The Pebbles Project: Using Hand-Held Computers and PCs Together

Speaker
Brad Myers
Senior Research Scientist, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)

Description

With the coming wireless technologies, such as BlueTooth and IEEE 802.11, connecting hand-held computers and conventional computers together will no longer be an occasional event for synchronization. Instead, the devices will frequently be 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. When the user enters one of these environments carrying a hand-held or wearable computer, how will that computer interact with the environment? The Pebbles project is exploring the many ways that small handheld Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) such as Palm Personal Organizers or Pocket PC / Windows CE devices can serve as a useful adjunct to the “fixed” computers in those situations. One set of applications supports meetings where the participants are co-located. All participants’ PDAs are in continuous two-way communication with each other, and with the main computer which is often projected on a screen to serve as the focal point of the discussion. For classrooms, we are investigating how the student’s hand-helds can enhance testing and notetaking when they are connected to the instructor’s PC. Another set of applications supports a single user using the PDA as an extra input and output device. We are just starting to explore the use of the PDA as a customizable, intelligent front end to other applications and devices. This talk will provide an overview of our Pebbles project, including a live demonstration of our systems (available for download from our web site) and a discussion of future plans.

For more information, see http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pebbles/

Speaker's Bio

Brad A. Myers is a Senior Research Scientist in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is the principal investigator for the User Interface Software Project, the Demonstrational Interfaces Project and the Natural Programming Project. He is the author or editor of over 190 publications, including three books, and he is on the editorial board of five journals. He has consulted for over 25 companies on user interface design and implementation. Myers received a PhD in computer science at the University of Toronto where he developed the Peridot UIMS. He received the MS and BSc degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during which time he was a research intern at Xerox PARC. From 1980 until 1983, he worked at PERQ Systems Corporation. His research interests include User Interface Development Systems, user interfaces, Programming by Example, programming languages for kids, Visual Programming, interaction techniques, window management, and programming environments. He belongs to SIGCHI, ACM, IEEE, IEEE Computer Society, and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.