Graspable and resource-flexible applications for pervasive computing at home

We envision the home populated with regular objects that allow programmatic access to their sensors and actuators. The objects jointly form a pervasive computing platform, open for third-party independently developed applications. A challenge is how to support people in deploying and managing such applications. Today, the user perceives an application as an immaterial artifact, accessed through a screen-based interface of a general-purpose computing device. Contrary to that established paradigm, we propose to reify the pervasive computing application as a simple physical thing, called the “application pill.” The pill can easily be grasped and operated: the user brings the pill home, switches it on, and checks if it works just by glancing at its on/off diode. As the application is destined for many homes, each featuring a different collection of objects, the user should be provided with high-level feedback on how well the application can work in her home. Accordingly, the application pill is also equipped with a simple “functionality level” indicator. The degree to which the application can deliver its functionality on top of an available object collection is captured as a single number and displayed by the pill. We present a concrete proof-of-concept elaboration and implementation of these ideas in a pervasive computing middleware platform targeted at cooperating objects.

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