Global information management systems based on the vision of the "docuverse" -- such as the WorldWide Web (WWW) -- show that on-line access to vast amounts of distributed information is possible not only for the expert, but also for the end user. At the same time, the availability of affordable mid- and longrange wireless data communication services, based, e.g., on cellular phone technology, has put the vision of ubiquitous mobile information access within the reach of viable projects. It is now an interesting challenge to combine both concepts into a system model granting everyone ubiquitous access to the global information repository. However, problems such as low bandwidth and limited resources make this a non-trivial task. This paper describes MIS/0, an experimental mobile information system based on wireless data communication which has been developed at the Computer Graphics Center during 1994. MIS/0 and its underlying concepts address the above mentioned problem areas by introd...

Relatively cheap and widely available wireless data communication services are available to the mass-market. Within the coverage of the cellular network used,the vision of information access for `everyone, anytime, anywhere' has become reality. A Global Information Visualization environment can be imagined where the vision of `All information at your fingertip' is reality. In this environment, every information, data, or tool available on any computer connected to the global network is directly accessible to the user. However because of the low bandwidth of wireless networks and the limited resources of mobile hardware, the handling of highly interactive distributed multimedia applications faces severe problems. The objective of `Mobile Visualization' is to provide effective solutions to these problems. This paper discusses the relevant aspects of systems and data models for Mobile Visualization and tries to provide an integrative view on the field based on the vision of Global Informa...

The mobility of users, devices, and information produces new challenges for processing of globally distributed information. This fact requires a new architecture for the selection, access and exchange of information in a mobile computing environment. In our approach the basic component for such an architecture is the so called Object Bus for the local and remote exchange of messages. Other main components are Message Handler processes for type dependent handling of messages, and an Object Manager for semantic pre- and postprocessing of messages according to the current mobile context. These components all together are designed for the efficient use of the available and dynamically changing resources by adapting their behavior to the mobile environment, e.g. to the current location, to the quality of communication channels, or to user preferences. + Author for correspondence. 1 INTRODUCTION The presented architecture is one main part of the project "Mobile Visualization" (MO...