Clairvoyance: A framework to integrate shared displays and mobile computing devices

Abstract

Supporting formal and informal meetings with digital information and ubiquitous software systems every day becomes increasingly mandatory. These meetings require that the integration of devices participating in the meeting and the information flow among them should be done as seamless as possible to avoid jeopardizing the natural interactions among participants. Trying to contribute to address such a challenge, this article presents a framework that allows devices integration and smooth information flow. This framework, named Clairvoyance, particularly integrates mobile computing devices and large-screen TVs through a mobile ad hoc network, and thus it eases the implementation of shared displays intended to be used in formal and informal meetings. Clairvoyance provides a set of services through an API, which can be used to develop ubiquitous applications that support meetings in particular scenarios. The preliminary evaluation of this framework considered its usage to implement a ubiquitous system that supports social meetings among friends or relatives. According to developers, the framework is easy to use and it provided all required services for such an application. The solution obtained was then utilized by end-users in simulated meetings. The evaluation results indicate that the Clairvoyance services were suitable to support the informal meetings, and that the devices integration and information flow were transparent for the end-users.