u-Photo: Interacting with Pervasive Services Using Digital Still Images

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents u-Photo which is an interactive digital still image including information of pervasive services associated with networked appliances and sensors in pervasive computing environment. U-Photo Tools can generate a u-Photo and provide methods for discovering contextual information about these pervasive services. Users can easily find out this information through the metaphor of 'taking a photograph'; the users use u-Photo by clicking on a physical entity in a digital still image. In addition, u-Photo makes managing information more efficient because the still image has embedded visual information. Using u-Photo and u-Photo Tools, we conducted various demonstrations and performed usability tests. The results of these tests show that u-Photo Tools are easy to learn. We also present that the time that expert uPhoto users take to find the object in piles of u-Photos is shorter than the time it take to find the object in piles of text-based descriptions.

NVUI Framework: Natural View User Interface Framework for Consistent and Intuitive Appliance Control

“…But their work artificially rearranges control components and loses the original aesthetics of user interface, since the composition of control components are replaced with simple GUI buttons and menu controls. U-Photo [7] is an interactive approach that is based on taking a picture metaphor. In U-Photo application, a control user interface is acquired by taking a picture of target smart object.…”

Pervasive maps: Explore and interact with pervasive environments

“…Interaction with a pervasive environment based on video stills and photographs has been researched before [11], [4], [13]. The NaviCam [11] and the Digiscope [4] focus on real-time use and hence can not be used outside the target environment.…”

“…For instance, the Digiscope uses a semitransparent tablet that provides users with an augmented reality view of invisible information in the environment. In [13], a 'u-Photo' is annotated with eyemarks: physical entities that appear on a photo, representing pervasive 1 http://www.pronto.philips.com/ services. By clicking on an eyemark, a user interface for interacting with the service is overlay on the photo.…”

Supporting device discovery and spontaneous interaction with spatial references

“…In related work, world-in-miniature visualisations have been used to show devices present in interactive spaces, to support interaction and relocation of applications [3,16]. An interactive approach to obtain visual shortcuts to services embedded in an environment has been developed in the uPhoto system, in which users are provided with a "camera" to capture images that expose embedded hotlinks to services in the photographed scene [22]. Other user interfaces for user-centric discovery and association of services have integrated more coarse-grained location information (e.g.…”