HP Labs India

Vayu User Experiences (VUE)

Examples of use cases we have built include:

• Easy to use navigation using a simple TV remote instead of key-board and mouse.
• Remote triggering of commands on VInD using a paired smart phone or any basic phone via SMS messages.
• Performing common web tasks such as paying bills, booking tickets, etc., by using a widget interface and, automatic triggering of tasks from a document image using packaged web interaction modules.
• Consuming information from the web including video and text content, using personalized TV channel format, and
• Home monitoring using ZigBee sensors that allow all paired phones to be notified in case of a home invasion or triggers from other events at home.

We also provide the option for a smart phone to function as a remote control for VInD's user interface (on the TV) - navigation and text input using touch, handwriting, speech. Optionally, multimodal interfaces for VInD are realized using add-on accessories such as Kinect, webcam and array microphones. This potentially enables interactions using hand gestures, face detection, speech commands or a combination of them.

VInD Navigation (non-Keyboard/Mouse Interaction)

The VInD UI structure is inspired from an easy to use User Imterface(UI) framework. The primary interaction requirement from the UI is that it should work with basic remote control (minimal set of keys: 4 direction keys, selection key, home and back key) and support a richer experience through a smart mobile remote app called VayuConnect.

Onscreen keyboard caters to the text entry as well as through a basic remote control. The mobile application offers free pad for English as well as Indic text (Hindi) input. Also, the physical QUERTY keypad of on a smart-phone can be used as an option for English text entry.
Vayu Navigation using Remote Control
Vayu Navigation using a Smart Phone

Pairing

Pairing was a key focus of user experience design. The concept was developed by exploring what it means to pair phones of different types with VInD - from basic phones with only voice and SMS, to feature phones with a web browser and Smart-Phones capable of running apps. A number of use cases for usage of paired phones by different family members were developed. The use-cases included are user Interaction using a smart-phone and triggering of commands on VInD remotely using a basic phone (via SMS) as well as a smart-phone.

TaskGenie ( Packaged Web Interactions)

The web is one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century and its end-user value to foster productivity - such as booking tickets and, searching for information - is being utilized by millions of people around the world who can use a browser. The key functionality we have developed here is that of packaged web interactions, where a sequence of complex browser interactions necessary to perform a task are packaged as an easy-to-use desktop or mobile widget, merely by capturing the sequence once. The Task Genie application provides a rich transactional user experience for VInD. The following are the major features supported under TaskGenie:
Task Genie

• Web Task Search: The application enables easy ‘search’ of personalized web tasks like checking PNR status of your train ticket, checking weather conditions or fetching daily horoscope. All the searched tasks are grouped in a personalized view of favorite tasks that can be done on the web
• Trigger Tasks using images: The application enables transactional experiences by triggering web tasks using images, for example the document image of a printed train ticket can be analyzed using image processing techniques and the fields for the PNR number could be extracted. These inputs can then be used to complete the web task of fetching the PNR status of the train ticket and displaying the current ticket status to the user.
• View a collection of favorite tasks: The application also provides a personalized collection of the favorite tasks that have been executed.

Web Tuner (Channels for Web consumption) :

Given the number of websites that are available, it can be an overwhelming experience for an average user to filter out unwanted sites. The Web Tuner is an intelligent way to getting the most relevant information pre-filtered.

The Web Tuner goal is to enable faster consumption and website discovery without tedious searching. Our solution is akin to the action of tuning into specific radio stations. On older radio sets, users turned a knob to navigate to their favorite stations. New radio stations appeared automatically and users tuned into them if they found them interesting. We want to make the navigation and discovery of websites as simple as tuning into a radio station. The application offers (as default) seven pre-loaded categories (News, Sports, Technology, Nature, Networking, Health and Video) and seven websites in each category. One can also issue a remote command from a paired mobile device to add a category of interest to him/her.
WebTuner

Media Consumption Experiences:

The VInD can double up as the media storage center of the home with the ability to connect to an optional 320GB hard-disk. One can store all types of media content - Photos, Videos, Music and the images of the documents. Accordingly, applications to browse, tag, view, listen, etc., for the respective media are integrated into the user experiences. During tagging of photos, one can use our novel technology to tag the photos in a local language such as Hindi using the touch based free-pad running on a smart phone. Using the pairing and the remote command capabilities,an user can initiate the download of a video from the Web remotely (e.g., a movie download which can take a long duration).

ZigBee Gateway and sensors for home

Inspired by the need to secure valuables and against home intrusion, we have enabled VInD to be a Zigbee host so that it allows the aggregation of sensor events in the home and notification on VInD as well as paired mobiles. This allows users to receive home status notification on their TV and their paired mobile phones. With the platform components created other use cases may be enabled.
ZigBee Gateway and sensors for home

 

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This page was last updated on February 6, 2012