A system of card type battery-less information terminal: CardBIT for situated interaction

This paper presents a card type battery-less information terminal $CardBIT - and a method of situated interaction that uses single-lens cameras. The CardBIT system provides situated information support at locations such as exhibition halls, train stations and streets. CardBIT can operate without a battery because it utilizes energy from the information car-tier and the user. It realizes location-and-direction-based interaction; a user can get appropriate information for his/her position and direction. The most significant feature of the CardBIT is its high portability because it is easily implanted into widely-used IC cards. Based on information accumulated in the CardBIT, personalized information in the form of sound, such as speech or music, is provided. Furthermore, a user can signal to the interface system and obtain information dynamically. This paper introduces the CardBIT system concept and its implementation using cameras, position estimation, and sign recognition methods. Our experiments show the feasibility of the proposed system.