The PuReWidgets toolkit for interactive

public display applications

Jorge Cardoso jorgecardoso@ieee.org!

26 Nov 2012!

Interactive display

Motivation

Interaction in Public Displays •  Every display uses its own approach •  Wasted development effort •  Users face inconsistent interaction models We can learn from the desktop platform •  GUIs faced similar problems

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Requirements

The toolkit should support •  Multiple, extensible, PD-specific controls •  Various input mechanisms and

modalities •  Concurrent interaction •  Asynchronous interaction •  Graphical representations

PD-specific controls

Interaction with public displays is different from desktop We need specific controls for public displays

Various input mechanisms

Concurrent/shared interaction •  Multiple users •  No single user

controlling the display

Asynchronous interaction •  Supports interaction even if an application

is off-screen

PuReWidgets

Widget-based toolkit for supporting interactions in public displays •  For web-based PD applications •  A widget represents an interactive feature.

–  Is represented by a class in an object-oriented programming model.

– Applications instantiate widgets and receive interaction events via a callback function

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Features •  Various types of controls

–  Action, Options, Text entry, Download, Upload, Check-in •  Supports various input mechanisms

–  SMS, Bluetooth naming, QR codes, email, touch (with limitations)

•  Automatically generates GUIs for desktop and mobile devices

•  User identification in input events •  Asynchronous events •  Graphical representations for widgets •  Client and server application models

PuReWidgets Architecture

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PuReWidgets Implementation

•  Google Appengine (server) •  Google Web Toolkit – GWT (client) •  Takes advantage of well-known

development environment, and user base

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Initial development •  Continuous

refinement cycle – Develop interactive

PD applications – Gain insight – Refine the toolkit – Refactor the

applications

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Evaluation •  Threefold

– Personal experience in developing 3 applications

– Programmers’ evaluation of the toolkit – Audience users’ perception of the interaction/

application model on a real world deployment

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Conclusion We have now a complete interaction system for public display applications •  Web-based

–  “Easy” development •  Various widgets

–  Supporting diverse interactions •  Multi-user

–  Supporting simultaneous, shared interactions •  Multiple input mechanisms

–  From web-based, QR codes, to SMS •  Async input

–  To support offline interactions and various application models

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Future work/Ideas Toolkit development

Javascript/jQuery library Output widgets for PD Remote, Direct manipulation widgets “Native” apps with phonegap Third-party check-ins More flexible application scheduling

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Future work/Ideas Other ideas

Interactive narratives for public displays Application coordination between displays Android/iOS “Open-in”/”Share to” Public display near you PD App: users upload content that they can later request the display to show Interactive marketing How to effectively communicate interactivity Guidelines for content creation Wordpress plugin for content creation “Place” representations Who’s around app

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Photo credits: Bluetooth photo: creative commons (Flickr user ‘dhaun’) | Touch-screen: creative commons (Flickr user ‘Happydog’)

Locamoda app: creative commons (Flickr user ‘gumption’) | Widgets panel: GFDL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Widgets.png)

The  PuReWidgets  toolkit  for  

interactive  public  display  

applications  Jorge  Cardoso    

jorgecardoso@ieee.org!