a huge success. This chapter gives an overview of how this service is provided and discusses various SMS applications offered to the user. We explore the reasons behind its success and the issues that must be addressed to provide these applications. We also examine future trends and the challenges that must be overcome in order to enhance this service. We hope that this chapter gives a better understanding of how SMS applications are provided and what may be expected in future applications given the enhancement on the current SMS and technology advancement.

OntoQuery-An Evolutionary Approach for Query Formation and Information Retrieval

This chapter proposes the establishment of OntoQuery in an m-commerce agent framework. OntoQuery represents a new query formation approach that combines the usage of ontology and keywords. This approach takes advantage of the tree pathway structure in ontology to form queries visually and efficiently. Also, it uses keywords to complete the query formation process more efficiently. Present query optimization techniques like relevance feedback use expensive iterations. The proposed information retrieval scheme focuses on using genetic algorithms to improve computational effectiveness. Mutations are done on queries formed in the earlier part by replacing terms with synonyms. Query optimization techniques used include query restructuring by logical terms and numerical constraints replacement. Also, the fitness function of the genetic algorithm is defined by three elements, number of documents retrieved, quality of documents, and correlation of queries. The number and quality of documents retrieved give the basic strength of a mutated query.

Contract-Based Workflow Design Patterns in M-Commerce

This chapter describes an object-based workflow paradigm to support long and short duration transactions in a mobile e-commerce (or m-commerce) environment. In the mobile computing environment, the traditional transaction model needs to be replaced by a more realistic model (called a “workflow model”) between several clients and servers that interact, compete, and cooperate, realising an intergalactic client-server program (ICSP). The various types of task patterns that arise in m-commerce (e-checking, shipping goods, purchasing, and market forecasting) require a subjunctive, or “what-if,” programming approach, consisting of intention and actions for trial-error design, before an actual commitment is made. Eiffel, iContract tool of Java, and UML are powerful languages to implement the intergalactic client-server program (ICSP). They provide for a software contract that captures mutual obligations through program constructs to take care of the unpredictable nature of connectivity of the mobile devices and the networks, as well as the trial and error program design required in m-commerce.

Agent-Based Secure E-Payment System in E-Commerce

With the explosive growth of the Internet, mobile commerce (m-commerce) is an increasingly important segment of commercial activities on the Web. The secure agent fabrication, evolution and roaming (SAFER) architecture was proposed to further facilitate m-commerce using agent technology. In this paper, the electronic payment aspect of SAFER will be explored. The secure electronic transaction (SET) protocol was selected as the basis for the electronic payment system implementation due to its wide acceptance. The various modules of the payment system and how they interface with each other are shown. An implementation done using Java will also be elaborated. This application incorporates agent roaming functionality and the ability to conduct m-commerce transactions and carry out corresponding e-payment procedures.

Knowledge Discovery in Mobile Business Data

The increasing number of mobile device users is creating a huge amount of useful data for the providers. These data are valuable and can help a business with further developments and strategies if turned into knowledge with the use of data mining. The mindful use of data mining allows organisations to increase customer satisfaction, to determine new consumer groups for marketing purposes, to detect fraudulent activities, and to find future usage of mobile technology. This chapter explores the examples of usage and the process of data mining in the m-business domain. Some of the forthcoming problems to apply data mining in the m-business domain and their possible solutions are also discussed.

Multimedia Computing Environment for Telemedical Applications

This chapter describes the system design for a multimedia telediagnostic computing environment (MMTE) for telemedical applications. Such an environment requires the design of: (i) a wired-in or wireless computing facility based on currently available technology with a high bandwidth for fast, reliable, and efficient communication of data, voice, and image; (ii) a database query system to access data, voice, and medical images from a fixed server to the mobile or fixed hosts; and (iii) suitable audiovisual software communication tools among the cooperating fixed and mobile hosts to help visualize pointer movements remotely (telepointers) and for teleconferencing. Appropriate software and hardware tools for the design of the cooperative environment are described. We also provide an up-to-date bibliography.