A magic lens for revealing device interactions in smart environments

Abstract

Keeping track of device interactions in smart environments is a challenging task for everyday users. Given the expected high number of communicating devices in future smart homes, it will become increasingly important to put users more in control of their smart environments by providing tools to monitor and control the interactions between smart objects and remote services. We present a system for collecting and visualizing interactions ofWeb-enabled smart things andWeb services in an intuitive and visually appealing way. Our tool displays device interactions both using a Web-based visualization application and in the form of a "magic lens" by augmenting the camera view of a tablet with relevant connections between recognized devices in the camera's field of view.