CBIR for Image-Based Language Learning within Mobile Environment O. Starostenko 1 , R. Contreras Gmez 1 , V. Alarcon-Aquino 1 , O. Sergiyenko 2 1 Communications and Signal Processing Research Group, Computer Science Department, Universidad de las AmØricas Puebla, MØxico {oleg.starostenko, renan.contrerasgz, vicente.alarcon}@udlap.mx 2 Applied Physics Department, Engineering Institute of Baja California Autonomous University, Mexicali, Mexico, E-mail: srgnk@iing.mxl.uabc.mx Abstract This paper presents the analysis of emerging data exchange technologies used for integration of mobile devices to image-based learning process of second language. Particularly, the design of portable personal spaces providing mobile access to multimedia documents based on XML technologies and creation of generic interfaces for learning environments have been carried out. For image-based languages learning that implies the image processing, recognition, and retrieval Two Segment Turning function has been proposed and analyzed for possible adoption in applications assisted by mobile devices. The evaluation of designed prototype of image-based language learning system for interpretation of Japanese kanji and Mayan glyphs on mobile devices is discussed in this paper. Additionally the performance of proposed approaches used in content-based image retrieval is evaluated for their possible integration within mobile learning environments. 1. Introduction From a computational point of view a language learning environment may be defined as virtual space which consists of repositories with digitized information and a wide range of services for collaborative work, digital documents searching, management of distributed databases, multimedia data processing and retrieval [1]. In precise terms, the expansion of wireless networks, appearance of novel telecommunication technologies and new communicating facilities provide acceptance and integration of mobile devices into contemporary life as part of our social practice [2], [3]. Unfortunately a simple migration of well-known application to new mobile platform is not possible due to limited resources and capabilities of mobile devices. Therefore the first objective of this paper is to evaluate and propose appropriate wireless infrastructures for data exchange in distributed environments. The online language learning deals with search, access, retrieval, and visualization of digital documents with text, images, audio, and video. Particularly, the learning image-based languages (Japanese, Mayan, etc.) implies indexing, recognition, and interpretation of symbols. Thus, the second objective of this paper is to design some algorithms for multimedia documents processing, recognition, and retrieval. 2. Infrastructure for mobile applications Actually, modern mobile devices have Web browsers and provide interactive content via WAP or HTTP. Therefore, a simplest way for development of language learning systems may be based on server- client architecture adapting user interfaces to resources of particular mobile device. In order to provide users with Web pages well-suited to the limited screen, three solutions are known: methods to summarize Web pages, tool to convert HTML into WML (Wireless Markup Language), and languages to create Web interfaces which can be accessed from any device [4]. Fist two methods are more oriented to textual than to visual documents. The third approach exploits XML- based markup languages to create generic interfaces that promote separation of interface description from application as well as a scalable interface design. The most representative language of this approach is UIML (User Interface Markup Language) that describes user interfaces in a device-independent manner; these descriptions are automatically mapped to the language used by a target device (Java, HTML, VoiceXML and WML) [5]. This approach is just one of many possible implementation of the wider Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) model. Another well-known approach is based on port-to-port architecture (PPA).