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290 Germanakos & Mourlas Copyright 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. point that the user perceptual preference characteristics are directly related to the traditional user characteristics since they are affecting the way a user approaches an object of perception. It is true that nowadays, there are not so many researches that move towards the consideration of user profiling to incorporate optimized parameters taken from the research areas of visual attention processing and cognitive psychology. Some serious attempts have been made on approaching e-learning systems providing adapted content to the students, but most of them are lying to restricted analysis and design methodologies considering particular cognitive learning styles, including Field Independence vs. Field Dependence, Holistic-Analytic, Sensory Preference, Hemispheric Preferences, and Kolb s Learning Style Model (Yuliang & Dean, 1999), applied to identified mental models, such as concept maps, semantic networks, frames, and schemata (Ayersman & Read, 1999). In order to deal with the diversified students preferences, they are matching the instructional materials and teaching styles with the cognitive styles, and consequently they are satisfying the whole spectrum of the students cognitive learning styles by offering a personalized Web-based educational content. A Comprehensive Overview of Adaptation and Personalization Techniques and Paradigms: Similarities and Differences When we are considering adaptation and personalization categories and technologies, we refer to Adaptive Hypermedia and Web Personalization respectively, due to the fact that together these can offer the most optimized adapted content result to the user. Adaptive Hypermedia Overview Adaptive Hypermedia is a relatively old and well-established area of research counting three generations: The first pre-Web generation of adaptive hypermedia systems explored mainly adaptive presentation and adaptive navigation support and concentrated on modeling user knowledge and goals. The second Web generation extended the scope of adaptive hypermedia by exploring adaptive content selection and adaptive recommendation based on modeling user interests. The third New Adaptive Web generation moves adaptive hypermedia beyond traditional borders of desktop hypermedia systems embracing such modern Web trends as mobile Web , open Web , and Semantic Web (Brusilovsky & Maybury, 2002). Adaptivity is a particular functionality that alleviates navigational difficulties by distinguishing between interactions of different users within the information space (De Bra & Nejdl, 2004; Eklund & Sinclair, 2000). Adaptive Hypermedia Systems employ

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Adaptation and Personalization of Web-Based Multimedia Content 289 Copyright 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Beyond the Traditional User Profiling One of the key technical issues in developing personalization applications is the problem of how to construct accurate and comprehensive profiles of individual users and how these can be used to identify a user and describe the user behavior, especially if they are moving (Adomavicious & Tuzhilin, 1999). According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term profile means a representation of something in outline . User profile can be thought of as being a set of data representing the significant features of the user. Its objective is the creation of an information base that contains the preferences, characteristics, and activities of the user. A user profile can be built from a set of keywords that describe the user-preferred interest areas compared against information items. User profiling is becoming more and more important with the introduction of the heterogeneous devices used, especially when published contents provide customized views on information. User profiling can either be static, when it contains information that rarely or never changes (e.g. demographic information), or dynamic, when the data change frequently. Such information is obtained either explicitly, using online registration forms and questionnaires resulting in static user profiles, or implicitly, by recording the navigational behavior and/or the preferences of each user. In the case of implicit acquisition of user data, each user can either be regarded as a member of a group and take up an aggregate user profile or be addressed individually and take up an individual user profile. The data used for constructing a user profile could be distinguished into: (a) the Data Model which could be classified into the demographic model (which describes who the user is), and the transactional model (which describes what the user does); and (b) the Profile Model which could be further classified into the factual profile (containing specific facts about the user derived from transactional data, including the demographic data, such as the favorite beer of customer X is Beer A ), and the behavioral profile (modeling the behavior of the user using conjunctive rules, such as association or classification rules. The use of rules in profiles provides an intuitive, declarative, and modular way to describe user behavior (Adomavicious & Tuzhilin, 1999)). Additionally, in the case of a mobile user, by user needs is implied both the thematic preferences (i.e., the traditional notion of profile) as well as the characteristics of their personal device called device profile . Therefore, here, adaptive personalization is concerned with the negotiation of user requirements and device abilities. But, could the user profiling be considered complete incorporating only these dimensions? Do the designers and developers of multimedia-based services take into consideration the real user preferences in order to provide them a really personalized Web-based multimedia content? Many times this is not the case. How can user profiling be considered complete, and the preferences derived optimized, if it does not contain parameters related to the user perceptual preference characteristics? We could define User Perceptual Preference Characteristics as all the critical factors that influence the visual, mental, and emotional processes liable of manipulating the newly received information and building upon prior knowledge, that is different for each user or user group. These characteristics determine the visual attention, cognitive, and emotional processing taking place throughout the whole process of accepting an object of perception (stimulus) until the comprehensive response to it. It has to be noted at this

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288 Germanakos & Mourlas Copyright 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. the provision of tailored products, multimedia-based services, Web-based multimedia content, information, or information relating to products or services. Since it is a multidimensional and complicated area (covering also recommendation systems, customization, adaptive Web sites, Artificial Intelligence), a universal definition that would cover all its theoretical areas has not been given so far. Nevertheless, most of the definitions that have been given to personalization (Kim, 2002; Wang & Lin, 2002) are converging to the objective that is expressed on the basis of delivering to a group of individuals relevant information that is retrieved, transformed, and/or deduced from information sources in the format and layout as well as specified time intervals. Comprehensive User Requirements and the Personalization Problem The user population is not homogeneous, nor should be treated as such. To be able to deliver quality knowledge, systems should be tailored to the needs of individual users providing them personalized and adapted information based on their perceptions, reactions, and demands. Therefore, a serious analysis of user requirements has to be undertaken, documented, and examined, taking into consideration their multi-application to the various delivery channels and devices. Some of the user (customer) requirements and arguments anticipated could be clearly distinguished into Top of the Web (2003) and CAP Gemini Ernst & Young (2004): (a) General User Service Requirements (flexibility: anyhow, anytime, anywhere; accessibility; quality; and security), and (b) Requirements for a Friendly and Effective User Interaction (information acquisition; system controllability; navigation; versatility; errors handling; and personalization). Although one-to-one multimedia-based service provision may be a functionality of the distant future, user segmentation is a very valuable step in the right direction. User segmentation means that the user population is subdivided, into more or less homogeneous, mutually-exclusive subsets of users who share common user profile characteristics. The subdivisions could be based on: demographic characteristics (i.e. age, gender, urban- or rural-based, region); socio-economic characteristics (i.e. income, class, sector, channel access); psychographic characteristics (i.e. life style, values, sensitivity to new trends); individual physical and psychological characteristics (i.e. disabilities, attitude, loyalty). The issue of personalization is a complex one with many aspects and viewpoints that need to be analyzed and resolved. Some of these issues become even more complicated once viewed from a moving user s perspective, in other words when constraints of mobile channels and devices are involved. Such issues include, but are not limited to: what content to present to the user, how to show the content to the user, how to ensure the user s privacy, how to create a global personalization scheme. As clearly viewed, user characteristics and needs, determining user segmentation, and thus provision of the adjustable information delivery, differ according to the circumstances and change over time (Panayiotou and Samaras, 2004). There are many approaches to address these issues of personalization, but usually, each one is focused upon a specific area, that is, whether this is profile creation, machine learning and pattern matching, data and Web mining, or personalized navigation.

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Adaptation and Personalization of Web-Based Multimedia Content 287 Copyright 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Since successful multimedia-based service delivery depends on a vast range of parameters, there is not a single formula to fit all situations. However, there have been reported particular steps (IDA, 2004) that could guide a provider throughout the channel selection process. Moreover, it should be mentioned that the suitability and usefulness of channels depends on a range of factors, out of which technology is only one element. Additional features that could affect the service channels assessment could be: directness, accessibility and inclusion, speed, security and privacy, and availability. To realize though their potential value, channels need also to be properly implemented and operated. The design and implementation complexity is rising significantly with the many channels and their varying capabilities and limitations. Network issues include low bandwidth, unreliable connectivity, lack of processing power, limited interface of wireless devices, and user mobility. On the other hand, mobile devices issues include small size, limited processing power, limited memory and storage space, small screens, high latency, and restricted data entry. Initial Personalization Challenges and Constraints The needs of mobile users differ significantly from those of desktop users. Getting personalized information anytime, anywhere, and anyhow is not an easy task. Researchers and practitioners have to take into account new adaptivity axes, along which the personalized design of mobile Web-based content would be built. Such applications should be characterized by flexibility, accessibility, quality, and security in a ubiquitous interoperable manner. User interfaces must be friendlier enabling active involvement (information acquisition), giving the control to the user (system controllability), providing easy means of navigation and orientation (navigation), tolerating users errors, supporting system-based and context-oriented correction of users errors, and finally enabling customization of multi-media and multi-modal user interfaces to particular user needs (De Bra, Aroyo, & Chepegin, 2004; De Bra & Nejdl, 2004). Intelligent techniques have to be implemented that will enable the development of an open Adaptive Mobile Web (De Bra & Nejdl, 2004), having as fundamental characteristics the directness, high connectivity speed, reliability, availability, context-awareness, broadband connection, interoperability, transparency and scalability, expandability, effectiveness, efficiency, personalization, security, and privacy (Lankhorst, Kranenburg, Salden, & Peddemors, 2002; Volokh, 2000). Personalization Considerations in the Context of Desktop and Mobile User The science behind personalization has undergone tremendous changes in recent years while the basic goal of personalization systems was kept the same, to provide users with what they want or need without requiring them to ask for it explicitly. Personalization is

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286 Germanakos & Mourlas Copyright 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. and the semantic multimedia content that includes, amongst others, the perceptual provider characteristics. Mobility Emergence The rapid development of the wireless and mobile advancements and infrastructures has evidently given birth to Mobile Internet. It is considered fundamental to place emphasis on its imperative existence, since statistics show that in the future the related channels will take over as the most sustainable mediums of Web-based (multimedia) content provision. Mobile Internet could be considered as a new kind of front-end access to Web-based content with specific capabilities of delivering on-demand real-time information. Nowadays, many sectors (governmental, private, educational, etc.) start to offer multimedia-based services and information via a variety of service delivery channels apart from the Web (Germanakos, Samaras, & Christodoulou, 2005). Two of these mobile multimedia-based service delivery channels are mobile telephony and PDAs. These channels become more important considering the much faster growth of the mobile penetration rate compared to desktop-based Internet access. The most significant future development will be the growth of mobile broadband multimedia-based services, once the potential of third generation mobile (3G) and its enhancements, as well other wireless technologies, including W4, RLAN, satellite, and others, is realized. The dissemination of these technologies represents a paradigm shift that enables the emergence of new data multimedia-based services, combining the benefits of broadband with mobility, delivered over high-speed mobile networks and platforms. Multi-Channel Web-Based Content Delivery Characteristics To struggle against the amplification of the digital divide and therefore to think user interaction whatever the age, income, education, experience, and the social condition of the citizen (Europe s Information Society, 2004). The specific theme above reveals exactly the need for user-centered multimedia-based service development and personalized content delivery. In many ways, the new technology provides greater opportunities for access. However, there are important problems in determining precisely what users want and need, and how to provide Web-based content in a user-friendly and effective way. User needs are always conditioned by what they already get, or imagine they can get. A channel can change the user perception of a multimedia application; when users have a free choice between different channels to access an application, they will choose the channel that realizes the highest relative value for them. However, separate development of different channels for a single multimedia content (multi-channel delivery) can lead to inconsistencies such as different data formats or interfaces. To overcome the drawbacks of multiple-channel content delivery, the different channels should be integrated and coordinated.

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Adaptation and Personalization of Web-Based Multimedia Content 285 Copyright 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Introduction Since 1994, the Internet has emerged as a fundamental information and communication medium that has generated extensive enthusiasm. The Internet has been adopted by the mass market more quickly than any other technology over the past century, and is currently providing an electronic connection between progressive entities and millions of users whose age, education, occupation, interest, and income demographics are excellent for sales or multimedia-based service provision. The explosive growth in the size and use of the World Wide Web, as well as the complicated nature of most Web structures, may lead in orientation difficulties, as users often lose sight of the goal of their inquiry, look for stimulating rather than informative material, or even use the navigational features unwisely. To alleviate such navigational difficulties, researchers have put huge amounts of effort to identify the peculiarities of each user group, and design methodologies and systems that could deliver an adapted and personalized Web-content. To this date, there has not been a concrete definition of personalization. However, the many solutions offering personalization features meet an abstract common goal: to provide users with what they want or need without expecting them to ask for it explicitly (Mulvenna, Anand, & Buchner, 2000). A complete definition of personalization should include parameters and contexts such as user intellectuality, mental capabilities, socio-psychological factors, emotional states, and attention- grabbing strategies, since these could affect the apt collection of users customization requirements, offering in return the best adaptive environments to the user preferences and demands. With the emergence of wireless and mobile technologies, new communication platforms and devices, apart from PC-based Internet access, are now emerging, making the delivery of content available through a variety of media. Inevitably, this increases user requirements which are now focused upon an anytime, anywhere, and anyhow basis. Nowadays, researchers and practitioners not only have to deal with the challenges of adapting to the heterogeneous user needs and user environment issues such as current location and time (Panayiotou & Samaras, 2004), but they also have to face numerous considerations with respect to multi-channel delivery of the applications concerning multimedia, services, entertainment, commerce, and so forth. To this end, personalization techniques exploit Artificial Intelligence, agent-based, and real-time paradigms to give presentation and navigation solutions to the growing user demands and preferences. This chapter places emphasis on the adaptation of the Web-based multimedia content delivery, starting with an extensive reference to the mobility and wireless emergence that sub-serves the rapid development of the multi-channel multimedia content delivery, and the peculiarities of the user profiling that significantly vary from the desktop to the mobile user. Furthermore, it approaches the existing adaptation (adaptive hypermedia) and personalization (Web personalization) techniques and paradigms that could work together in a coherent and cohesive way, since they are sharing the same goal, to provide the most apt result to the user. Lastly, having analyzed the aforementioned concepts, it defines a three-layer adaptation and personalization Web-based multimedia content architecture that is based on the introduction of a new user profile that incorporates user characteristics such as user perceptual preferences, on top of the traditional ones,

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284 Germanakos & Mourlas Copyright 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Chapter XIV Adaptation and Personalization of Web-Based Multimedia Content Panagiotis Germanakos, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Constantinos Mourlas, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Abstract A traditional multimedia system presents the same static content and suggests the same next page to all users, even though they might have widely differing knowledge of the subject. Such a system suffers from an inability to be all things to all people, especially when the user population is relatively diverse. The rapid growth of mobile and wireless communication allowed service providers to develop new ways of interactions, enabling users to become accustomed to new means of multimedia-based service consumption in an anytime, anywhere, and anyhow manner. This chapter investigates the new multichannel constraints and opportunities emerged by these technologies, as well as the new user-demanding requirements that arise. It further examines the relationship between the adaptation and personalization research considerations, and proposes a three-layer architecture for adaptation and personalization of Web-based multimedia content based on the new user profile, with visual, emotional, and cognitive processing parameters incorporated.

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A Three-Layer Framework for QoS-Aware Service Design 283 Copyright 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Ziljstra, F. R. H. (1993). Efficiency in work behavior: A design approach for modern tools. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Delft University, Delft, The Netherlands. Endnotes 1 Although it might be argued that an application and a service are not the same thing, the boundary is fuzzy. In this chapter, the terms are used interchangeably to refer to a situation where a user is engaged in computer-mediated communication with a remote entity. 2 Using these measures requires knowing how they are defined and operationalized. Giving a full description of each of these measures goes beyond the scope of this chapter. The interested reader should look up the references given here and earlier. 3 The interested reader might want to turn to de Waard (1996) for an excellent discussion on the appropriateness of objective versus subjective, or as he calls them self-report, measures (of mental workload). 4 This Website, http://www.mycoted.com/creativity/techniques/,has a thorough listing of creativity techniques which might be useful. 5 http://www.cdt.luth.se/projects/arena/.

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282 Wikstrand Copyright 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Velez, M., Tremaine, M. M., Sarcevic, A., Dorohonceanu, B., Krebs, A., & Marsic, I. (2004). Who s in charge here? Communicating across unequal computer platforms. ACM Trans. Computer-Human Interactions, 11(4), 407-444. Verscheure, O., Frossard, P., & Hamdi, M. (1998). Joint impact of MPEG-2 encoding rate and ATM cell losses on video quality. IEEE Globecom (pp. 71-76). Piscataway, NJ: IEEE. Verwey, W. B., & Veltman, H. A. (1996). Detecting short periods of elevated workload: A comparison of nine workload assessment techniques. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2, 270-285. Vogel, A., Kerherv , B., von Bochmann, G., & Gecsei, J. (1995). Distributed multimedia and QOS: A survey. IEEE Multimedia, (Summer), 10-19. Wang, Y., Clayppol, M., & Zuo, Z. (2001). An empirical study of RealVideo performance across the Internet. Internet Measurement Workshop (pp. 295-309). New York: ACM Press. Wann, D. L., Melnick, M. J., Russell, G. W., & Pease, D. G. (2000). Sport fans: The psychology and social impact of spectators. New York: Routledge. Wickens, C. D. (1992). Engineering psychology and human performance (2nd ed.). New York: HarperCollins. Wikstrand, G. (2003). Improving user comprehension and entertainment in wireless streaming media. Licentiate thesis, Ume University, Ume , Sweden. Wikstrand, G., & Eriksson, S. (2002). Football animations for mobile phones. In O. W. Bertelsen, S. B dker, & K. Kuutti (Eds.), Proceedings of NordiCHI 03 (pp. 255- 258). New York: ACM Press. Wikstrand, G., Eriksson, S., & stberg, F. (2003). Designing a football experience for a mobile device. In M. Rauterberg, M. Menozzi, & J. Wesson (Eds.), Proceedings of Interact 03 (pp. 940-943). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press. Wikstrand, G., Schedin, L., & Elg, F. (in press). High and low ping and the game of pong - Effects of delay and feedback. (Accepted for publication at Network and System Support for Games). Wikstrand, G., & Sun, J. (in press). Determining utility functions for streaming low bit rate football video. (Accepted for publication at IASTED International Conference on Internet and Multimedia Systems and Applications, IMSA 2004). Wilson, G., & Sasse, M. (2000). Listen to your heart rate: Counting the cost of media quality. Affective interactions: Towards a new generation of computer interfaces (p. 9-20). Winkler, S. (2001). Visual fidelity and perceived quality: Toward comprehensive metrics. In B. E. Rogowitz & T. N. Pappas (Eds.), Human Vision and Electronic Imaging VI - Proceedings of SPIE (pp. 114-125). Bellingham, WA: SPIE. Zhang, Q., Zhu, W., & Zhang, Y. (2005). End-to-end QoS for video delivery over wireless internet. Proceedings of the IEEE, 93, 123-134.

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