E d it o r s : Fr é d é r ic Th ie s s e • fr e der i c .t hie s se @uni sg.c h Fl o r i a n M ic h a h e ll e s • fmi c ha he l le s@et hz .c h The advancement of ubiquitous computing technologies, 1 such as wireless networks and mobile devices, has greatly increased the availability of digital information and services in our daily lives and changed how we access and use them. Another technology that extends digital resources to the real world is the Internet of Things, 2 which connects such resources with everyday objects by augmenting the latter with RFID or Near Field Communication (NFC) tags. 3 This way, real-world objects get digital identities and can then be integrated into a network and associated with digital information or services. These objects can facilitate access to digital resources and support interaction with them -for example, through mobile devices that feature technologies for discovering, capturing, and using information from tagged objects.Physical mobile interaction (PMI) 4,5 takes advantage of mobile devices that physically interact with tagged objects to facilitate interaction with associated information and services. Simply by touching or pointing at objects, users can interact with them -for example, touching NFC tags or taking pictures of visual markers with their mobile phones. Due to its increased simplicity and directness, physical interaction can make mobile interaction with "people, places, and things" 6 more convenient and intuitive. Tagged objects can serve as physical user interfacesThe advancement of ubiquitous computing technologies has greatly improved the availability of digital resources in the real world. Here, the authors investigate mobile interaction with tagged, everyday objects and associated information that's based on the Internet of Things and its technologies. Their framework for integrating Web services and mobile interaction with physical objects relies on information typing to increase interoperability. Two prototypes for mobile interaction with smart posters build upon this framework to realize multi-tag interaction with physical user interfaces. The authors' evaluation identifies usability issues regarding the design of physical mobile interactions, interfaces, and applications. An increasing number of applications are adopting mobile interaction with tagged objects for service discovery and invocation, information retrieval, ticketing, or mobile payment. Tagging technologies' advancement and increasing dissemination have facilitated a movement from the original, simple interactions with single tags to more complex multitag interaction (MTI) 7,8 with multiple tags and objects (Figure 1), shifting interaction's focus from mobile devices to tagged objects serving as physical user interfaces, respectively.To leverage mobile interaction with physical objects and digital resources from, for example, the Internet of Things, the Pervasive Service Interaction (Perci) project (see www.hcilab.org/ projects/perci) has examined different aspects of PMI. It ha...

Abstract. Mobile devices are more and more used for mobile interactions with things, places and people in the real world. However, so far no studies have discussed which interaction techniques are preferred by users in different contexts. This paper presents an experimental comparison of four different physical mobile interaction techniques: touching, pointing, scanning and usermediated object interaction. To evaluate these techniques across different scenarios and to collect real usage data, four prototypes were implemented: a system for mobile interaction in smart environments, a mobile tourist guide, a mobile museum guide and a prototype for mobile interaction with advertisement posters. In each setting an experimental comparison was performed. Based on the results of these studies, which involved over 60 participants in total, advantages and disadvantages of these interaction techniques are described. Context-specific user preferences are presented for the interaction techniques, to help application designers and developers decide which interaction technique(s) to integrate into their application and which consequences this decision has.

Although mobile services can be used ubiquitously, their employment and the interaction with them are still restricted by the constraints of mobile devices. In order to facilitate and leverage mobile interaction with services, we present a generic framework that combines Semantic Web Service technology and Physical Mobile Interaction. This interaction paradigm uses mobile devices to extract information from augmented physical objects and use it for a more intuitive and convenient invocation of associated services. For that purpose, the presented framework exploits Web Service descriptions for the automatic and dynamic generation of customizable user interfaces that support and facilitate Physical Mobile Interaction. This generic approach to mobile interaction with services through the interaction with physical objects promises to meet the complementary development of the Internet of Things. A user study with a prototype application for mobile ticketing confirms our concept and shows its limits.

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The advancement of Ubicomp technologies leverages mobile interaction with physical objects and facilitates ubiquitous access to information and services. This provides new opportunities for mobile interaction with the real world, but also creates new challenges regarding the complexity of mobile applications, their interaction design and usability. In order to take advantage of this potential beyond simple interaction with single objects and tags, this paper investigates mobile interaction with multiple objects, tags and associated information. It introduces Collect&Drop as a generic technique for Multi-Tag Interaction that supports the collection, storage and management of information from the real world as well as its usage with different services. This paper describes the concept, architecture and interaction design of Collect&Drop and presents a user study that evaluates its features.