Supporting Device Discovery and Spontaneous Interaction with Spatial References

The RELATE interaction model is designed to support spontaneous interaction of mobile users with devices and services in their environment. The model is based on spatial references that capture the spatial relationship of a user’s device with other co-located devices. Spatial references are obtained by relative position sensing and integrated in the mobile user interface to spatially visualize the arrangement of discovered devices, and to provide direct access for interaction across devices. In this paper we discuss two prototype systems demonstrating the utility of the model in collaborative and mobile settings, and present a study on usability of spatial list and map representations for device selection

Usage of Spatial Information for Selection of Co-located Devices

Use of spatial information to support discovery of interaction opportunities has been widely demonstrated. In this paper, we focus on the use of spatial interfaces for identification and selection of devices a mobile user encounters in their immediate environment. We contribute an experimental evaluation of two spatial interface conditions in comparison with a non-spatial condition. The two spatial interface conditions are a device list ordered by distance and an iconic map of devices as seen from the user’s perspective and the non-spatial condition is an alphabetical list. Our results show an overall user preference for the iconic map over the spatial and alphabetical list. However, there was no clear preference for the spatial interfaces over the non-spatial condition with respect to user satisfaction and mental load