Developer Toolkit and Utilities for Rapidly Prototyping Distributed Physical User Interfaces

Marquardt, Nicolai (2008)
Developer Toolkit and Utilities for Rapidly Prototyping Distributed Physical User Interfaces. Diplom Thesis, Bauhaus-University Weimar, Faculty of Media, Media Systems Science, Germany, March 10. Part of this work was done during a research internship at the University of Calgary.

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Abstract

Distributed physical and tangible user interfaces represent the vision of building embedded computing systems that move off the desktop, in order that the interaction takes place in - rather than apart from - our everyday environment. These systems take advantage of our practical skills and senses to provide intuitive interfaces. For instance, they facilitate the communication over distance, sharing of digital media, and interaction with electronic devices. The systems are often built as information appliances that are specialised for a specific task. They are assembled as units consisting of input controls, sensors, actuators, and displays. These appliances, however, are still difficult to build; especially if distributed devices are connected over a network. In this thesis I focus on the research of methods and tools to support developers to rapidly prototype these distributed physical user interfaces. The developed Shared Phidgets toolkit integrates distributed sensors and actuators, and provides easy to use programming strategies for developers to build their envisioned interactive systems. The runtime platform of the toolkit hides the complexity of hardware integration and network synchronisation. The implemented developer library as well as the introduced programming strategies address developers with diverse development skills. To support the testing, debugging, and deployment of appliances, diverse utilities allow the monitoring and control of all connected components at runtime. For instance, visualisations can be used to explore the distributed hardware components and the built appliances in their geographical context. These utilities allow gaining insight into the internal communication processes of the distributed infrastructure. Furthermore, the simulation utilities facilitate the testing and debugging of the developed appliances. Finally, appliance case studies illustrate the applicability of the toolkit and the provided utilities to support the rapid prototyping process. A critical discussion of the toolkit and the built information appliances concludes the thesis.

Bibtex entry

@BOOK { 2008-Marquardt-DiplomThesis,
CLASS = { THESIS },
AUTHOR = { Marquardt, Nicolai },
TITLE = { Developer Toolkit and Utilities for Rapidly Prototyping Distributed Physical User Interfaces },
ADDRESS = { Diplom Thesis, Bauhaus-University Weimar, Faculty of Media, Media Systems Science, Germany },
YEAR = { 2008 },
TYPE = { Diplom },
MONTH = { March 10 },
NOTE = { Part of this work was done during a research internship at the University of Calgary },
}