SyncTap: synchronous user interactions for spontaneous device associations

"SyncTap" is a user interface technique for making a network connection between digital devices. When a user wants to connect two devices, he or she synchronously perform user operations, such as pushing buttons on the both devices. Then, multicast packets that contain press and release timing are sent to the network. By comparing this timing with locally recorded one, both devices correctly identify each other.

This scheme is simple for users, and works on almost all wireless devices without requiring additional hardware or sensors. User interaction is also very simple (e.g., just pressing buttons) and thus it can be used with digital appliances with limited interaction capabilities (e.g., a wireless headset that only has buttons).

This method is also scalable because it can detect and handle simultaneous overlapping connection requests. It can also be used for making secure connections by exchanging public keys.



SyncTap uses synchronous actions for establishing network connections. The concept of synchronous actions is that when two networked devices are operated with synchronized operations, such as button taps, keystrokes, mouse strokes, pen gestures, light changes, device motions, or even voice inputs, these device should be able to identify each other by multicasting the received operation information on the network. Our current implementation uses button press-release timing as the simplest example of synchronous actions.


Synchronous actions for establishing network connections

publications

• Jun Rekimoto, Yuji Ayatsuka and Michimune Kohno, SyncTap: An Interaction Technique for Mobile Networking, MOBILE HCI 2003. PDF

• FEEL user interface

[other projects]