tranSticks

Abstract

A virtually connected medium called tranStick is described that functions both as a "virtual wire" and as a "memory card" containing a shared space. A user can connect two networked devices by simply placing one of a pair of tranSticks with the same identifier into each device. The tranSticks provide feedback indicating that the devices are connected; the connection to be closed or changed in the same way it would be if the devices were connected by a physical cable. A user can also access to a shared space on a network as if the space were in the tranStick. Since tranSticks contain long secret keys, the process of finding another tranStick with the same identifier can be encrypted. The tranStick approach differs from other approaches in that it provides feedback from the connection as well as serving as a medium for establishing a connection, and it enables disconnection and switchover to be done intuitively because the operations are reversible.

A Survey of User Interaction for Spontaneous Device Association

“…This metaphor can be applied to wireless device association, where the same user action is preserved, but instead the cable is replaced by a virtual wireless connection. Ayatsuka and Rekimoto [2005] presented "tranStick," a technique that illustrates this concept. In their system, tangible tokens are used for establishing connections.…”

“…A widely deployed mechanism is Bluetooth pairing, which involves selection of a target device from a list of available devices (with an additional PIN authentication procedure, if security is required). However, researchers have demonstrated a great many alternative approaches, some focused on simplicity of the required user action [Hinckley 2003;Holmquist et al 2001;Rekimoto et al 2003b], and others on interactive authentication (addressing the problem that connections cannot be easily verified in the absence of wires [Balfanz et al 2002;Kindberg and Zhang 2003b;Stajano and Anderson 1999]). …”

“…Specifically, when users encounter concrete devices they wish to associate spontaneously, they must have a way to unambiguously identify these as target devices in the association process. This requirement has been referred to as demonstrative identification [Balfanz et al 2002]. It is a significant problem, as there is a gulf between how humans identify devices of which they have no prior knowledge (by their appearance and situation in the real world) and how the involved devices identify each other (by a network identifier).…”

“…The users themselves can act as an OOB channel (e.g., entering identical text into the intended devices). Other examples include communication channels that are limited by some physical property, such as location-limited channels [Balfanz et al 2002], movement-limited channels [Mayrhofer and Gellersen 2009], and time-limited channels [Chong andGellersen 2010, 2012]. These all employ physical constraints that limit access to the channel and involve user interaction to ensure or to verify that only the intended devices can communicate over the limited channel.…”

Wireless device connection problems and design solutions

“…The spatial proximity of the two devices is sensed via infrared or radio frequency identification (RFID) technology [8] . Additional devices, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory sticks may also be used for authentication [16] .…”