多種裝置的階層式個人化資訊管理系統實作

Abstract

隨著電腦及網際網路的普及，越來越多人利用電腦及網路來作為擷取資訊與溝通交流的媒介。加上網路上眾多推陳出新的服務(如名片系統、E-mail服務、行程計畫服務)，許多使用者越益運用電腦來處理與管控這些繁雜且重要的個人資訊。不過這些服務大多是針對電腦所設計，再加上電腦的可攜性低，因此我們無法隨時隨處擷取與管理個人資訊。有鑒於近年來無線網際網路與電信通訊蓬勃的發展，無線行動裝置(如手機、PDA)的持有率高，且具備“Any Time, Any Where”的高可攜性特性，因此我們希望也能使用無線行動裝置來取得相關資訊，藉此減少電腦攜帶性低造成的不便。然而無線行動裝置仍有其限制，例如螢幕較小、記憶體容量較小、運算能力較弱、傳輸頻寬較窄等，增加在其上發展服務的困難度。 在本篇論文中，我們設計及實作一套適用於多種無線行動裝置的階層式個人化資訊管理系統，我們希望透過此系統能讓使用者在行動式e-化的環境中，隨時隨地的利用行動裝置享受個人化資訊服務，擷取與管理個人資訊。在行動式e-化的環境中，個人化資訊可以儲存於手機SIM卡、無線行動裝置、個人伺服器、以及資訊伺服器等四層裝置，這四層裝置猶如一個資訊儲存階層，越後端的裝置記憶體容量越大且處理能力越強，但是可攜性卻越小。因此我們結合這些能力強弱不同的多種裝置，分責處理簡繁不同的動作，並利用類似計算機虛擬記憶體的概念，來管理個人化資訊。｢手機SIM卡｣儲存個人資訊以及喜好設定，藉此提供個人化服務以及達到自動認證與設定的功能；｢無線行動裝置｣提供使用者一個方便的介面，讓使用者可以隨時隨地存取與管理個人資訊；｢個人伺服器｣則扮演一個中介角色，主要是讓使用者可以透過無線行動裝置享受到只針對電腦設計的多樣服務。除了執行認證動作外，使用者利用個人伺服器處理取自不同｢資訊伺服器｣的資料，再依SIM card中存放的喜好設定過濾出使用者所需資訊，以簡潔的方式包裝好回傳給無線行動裝置，藉此有效降低資料傳輸量及金錢花費；｢資訊伺服器｣即一般網路上提供服務的各個伺服器，在我們的設計中完全不需要更動此層。 我們利用問卷調查分析一般使用者的使用習慣，根據調查結果提出了四項機制來滿足使用者的需求，讓使用者能更經濟方便的存取與管理個人資訊。四種機制分別為：｢個人化識別與偏好實錄｣提供個人化服務及認證、｢條件式兩階段資料擷取｣用於減少傳送不必要的資料、｢資訊回溯機制｣能讓使用者感覺所有資料均存放在無線行動裝置的記憶體中、及｢裝置導向置換機制｣能將無線行動裝置之記憶體空間做更有效的運用。透過這四種機制的運作及相互配合，我們可以降低因無線行動裝置能力較差所帶來的不便。 本論文提出的系統架構及機制可適用於多種個人化資訊服務。在論文中，我們針對最普及的個人資訊-電子郵件服務為例，利用現有設備實做出一套階層式個人化電子郵件資訊系統。至於其他階層式個人化資訊服務系統的實做，亦可採用本論文所提出的階層式架構與相關機制。

With the popularity of computers and the maturity of the Internet, service providers could now provide a variety of personal information services, such as E-mail, calendar or business card services. In order to manage personal information from various services, people are getting used to rely on computers to manage their huge amount of personal information. However, these services are mainly designed for wired stationary computers, instead of wireless portable devices, such as mobile phones and PDAs. As the portable devices and telecommunication technologies advance, it is becoming desirable to access and manage personal information anytime, anywhere, and possibly with any device. However, wireless portable devices have some limitations, such as limited computing power, display, memory, input interface and transmission bandwidth. These limitations will result in critical restriction on developing services for mobile devices. In this thesis, we propose a “Hierarchical Personal Information Management System for Multiple Devices” to enable users to access and manage their personal information through mobile devices more efficiently in a mobile e-environment. In a mobile e-environment, we can store personal information possibly in a four-layer hierarchy consisting of a SIM card, mobile devices, a personal server, and information servers. This four-layer hierarchy is very similar to the virtual memory of computer systems. In the hierarchy, a preceding layer, starting from the SIM card to the information servers, has the higher portability but smaller memory space and lower computing power than a successive layer. Therefore, we could make devices be responsible for proper functions according to their capabilities and adopt the concept of virtual memory in managing personal information. A “SIM Card” stores a personal profile for service personalization and auto-authentication. It also enables auto-reconfiguration when users change devices. “Mobile Devices” serve as convenient vehicles for a user to access and manage his personal information from his personal server. The “Personal Server” accesses information from “Information Servers” on behave of the authenticated user. It filters out the information that is inessential to the user and delivers the simplified information in accordance with the mobile devices in use. “Information servers” could be any servers that provide some information services. We start with a questionnaire analysis on the behaviors and preferences of mobile users. According to the questionnaire analysis, we propose four mechanisms to support convenient information services for mobile devices in an economical way. First, a “personal identity and preference profiling” mechanism enables service authentication and personalization, and reduces transferring data that is not essential to the information services. Second, a “conditional two-stage data fetching” mechanism effectively eliminates the transmission of unnecessary mail content. Third, an “information retracing” mechanism makes users feel that all the data accessed previously were stored in the memory of the mobile devices in use. Finally, a “device-dependent replacement” scheme helps mobile devices to utilize their memory efficiently. The system architecture and mechanisms proposed in this thesis could be used for various personal information services. In this study, we take the most popular personal information “e-mail” as an example and implement a “hierarchical personalized mail service” by using off the shelf devices. We could also apply the same concept of information hierarchy and implement other information services in a similar way.