Cross device information exchange using gestures and locations - a system for connecting two co-located devices to exchange information or control content using gesture
- Submitting institution
-
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 29741063
- Type
- F - Patent/ published patent application
- Patent registration number
- US 9602957 B2
- Month
- March
- Year
- 2017
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
-
1
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The research builds on earlier work in mobile and ubiquitous computing, in particular location-based context awareness, which was carried out and published by the first author in academic venues. The awarded US patent was the result of additional research at an industry research lab, which was carried out to exploit these previous results in commercial products.
The described invention allows a user to connect two devices, e.g. two smartphones, or a smartphone and a smart TV, in order to exchange information between them, for instance to let the smartphone act as a remote controller for the TV. It does this by presenting a distinct gesture on one device (e.g. a left-right movement) which is duplicated on the other device (e.g. by shaking it left-to-right). The model gesture is presented graphically, and the corresponding movement is detected by accelerometers (present in all modern smartphones). Additionally, the location of the devices is used to ensure that they are indeed intended to be connected. One advantage of this in comparison to other methods in commercial use (e.g. the “shake to connect” method in the chat app Line), is that they only require one of the devices to physically move. The system was implemented as a fully working prototype using web technology, eliminating the need to download additional software.
The invention was developed as part of the Yahoo Smart TV Platform, in order to expand the usefulness of the platform in cross-device settings. The Yahoo Smart TV Platform was included in TVs from leading consumer electronics manufacturers between 2009-2017, and millions of consumers used the platform every day. The invention has continued high significance, as methods for establishing a secure connection between a user’s personal device and a TV are increasingly being used in other entertainment platforms for e.g. video sharing and gaming.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -