The Cyberguide Project was started in March 1995 by the Future Computing Environments (FCE) group and is headed by Gregory Abowd. The Cyberguide "vision" is to develop an intelligent handheld tour guide that has information about surrounding areas and your location. This vision was partially realized in the Summer of 1995, as a non "position-aware" version of the Cyberguide was developed on the Newton for the GVU Demo Days. The Cyberguide continued to evolve, however, with new projects adapting the tool for wider use and flexibility. Here is a look at the latest Cyberguide Project Page.

This project continues the developmental work done by those Cyberguide pioneers. The aim of this venture is to extend the tool's mode of communication by building a version of Cyberguide portable to a Windows platform.

Project Features

• An aerial display of the room.
• Icons signifying the location of points of interest in the room.
• A link to a description of each location's topics.
• A tracking device for the current location of the user.
• An easily maintable list of locations.

Scenario Descriptions

Scenario 1:

A user picks up cyberguide and begins to walk around the room. The cyberguide system updates the aerial map every few steps showing the user his current location. The user stops in front of a project location that interests him and clicks the cyberguide icon of that location. The project name and a one-line description of the project is displayed. The user wants more information about the project, so he clicks the "more information" button. An HTML doccument is displayed that has a complete description of the project. The user is able to browse the web doccument to find all the information he needs.

Scenario 2:

The user knows there is a project in the room dealing with Internet Phone but he's not sure of its location. He picks up the cyberguide and clicks on the "projects" button. Many search fields come up on the screen, and the user limits the search to internet projects. He then clicks on the "search" button and all of the projects dealing with the internet appear on the screen. The user then clicks on the project dealing with Internet Phone. The map shows the location of the Internet Phone project. The user sees his location in relation to the project location and proceeds in that direction.

Scenario 3:

Based on cyberguide's description of a research project, the user decides he would like to be involved. He clicks on the "project team" button on the screen and gets the name and e-mail address of the project manager.

Storyboards

Scenario 2:

Scenario 3:

Functional Requirements

By priority level:

1.0 Display a section of the map of the whole area centered around the user's current position.

1.1 Scroll the display to sections other than the one the user is in.

1.2 Zoom in and out on the map.

2.0 Display a marker showing the user's current position.

2.1 The marker should follow the user as the user moves.

3.0 Display clickable icon for IT's (Interesting Things).

3.1 Click to display a name and a two-line description of the IT.

3.2 Click a description button to get full information.

4.0 Launch a browser/player to display IT specific information.

5.0 Provide a help system which can:

5.1 Display a legend for the map.

5.2 Display basic usage instructions.

6.0 Develop an engine for searching by:

6.1 Name

6.2 Subject

Non-Functional Requirements

Response time

Upon selecting an action, the user should get an immediate indication (about 100 msec) that the system is working or is busy.

Resolution

The CyberGuide should be able to locate the user in the environment to within 8 feet. Currently, this is a function of the present 40kHz IR system. Future plans include a resolution of 3 feet with a 500kHz positioning system.

Security

CyberGuide will require a password to close. Incorrect passwords will return the user to the CyberGuide system

Configuration

A sample input file format is as follows:

• ITTG 1 - Denotes an IT. The number will be used to refer to the IT internally.
• COMM - Any line that begins with this token "COMM" is a comment.
• UPLT - Denotes coordinates on full size bitmap of location of upper-left corner
  of the IT's icon.
• BORT - Denotes coordinates on full size bitmap of location of bottom-right corner
  of the IT's icon.
• ICON - (someicon.bmp). If this item does not exist, a default icon will be used for
  the IT, otherwise, this specifies the icon to use for the IT.
• INFO - Filename or URL for the long description of an IT.
• DESC - Short description of an IT.
• SNDF - An audio filename.
• KEYW - A comma-separated list of keywords.

Platform And Network Environment

The test machine is a 486 (or better) running at least the 3.1 version of Windows. The language used is Visual Basic. The target machine is a palm-top 486.

Network:

Currently only a 40kHz IR positioning network will be implemented. (No realtime data streams.) Future plans include a 500kHz IR network with possible connections to a TCP/IP network. (Used primarily for delivering HTML pages to the cyberguide's browsers.)

Risk Analysis

Anticipated Problems

1.0 Unable to get a pen-based system to test with.
2.0 Cannot read the serial/parallet port.
3.0 Unable to get an infra-red system to test with.
4.0 Unable to get a Visual Basic HTML viewer.
5.0 Cannot spawn an external HTML viewer.
6.0 Time constraint prevents searching locations by subject.

Proposed Solution

1.0 Make sure the system works under windows with only the left mouse button.
2.0 Document the problem and test the map system using dummy signals.
3.0 Document the problem and test the map system using dummy signals.
4.0 Spawn an external viewer.
5.0 Document the problem, transfer HTML data to text files, and show text files.
6.0 Implement the system without a location search capability.