Multi-device Environments Research Articles

Configuración de una red LAN utilizando Python scripting para generar redes definidas por software (SDN).

Network management is an essential task in modern organizations, where the complexity of technological infrastructures demands efficient and accurate solutions. With network devices from leading manufacturers such as Cisco and Mikrotik. In response to these challenges, automating the configuration of network devices has gained popularity as an approach to improve efficiency and reduce errors. Python, a programming language widely adopted for its versatility and ease of use, has become a key tool for this automation. Within this ecosystem, Netmiko emerges as a specialized library that facilitates automated interaction with network devices using SSH. Netmiko allows network administrators to write scripts that can connect to Cisco and Mikrotik devices, execute configuration commands, and retrieve information about the network status. This approach not only speeds up the configuration process, but also ensures consistency and accuracy in deploying configurations, especially in multi-device environments. As networks continue to grow in complexity, the adoption of tools such as Netmiko becomes essential to maintaining the operability and security of network infrastructures.

SensiX: A System for Best-effort Inference of Machine Learning Models in Multi-device Environments

SensiX: A System for Best-effort Inference of Machine Learning Models in Multi-device Environments

A Study on Improvement of Electronic Library Services Using User Review Data in Mobile App Market

This study aims to analyze users' assessment of electronic libraries in the mobile app market and promote service improvement based on this. To this end, the basic background and purpose of the research, research method, and research scope were first set, and the relevant literature and empirical prior studies were analyzed. Next, users' evaluations of electronic libraries were collected and analyzed from Google Play Store. Based on the results analyzed, measures to improve the quality of electronic libraries were discussed. Based on the results of the study, the following improvement measures are proposed: 1) Need for systemic improvement and stabilization; 2) Provision of applications suitable for multi-device environments; 3) Resumption of services after systematic inspection after updating; 4) Simplification of sign up, log in, and authentication procedures; 5) User support through real-time chat; 6) Introduction of a detailed assessment of reviews; 7) Provision of guidance and user manual for electronic libraries; 8) Improvements to expand user convenience; and 9) Securing differentiation from other similar services. URL: http://ijkcdt.net/xml/28379/28379.pdf

Smart Nursing Homes: Self‐Management Architecture Based on IoT and Machine Learning for Rural Areas

The rate of world population aging is increasing. This situation directly affects all countries socially and economically, increasing their compromise and effort to improve the living conditions of this sector of society. In environments with large influxes of elderly people, such as nursing homes, the use of technology has shown promise in improving their quality of life. The use of smart devices allows people to automate everyday tasks and learn from them to predict future actions. Additionally, smartphones capture a wealth of information that allows to adapt to nearby actuators according to people’s preferences and even detects anomalies in their behaviour. Current works are proposing new frameworks to detect these behaviours and act accordingly. However, these works are not focused on managing multidevice environments where sensor and smartphone data are considered to automate environments with elderly people or to learn from them. Also, most of these works require a permanent Internet connection, so the full benefit of smart devices is not completely achieved. In this work, we present an architecture that takes the data from sensors and smartphones in order to adapt the behaviour of the actuators of the environment. In addition, it uses this data to learn from the environment to predict actions or to extrapolate the actions that should be executed according to similar behaviours. The architecture is implemented through a use case based on a nursing home located in a rural area. Thanks to this work, the quality of life of the elderly is improved in a simple, affordable, and transparent way for them.

Collaborative Design-in-use

The fast-growing proliferation of multi-device systems has been reshaping the contexts in which collaborative activity takes place. The evolving materialisation of multi-device environments (MDEs) is likely to have an impact on foundational CSCW research, in ways that go beyond studying cross-device interaction. Designers, developers and researchers are reporting emerging challenges in understanding, supporting and designing for complex collaborative activity in MDEs. We argue that the theoretical perspective of Instrumental Genesis can help unveil the complex, dynamic relationships between design, people, tools, tasks and activities in technology-rich MDEs. In this paper, we use extracts from our research on collaborative work in an MDE to illustrate how ideas from the theory of Instrumental Genesis can help reveal important aspects of change and stability. We show how collaborative design-in-use contributes to the joint evolution of MDEs and the working practices unfolding within them.

A Study on How Users Perceive Distributed Interactions on Web Applications

Currently, users are able to interact with several devices, from smart watches to desktop computers, to perform different tasks. Such diversity of heterogeneous devices form a multi-device and multi-display ecosystem. Although this device ecosystem is usually connected by cloud services, a new interconnected environment is possible due to the emergence of a new paradigm based on distributed interactions. New techniques such as the proposed responsive Web interaction provides users with an environment that supports distributed interactions using the Web platform. This paper presents a study on how users perceive distributed interactions in educational environments using multi-device setups. The educational environment enriched with the Web interaction hub tool allows users to interact in a heterogeneous device ecosystem as if it were a single device. This paper was performed with more than 150 students using a satisfaction metric. The results show the impact that distributed interactions made on students, who preferred using distributed interactions in multi-device environments over traditional interactions.

Foundations for distributing the interaction: facilitating universal access through Responsive Cross-Device Applications

The emergence of the Internet of Things has created the prospect of a future in which devices can always be connected. There is a trend for information to be available to anyone, anywhere and anytime. Moreover, current scenarios are full of interconnected devices with their own interactive capabilities. The problem of orchestrating these capabilities in multi-device environments is complex and remains unsolved. However, providing universal access is not only a question of devices being connected or sharing information. To get a better understanding of how to distribute interaction in Web applications, we developed new theoretical and practical proposals. Also, we perform case studies through the supporting tools developed as prototypes. On this article, we present two major contributions. First, we present the foundations of Responsive Cross-Device Applications. This approach is aimed at supporting user tasks in cross-device environments, adapting interaction to facilitate user task completion. Secondly, we provide the answer for the following research questions: (1) What do we mean by Distributed Interaction? (2) How do current approaches deal with the distribution of the interaction? (3) What is the best platform for distributing the interaction? and (4) Does the distribution of the interaction facilitate universal access? Finally, we discuss the outcomes of this article in view of these research questions.

Technology Supported Behavior Restriction for Mitigating Self-Interruptions in Multi-device Environments

The interruptions people experience may be initiated from digital devices but also from oneself, an action which is termed “self-interruption.” Prior work mostly focused on understanding work-related self-interruptions and designing tools for mitigating them in work contexts. However, self-interruption to off-tasks (e.g., viewing social networking sites, and playing mobile games) has received little attention in the HCI community thus far. We conducted a formative study about self-interruptions to off-tasks and coping strategies in multi-device working environments. Off-task usage was considered a serious roadblock to productivity, and yet, the habitual usage and negative triggers made it challenging to manage off-task usage. To mitigate these concerns, we developed “PomodoLock,” a self-interruption management tool that allows users voluntarily to set a timer for a fixed period, during which it selectively blocks interruption sources across multiple devices. To understand the effect of restricting access to self-interruptive sources such as applications and websites, we conducted a three-week field trial (n=40) where participants were asked to identify disrupting apps and sites to be blocked, but the multi-device blocking feature was only provided to the experimental group. Our study results showed the perceived coercion and the stress of the experimental group were lower despite its behavioral restriction with multi-device blocking. Qualitative study results from interviews and surveys confirm that multi-device blocking significantly reduced participants’ mental effort for managing self-interruptions, thereby leading to a reduction in the overall stress level. The findings suggest that when the coerciveness of behavioral restriction is appropriately controlled, coercive design can positively assist users in achieving their goals.

Visfer: Camera-based visual data transfer for cross-device visualization

Going beyond the desktop to leverage novel devices—such as smartphones, tablets, or large displays—for visual sensemaking typically requires supporting extraneous operations for device discovery, interaction sharing, and view management. Such operations can be time-consuming and tedious and distract the user from the actual analysis. Embodied interaction models in these multi-device environments can take advantage of the natural interaction and physicality afforded by multimodal devices and help effectively carry out these operations in visual sensemaking. In this article, we present cross-device interaction models for visualization spaces, that are embodied in nature, by conducting a user study to elicit actions from participants that could trigger a portrayed effect of sharing visualizations (and therefore information) across devices. We then explore one common interaction style from this design elicitation called Visfer, a technique for effortlessly sharing visualizations across devices using the visual medium. More specifically, this technique involves taking pictures of visualizations, or rather the QR codes augmenting them, on a display using the built-in camera on a handheld device. Our contributions include a conceptual framework for cross-device interaction and the Visfer technique itself, as well as transformation guidelines to exploit the capabilities of each specific device and a web framework for encoding visualization components into animated QR codes, which capture multiple frames of QR codes to embed more information. Beyond this, we also present the results from a performance evaluation for the visual data transfer enabled by Visfer. We end the article by presenting the application examples of our Visfer framework.

Challenges in mobile multi-device ecosystems

Coordinated multi-display environments from the desktop, second-screen to gigapixel display walls are increasingly common. Personal and intimate mobile and wearable devices such as head-mounted displays, smartwatches, smartphones and tablets are rarely part of such multi-device ecosystems. We conducted a literature research and an expert survey to identify challenges in mobile multi-device ecosystems. We present grounded challenges relevant for the design, development and use of mobile multi-device environments as well as opportunities for future research. While our surveys indicated that a large number of challenges have been identified, there seems to be little agreement among experts on the importance of individual challenges. By presenting the identified challenges, we contribute to a better understanding about factors that impede the creation and use of mobile multi-device ecosystems and hope to contribute to shaping the research agenda on interacting with those systems.

Secure Personal Content Networking Over Untrusted Devices

Securely sharing and managing personal content is a challenging task in multi-device environments. In this paper, we design and implement a new platform called Personal Content Networking (PCN). Our work is inspired by Content-Centric Networking (CCN) because we aim to enable access to personal content using its name instead of its location. The unique challenge of PCN is to support secure file operations such as replication, updates, and access control over distributed untrusted devices. The primary contribution of this work is the design and implementation of a secure content management platform that supports secure updates, replications, and fine-grained content-centric access control of files. Furthermore, we demonstrate its feasibility through a prototype implementation on the CCNx skeleton.

Evaluating context-aware user interface migration in multi-device environments

People access applications and services through different devices depending on location and needs. During a single day, people can use a smartphone, tablet, PC and a TV, sequentially or simultaneously, depending on the context of use. Even within a single task, people often start with one device, such as a smartphone, and continue with another device, such as a PC, as the task evolves. To provide fluent task continuation, the system should provide ways to migrate on-going sessions from one device to another in a seamless manner. In this paper, we present a solution for migrating user interface and maintaining the interaction session across devices when changing situations. With two studies we gain insights into user needs and technical requirements for context-aware information sharing in multi-device environments. A longitudinal diary study was conducted to uncover specific situations where users have needs for information sharing, and how they would prefer the system to react in those situations. We also conducted a controlled user study using a prototype system for session migration between devices in changing contexts, with three different operational modes: manual, assisted and automatic, to gain a deeper knowledge into the requirements. The findings indicate a need for easier interaction whilst switching between devices and that these needs are often situation-specific. We also report in detail how people would prefer the system to perform migrations automatically and intelligently suggest them in some situations. Moreover, we draw technical requirements for such a system in order to develop seamless context-aware migration.

A flexible unified architecture to support heterogeneous multi-device learning environments

Since the personal ownership of mobile devices has increased steadily over the last decade, many students own personal mobile devices that can reasonably be integrated into mobile learning scenarios. Besides all the benefits this option brings, there are also drawbacks, such as the heterogeneity of the set of mobile devices that need to be managed and integrated into existing and emerging learning scenarios. In our approach, one key element to address this challenge is an architecture that allows an easy and flexible integration of mobile and non-mobile devices into the same mobile learning scenario. We used a well-known group discussion method and an existing tool and extended it based on our approach. A description of this extension is presented in this paper. Finally, the paper reports on a pilot study in which the extended system was evaluated.

Investigating a Design Space for Multidevice Environments

There has been significant research interest over recent years in the use of public digital displays and in particular their capability to offer both interactivity and personalized content. Although a number of interaction technologies have been investigated, a promising approach has been the use of the ubiquitous cell phone, which not only offers a means to interact with displays but increasingly offers a small but high-quality screen to complement the larger public display. However, to date there has been little investigation into the impact on users when interfaces are distributed across this type of dual screen setup. This article reports on a series of experiments carried out to determine if there is a significant quantitative or qualitative effect on user performance when interaction is split across large public and smaller private screens.

Intelligent Multimedia Presentation in Ubiquitous Multidevice Scenarios

This intelligent multimedia adaptation and delivery framework tailors to ubiquitous environments, so that users can experience multimedia content using multiple devices in various mobility situations. Multidevice environments offer the potential to enhance the user experience in terms of flexibility and interactivity and will enable novel applications in education, entertainment, collaboration, and communication. We analyzed the different processing steps and defined related framework functionalities such as the generation of the presentation schedule, the computation of the presentation-environment matches, personalization through situation learning, and device(s)-tailored presentation delivery.

Distributed user interfaces for clinical ubiquitous computing applications

Ubiquitous computing with multiple interaction devices requires new interface models that support user-specific modifications to applications and facilitate the fast development of active workspaces. We have developed NOSTOS, a computer-augmented work environment for clinical personnel to explore new user interface paradigms for ubiquitous computing. NOSTOS uses several devices such as digital pens, an active desk, and walk-up displays that allow the system to track documents and activities in the workplace. We present the distributed user interface (DUI) model that allows standalone applications to distribute their user interface components to several devices dynamically at run-time. This mechanism permit clinicians to develop their own user interfaces and forms to clinical information systems to match their specific needs. We discuss the underlying technical concepts of DUIs and show how service discovery, component distribution, events and layout management are dealt with in the NOSTOS system. Our results suggest that DUIs--and similar network-based user interfaces--will be a prerequisite of future mobile user interfaces and essential to develop clinical multi-device environments.