Mobile Intelligence

22.4 APPLICATION EXAMPLE: USER-FRIENDLY INTERACTION WITH UBIQUITOUS ENVIRONMENT USING I-THROW

To explain the practical use of our UFC platform and the user-friendly interaction with ubiquitous environment, we have implemented a ubiquitous testbed where multiple UFC users interact with various ubiquitous devices or other UFC users. Figure 22.3 illustrates the concept of the ubiquitous testbed room. In addition, we have implemented a practical application that runs upon the UFC platform and the ubiquitous devices, which makes it possible to exchange the various objects and control ubiquitous devices very easily.

Figure 22.3 The concept of the ubiquitous testbed room.

22.4.1 Motivation

Due to its small form factor, most portable devices, including our UFC platform, have only small-sized display and limited input devices. The UFC platform has 2.5 in. LCD display and 12 input buttons, which are definitely insufficient to monitor the status of a UFC main module and various peripheral modules, control the modules, and send a user's intention to the UFC platform.

This problem is exacerbated when a UFC user tries to control various ubiquitous devices using one's UFC platform: as the number of controllable ubiquitous devices increases, it becomes more inconvenient to find one among them and exchange information with it, due to the small-sized display and limited input devices of the UFC platform. ...