Communication Ubiquity Enables Ubiquitous Control "Boaster" for Human-Computer Interaction Consortium (HCIC'2002)

We are investigating how an intelligent hand-held Personal Universal Controller (PUC) can be used to make appliances easier to control as part of the Pebbles research project [Myers 2001]. The concept is that people can use their own handheld to control all appliances and devices in their environment, such as the lights, a photocopier in an office, a machine tool in a factory, a VCR at home, a piece of test equipment in the field, etc. The appliance sends the handheld a description of its control parameters. The handheld uses this information to automatically create an appropriate control panel, taking into account the properties of the handheld (the display type and input techniques available) and the properties of the user (what language is preferred, whether the user is left or right handed, how big the buttons should be based on whether the user prefers using a finger or a stylus). The user can then control the appliance using the handheld. Unlike today's universal remotes, the PUC will be self-programming and use two-way communication: it will create control panels for new devices without user intervention, and it will receive feedback from the appliances to help keep the user informed as to the device state.