Looc: a Cyber-physical Social Network on Android Platforms

Abstract

As the mobile Internet becomes pervasive, mobile devices have permeated into every aspect of our life, work, and society. This rapid technology evolution calls for new functionalities that enrich our interaction with cyberinfrastructure, physical presence, and societal activities and communities. This study is aimed to explore the integration between the android-based mobile platform with multimodal sensors and social networks. To achieve context-aware services, we propose a cyber-physical social network, called LooC. Based on the detailed literature review, the Looc system is designed to bridge the gap between physical social networks and the cyberspace of thousands of mobile devices. After the introduction and literature review chapters, the thesis starts by the necessary concepts to program Android applications with best practices, taking in consideration its life cycle,. The challenges in mobile social networks and cyber-physical systems are identified. Our methodology and design architecture are then presented in detail. The system implementation and case studies are further illustrated. The study shows the challenges related to develop mobile cyber-physical social network with android. The prototype of LooC was developed and integrated into other frameworks to demonstrate its usage. One of the most important challenges was find a good communication method for the social network and an appropriate way to locate individuals. Haversine formula was used to calculate the distance in our prototype. In the future work, privacy and legal issues are necessary to be addressed for mobile cyber-physical social networks in the future.