Handheld Devices for Control of PCs and Appliances

With today’s wireless technologies, such as BlueTooth and IEEE 802.11, connecting handheld devices and conventional computers together is no longer an occasional event for synchronization. Instead, devices can be frequently in close, interactive communication. Many environments, such as offices, meeting rooms, and classrooms already contain computers, and the smart homes of the future will have ubiquitous embedded computation. Household and office appliances increasingly have wireless communication abilities. When the user enters one of these environments carrying a handheld device, how should that device interact with the environment? The Pebbles project is exploring many ways that small handheld Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or cell phones can serve as a useful adjunct to the “fixed” computers in those situations. For example, in meetings, our applications allow a speaker to use a PDA to control PowerPoint. For the disabled, we are investigating how PDAs can serve as assistive devices for access to computers and appliances. In the office, other Pebbles applications allow the PDA to be used as an extra input and output device. In the home, we are exploring the use of the PDA as a customizable, intelligent “personal universal controller” (PUC) for appliances.