Middleware based user interface migration

Abstract

User interface can be seen as one of the greatest challenges in mobile computing. One promising approach to make interaction with mobile devices more efficient and pleasant is utilizing UI devices in the user's environment, such as, public displays. However, it is not clear to what extent the user is able to benefit from using external UI devices. Clearly, it also depends on the user's current task. In this paper, we present a middleware based approach that enables migration of user interface from a mobile phone to a device with better UI capabilities, such as, to a desktop computer. We quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the benefits of such an UI migration to the user with two use cases that are common to mobile phone users; SMS or e-mail writing and establishing a phone call. The evaluation bears evidence that the method greatly increases the performance, and especially the enjoyability, compared to the mobile device's own interface when typing messages. Users prefer our approach because it provides faster and more convenient way to e.g. write a long SMS message. On the other hand for simple tasks, such as selecting a receiver when establishing a phone call or typing a very simplified message, the UI migration was found to be highly undesirable.

Conceptual Architecture for the Continuity if Workflow in Activities on Multi-Devices: Case Study Co-Kitchen

“…Salminen and others, in [15], propose the implementation and evaluation of a middleware to migrate the user interface. The middleware is responsible for having control in the handling of events of the user interface and, in this way, the aforementioned component is transparent for the application.…”