Most advanced mobile devices are capable of creating new multimedia data. For example, mobile phones are equipped with high resolution cameras, allowing users to take pictures or make movies anytime, anywhere. However, sharing those data with others remains challenging even when users are co-located. Transferring the taken pictures from one mobile phone to another nearby one usually involves several steps of inconvenient user intervention, including manipulating buttons to execute the file exchange program, enabling radio interfaces (e.g., Bluetooth) followed by wait time for identifying the target’s network address (e.g., Bluetooth MAC address), selecting pictures to be sent, and pressing the ‘transmit’ button. Therefore, it is essential to devise novel solutions for exchanging multimedia data in more user-friendly ways to enhance usability of mobile devices.
2.1. Overview
Figure 2 shows the overall Cocktail system. It consists of mobile devices (e.g., mobile phones), a touch-screen called SmartTable, and several types of stationary devices (e.g., networked storage systems, displays, or printers). Cocktail provides gesture-based intuitive interaction among them.
Figure 2. An example of a Cocktail system
The devices shown in Figure 2 are mapped to objects in a real cocktail bar: a mobile device is mapped to a bottle, multimedia data in the mobile device represents the drink in the bottle, and SmartTable is mapped to a table in the real bar. In this environment, mobile users become digital bartenders handling multimedia data in their mobile phones.
Our system provides three types of interactions: (1) data transfer from a mobile device to another device (including both mobile and stationary devices); (2) creation of new content; and (3) data transfer from SmartTable to stationary devices. All three interactions are based on gestures used by bartenders.
First, in order to transfer data in a mobile device to another device, we use a sprinkling gesture (similar to a pouring gesture). Similar to how a bartender pours a drink from a bottle to a glass, a mobile user can transfer data, such as pictures, in his/her mobile phone to another device, such as his/her friend’s phone, by manipulating the device with a sprinkling motion above the target device. Our system then automatically finds the target, establishes a connection, and begins the data transfer. Section 2.2 discusses the sprinkling interaction in detail.
Second, akin to a bartender making a new cocktail by mixing various drinks, a mobile user can create new content by shaking his/her mobile phone. The content (music or pictures) in his/her mobile phone is then mixed into new content (e.g., a music video). This interaction is described in Section 2.3.
Finally, we have designed interaction via SmartTable to support intuitive data transfer to stationary devices. SmartTable is a touch-screen-based computer system. A user can transfer data from the mobile phone to SmartTable with the sprinkling gesture, i.e., by sprinkling the mobile phone above the touch-screen. An icon that represents the received data then appears on the touch-screen. In addition, SmartTable allows the user to transfer data from SmartTable to nearby stationary devices, such as a TV, printer, or computer, by dragging the icon in the direction of the target device. Details about the SmartTable interaction are given in Section 2.4.