Handheld Computing

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Handheld Computing
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Agenda

• Questions
• Feedback on project
• Brief history on handhelds

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History of Handhelds

• Weiser (Xerox PARC)
• The inch scale of computing PARCTab
• The Apple Newton (early 90s)
• Psion Series (UK)
• Palm Pilot
• PocketPC

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Concepts of Handhelds

• Alan Kays Dynabook
• 1977 Computer article
• A device for creativity and youth
• Ideas led to Smalltalk, the PC and beyond, but no
  real handheld

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The PARCTabWeisers inch-scale device
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Apple Newton MessagePAD

• History
• http//www.msu.edu/luckie/newtgal.htm

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Todays technology

• Psion organizers (since 1984)
• http//3lib.ukonline.co.uk/historyofpsion.htm
• Sharp Wizard
• PalmOS (since 1996)
• http//www.palm.com/about/corporate/timeline.html
  
  
• PocketPC (Windows CE, 1996)
• Cellphones/Convergent devices

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Programming tools

• PalmOS
• http//www.palmos.com/dev/tools/
• PocketPC
• http//www.cs.umd.edu/egolub/PocketPC/
• http//www.microsoft.com/mobile/developer/default.
  asp
  
• J2ME
• http//www.wirelessdevnet.com/columns/oct2000/mobd
  ev13.html

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Handheld developer challenges

• Mode problems
• Transforming desktop apps
• Effective use of screen real estate

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Mode Problems (revisited)

• Pen interface for touchscreens does not provide
  for hover behavior
  
• Switching between modes of use can be tricky
• Explicit mode switch
• Newton semi-implicit technique

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Transforming Desktop Apps

• Legacy apps (and data) need to work on handheld
  with minimal extra work
  
• e.g., Web browsing
• Solutions
• Handheld versions of HTML
• Proxies to convert HTML to handheld
• Strategies for collapsing Web page content to
  small size

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WebThumb

• J. Wobbrock, J. Forlizzi, S. Hudson B. Myers.
  WebThumb interaction techniques for small-screen
  browsers. UIST 2002, pp. 205-208.
  
• Interaction techniques without modifying the Web
  content
  
• Zoomable thumbnails
• Collect pieces of a Web page
• Targetted zooming and panning
• Rapid Serial Visual Presentation
• Leveraging use of physical buttons of PDA

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Use of Screen Real Estate

• In addition to WebThumb ideas
• Overlay semi-transparent layers with different
  functionality
  
• e.g., text window and command buttons
• Selecting between layers is another mode problem
• Novel pen/tapping interactions
• e.g., DualTouch
• Multiscale/zooming interaction techniques?

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Applications

• Mobile Commerce
• Note-taking
• Remote control
• Communications
• Coordination with larger displays

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Pebbles http//www-2.cs.cmu.edu/pebbles/

• PDAs for Entry of Both Bytes and Locations from
  External Sources
  
• Relationship between handhelds and desktop
• MultiMachine User Interfaces
• See Jeff Pierce

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How it Works

• See Figure 5 in paper

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What it Can Do

• Sharing control/data between public and private
  displays
  
• SlideCommander
• Two-handed input
• More effective scrolling
• Groupware
• Electronic quizzes
• Remote control
• Personal Universal Controller (PUC), UIST 2002
• Semantic snarfing, Ubicomp 2001

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Other challenges

• Using other input modalities
• B. Harrison, K. Fishkin, A. Gujar, C. Mochon R.
  Want. Squeeze me, hold me, tilt me! An
  exploration of manipulative user interfaces. CHI
  98 pp. 17-24.
• More on Wednesday.

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Videos, if we have time

• Diamond Touch from MERL