iStuff Mobile: Rapidly Prototyping New Mobile Phone interfaces for Ubiquitous Computing

iStuff Mobile is the first rapid prototyping framework that helps explore new sensor-based interfaces with existing mobile phones. It focuses on sensor-enhanced physical interfaces for ubiquitous computing scenarios. The framework includes sensor network platforms, mobile phone software, and a proven rapid prototyping framework. Interaction designers can use iStuff Mobile to quickly create and test functional prototypes of novel interfaces without making internal hardware or software modifications to the handset. A visual programming paradigm provides a low threshold for prototyping activities: the system is not difficult to learn. At the same time, the range of examples built using the toolkit demonstrates a high ceiling for prototyping activities: the toolkit places few limits on prototype complexity. A user study shows that the visual programming metaphor enables prototypes to be built faster and encourages more iterations than a previous approach.