Intermediary Translation Map A-> 2,3 C->1 1->B 2->B

A iStuff Input Component 1 Application Intermediary Translation Map A-> 2,3 C->1 1->B 2->B B iStuff Input Component 2 Application C iStuff Input Component 3 Application

iButtons iSlider iMike iStylus X10 RF iDog Anoto Pen iMouse

iBuzzer iLight iSpeaker

iStuff Architecture iStuff Device Wireless connection iStuff component Transceiver Application PatchPanel Proxy Event Heap

PatchPanel Architecture PatchPanelGUI PatchPanelIntermediary PatchPanel Configuration Event Heap

iStuff • Prototyping Desktop GUIs: easy • Prototyping Post-Desktop UIs: hard • Goal: Simplify post-desktop experiments UI • Idea: iStuff := toolkit for prototyping Post-Desktop UIs • Basic input/output components • Wireless, autonomous • Designed for augmented environment (iRoom) • Lightweight, Cross-platform, simple API

iDial iLight iButtons X10 iSlider iDog iPen USB receiver

Taking Advantage of Infrastructure iSpeaker iSlider • 5-line Event Heap based application can talk to iStuff • iStuff device = wireless device + PC proxy/daemon • Lightweight, cheap, low-power, ... devices Radio Receiver Radio Transmit "iStuff device" Application PC proxy PC daemon eheap.jar eheap.jar eheap.jar Event Heap

iStuff: Evaluation • Successful sample uses • Start The Room • iPen • iPong • Great Unified Input Theory: • New paradigm for writing room applications

www.stanford.edu/~borchers/istuff/

Event Heap app to speak text import iwork.eheap2.*; class speaktext { // Connects to event heap in static void main(String []args) // arg[0], and sends AudioEvent { // with the text in arg[1]. try{ EventHeap theHeap=new EventHeap(args[0]); // Connect to the Event Heap Event myEvent=new Event("AudioEvent"); // Create an event myEvent.setPostValue("AudioCommand", "Read"); // Set its fields myEvent.setPostValue("Text", args[1]); theHeap.putEvent(myEvent); // Put event into Event Heap } catch(Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } } >speaktext iw-room2.stanford.edu "Hello World"

Great Unified Input Theory • iStuff wireless hardware layer can be RF, X-10, Bluetooth, 802.11b, Infrared, Cellular,... • Offer iStuff as abstraction layer of room devices above this level • Adopters can • Use our hardware and software designs and replicate devices • Use our software and use off-the-shelf components as iStuff • Implement the "plugins" for new hardware technologies • Make applications listen only to Event Heap Events

Summary • The Stanford iRoom • Ubicomp requires re-thinking user interface metaphors and architecture • iStuff as a tool to facilitate experimentation in ubicomp interfaces • Not the answer to "post-desktop mouse & keyboard", but may help finding it... • http://iwork.stanford.edu/ • http://www.stanford.edu/~borchers/iStuff/

The Stanford iRoom

Intermediary Translation Map A-> 2,3 C->1 1->B 2->B