Automatically Generating Consistent User Interfaces for Multiple Appliances

在过去的四年里，PI和他的学生一直在研究使用手持设备来控制各种家庭，办公室和工厂设备（如音响，VCR，电话，复印机，传真机和时钟），以及汽车的非驾驶功能（如空调和导航系统）。 他们开发了一种基于XML的高级语言来指定一个设备的功能，从该功能可以在PocketPC个人数字助理（PDA）或移动的电话上生成高质量的用户界面。 然而，仍然存在两个重要的问题：跨不同设备为用户自动生成一致的界面;以及为作为逻辑单元操作的多个设备自动生成组合的用户界面。 现有的用户界面自动生成系统还没有解决这些问题。 例如，解决一致性问题意味着人们可以像设置闹钟一样设置VCR的时间和开始录制的时间。 通过在用户的手持设备上提供接口，在所有电器上需要时间设置的每个地方都将使用相同的一致方式来设置时间。 例如，解决组合接口问题将意味着对于整个娱乐系统，用户将仅需要按下“播放DVD”，并且系统将自动打开TV，将TV切换到“输入3”，打开立体声，将立体声切换到“辅助”输入，关闭有线电视盒，打开DVD播放器，并且最后使得DVD开始播放。 这些是PI计划在该项目中解决的场景。 他将开发一个系统，利用用户所有连接设备之间的相互依赖性，自动创建一个组合的用户界面。 所提出的研究的智力价值在于确定如何生成相互一致的接口以及如何为多个设备联合收割机组合接口。 对于一致性，这包括匹配不同器具的哪些部分应该彼此一致的子问题，以及当器具可能具有用于相关功能的更多或更少特征时如何提供一致性。 PI将必须开发基本的新知识，了解在设备之间保持一致性的哪些方面最重要，以及如何将这些知识体现为手持设备可以用来自动生成一致的用户界面的规则。 对于组合多个设备，知识价值将包括用于描述设备之间的互连以及用于将多个设备的用户界面的片段组合在一起的技术。 广泛的影响：以前没有人尝试过根据不同设备或计算机应用程序的规范自动生成一致的接口，这些设备或计算机应用程序共享一些或许多功能。 这些结果将对所有关注设备或计算机多个用户界面一致性的研究人员和开发人员有用。 类似地，没有人使用为单独的设备单独定义的模型自动创建组合的用户界面。 这项研究的结果将使复杂的电器更容易为公众使用，使他们能够更好地利用他们的设备，并将他们的知识转移到新的，可能更复杂的，电器的操作。

During the last four years, the PI and his students have been investigating the use of handheld devices to control all kinds of home, office and factory equipment (such as stereos, VCRs, telephones, copiers, FAX machines, and clocks), as well as the non-driving functions of automobiles (such as the air conditioning and navigation systems). They have developed a high-level XML-based language to specify an appliance's features from which a high quality user interface can be generated on a PocketPC personal digital assistant (PDA) or on a mobile phone. However, two important problems remain: to automatically generate consistent interfaces for the user across different appliances; and to automatically generate a combined user interface for multiple appliances that operate as a logical unit. No existing automatic generation system for user interfaces has addressed these problems. Solving the consistency problem would, for example, mean that people could set the time on the VCR and the time to start recording in the same way that they set their alarm clock. By providing the interface on the user's handheld, the same consistent way to set the time would be used in every place that time-setting is required on all appliances. Solving the combined interface problem would, for example, mean that for an entire entertainment system, the user would just need to press "play DVD" and the system would automatically turn on the TV, switch the TV to "input3," turn on the stereo, switch the stereo to "aux" input, turn off the cable box, turn on the DVD player, and finally cause the DVD to start playing. These are the scenarios the PI plans to tackle in this project. He will develop a system that uses the interdependencies among all of a user's connected appliances to automatically create a combined user interface. The intellectual merit of the proposed research lies in determining how to generate interfaces that are consistent with one another and how to combine interfaces for multiple appliances. For consistency, this includes the sub-problems of matching which parts of different appliances should be made consistent with each other, and then how consistency can be provided when the appliances may have more or fewer features for related functions. The PI will have to develop fundamental new knowledge about what aspects of consistency are most important to preserve across appliances, and how to embody that knowledge into rules that the handheld can use to automatically generate consistent user interfaces. For combining multiple appliances, the intellectual merit will include techniques for describing the interconnection among appliances and for combining pieces of multiple appliances' user interfaces together. Extensive user studies will inform the designs and verify the results.Broader Impacts: No one has previously tried to automatically generate consistent interfaces from specifications for different appliances or computer applications that share some or many functions. The results will be useful for all researchers and developers who are concerned with consistency across multiple user interfaces for appliances or computers. Similarly, no one has automatically created a combined user interface using models defined separately for separate appliances. The results of this research will make complex appliances much easier to use for the general public, so that they are able to make better use of their devices and also to transfer their knowledge to the operation of new, potentially more complicated, appliances.