The PuReWidgets toolkit for

interactive public display

applications

Jorge Cardoso jorgecardoso@ieee.org

Rui Josérui@dsi.uminho.pt

Interactive display

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• Faced similar problems in the beginning

Motivation

3

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

modalities• Concurrent interaction• Asynchronous interaction• Graphical representations

Requirements

Various input mechanisms

Concurrent/shared interaction

• Multiple users• No single user

controlling the display

Asynchronous interaction

• Supports interaction even if an application is not running

Graphical representations

• Familiar graphical representations help users determine if an application is interactive

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

PuReWidgets

9

• Various types of controls– Action, Options, Text entry, Download, Upload, Check-in

• Supports various input mechanisms– SMS, Bluetooth naming, QR codes

• Automatically generates GUIs for desktop and mobile devices

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

Features

PuReWidgets Architecture

11

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

environment, and user base• Video of early version

PuReWidgets Implementation

12

• Continuous refinement cycle–Develop interactive PD

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

Initial development process

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• PuReWidgets is an example of how toolkits can lower the barrier to public display application development

• Such toolkits will be crucial for widespread creation of new public display applications.

• Focus on making it easy to explore interactive features in applications

Conclusion

15

End

The PuReWidgets toolkit for

interactive public display

applications

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)

Jorge Cardoso jorgecardoso@ieee.org

Rui Josérui@dsi.uminho.pt