UbiTerm: a hand-held control-center for user's activity mobility

Abstract

Current approaches handling user's activity mobility address the problem by imposing system decisions instead of user's indications in an attempt to reduce user's distraction. At the same time, these traditional approaches introduce uniformity on the environment, thus preventing users to take full advantage of the computational resources found nearby. We describe an alternative architectural model that better solves the problem of supporting user's mobility, reducing user's distraction, and respecting user's preferences. One of the key features of our solution is that users can directly control their activities. Thus, the PlanB's ubiquitous terminal (UbiTerm) provides activity control commands to users. In addition, to take appropriate actions when adapting the environment to user needs, the UbiTerm uses a context information mechanism. Finally, by using a programmable service for the remote execution of applications, the architecture can exploit local capabilities, provide support in different platforms, and fit activities to user's preferences.