Exploring the urban environment with a camera phone: Lessons from a user study

We present a study investigating two novel mobile s ervices supporting querying for information in the urban en vironment using camera equipped smart phones as well as two different ways to visualize results - icon-based visualization and text-based visualization. Both applications enable the user to access information about an object by snapping a photo of it. We investigate how users would use a photo-based touri st guide in a free exploration setting in general as well as the acceptance/preference of two different ways to visu alize results.