mechanical hijacking: how robots can accelerate ubicomp deployments
DESCRIPTION
The complexities and costs of deploying Ubicomp applications seriously compromise our ability to evaluate such systems in the real world. To simplify Ubicomp deployment we introduce the robotic pseudopod (P.Pod), an actuator that acts on mechanical switches originally designed for human control only. P.Pods enable computational control of devices by hijacking their mechanical switches – a term we refer to as mechanical hijacking. P.Pods offer simple, low-cost, non-destructive computational access to installed hardware, enabling functional, real world Ubicomp deployments. In this paper, we illustrate how three P.Pod primitives, built with the Lego MindStorm NXT toolkit, can implement mechanical hijacking, facilitating real world Ubicomp deployments which otherwise require extensive changes to existing hardware or infrastructure. Lastly, we demonstrate the simplicity of P.Pods by observing two middle school classes build working smart home applications in 4 hours. This work was done in collaboration with Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor and Shahram Izadi of Microsoft Research Cambridge (UK)TRANSCRIPT
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi
Mechanical HijackingHow Robot Pseudopods Simplify Ubicomp Deployment
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 2
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 3
70
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi
Fancy
4
1
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 5
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi
Fancy
6
1Hacky
2
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 77
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 8
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 9
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi
Fancy
10
1Hacky
2MechanicalHijacking
3
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 11
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 12
70
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 13
70
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi
Robot
14
Pseudopods
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 1515
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 1616
Poker
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 1717
Pincher
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 1818
Twister
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 19
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 20
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 21
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 22
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 23
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi
Classes
24
2
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi
Hours
25
4
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 26
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 27
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi
Photo Credits
28
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, Shahram Izadi 29