1 Component Description Pebbles PDA Software Human Computer Interaction Institute Carnegie Mellon University Prepared by: Brad Myers, March 26, 1999

2 1 - Overview Pebbles provides an architecture and set of applications to integrate PDAs with each other and with PCs Use PDAs and PCs simultaneously Use PDAs to control the PC Examples: PDA as slide show controller -- see the notes of your presentation on the PDA, while the PC is showing the slide PDA as private drill-down display -- when viewing a shared map, each person can display on their own PDA the details of different aspects.

3 2 - Architecture Overview Multiple PDAs of different types connect to a central controller (“PebblesPC”) which distributes commands to different.dll files for different applications. PebblesPC Brad’s PalmPilot Rob’s PalmPilot Ben’s Windows CE SlideShow Cmd RemoteCmd Drill-Down Details Viewer On the PC Various apps Associated.dll files

4 3 - Component Description PDA programs Use standard PDA development tools E.g., Metrowerks Codewarrior for PalmPilot, Visual C++ for Windows CE Toolkit to support communication with PC Large collection of applications already available PebblesPC Acts as a controller to connect PDA program to appropriate PC-side program PC-side programs Implemented as PC.dll files which are dynamically loaded Toolkit to support communication with PDA

5 4 - External Interfaces Can control Mouse and Keyboard to pretend to be “regular” input devices Keyboard events, scroll events, mouse events Can communicate using custom Windows event stream for custom applications Existing OLE interface to PowerPoint Other interfaces to be implemented as required by the program.

6 5 - Existing Software “Bridges” Interoperation with Other Systems Emulates keyboard, mouse and scrollers to work with any application Uses OLE to interface to PowerPoint Uses custom MS Windows events to connect to custom drawing editor Functionality Can work with existing applications without change Extra capabilities when custom-designed bridge or application Protocols (current) Using Microsoft Windows event stream Using OLE for Microsoft Office

7 6 - Information Flow Sending and Receiving Data PC  PDA connection currently using serial cables Will support wireless RF (BlueTooth or HomeRF protocols) when available PC  PDA protocol is currently very simple: Header byte, count of bytes, byte stream Will be enhanced to support wireless communication Inputs Eventually, will be able to dynamically specify displays and controls for the PDA from an application Protocol to be determined Currently, all displays are hand-built using programming environment

8 6 - Information Flow, cont. Outputs Messages as Windows key and mouse events or custom messages Other protocols to be determined

9 7 - Plug-n-play Interacting with Other CPOF Components Already integrated with CMU’s handwriting recognizer Write using stylus on PDA, use the PC-based recognizer to interpret the strokes Planned integration with Sage/Visage for drill-down details Similarities to Other CPOF components OGI has PDA-based system, but they do not seem to be exploring how to use the PDA at the same time as the PC Complementing other CPOF Components Some existing tools will work today with any PC-based application Other specific integrations to be determined

Operating Environments and COTS Component Name Required Hardware Operating System Language Required COTS PalmPilot side (user) Palm 2, 3 or 5PalmOSCnone PalmPilot side (developer) Palm 2, 3 or 5 and a PC PalmOS and Win32 C Metrowerks for PalmPilot Windows CE side (user) Win CE device e.g., Casio E-10 Windows CEC++none Windows CE side (developer) Win CE device and a PC Windows CE and Win32 C++ Visual C++ for WindowsCE PC Application Developer PCWin32C++ Visual C++ for Windows

Hardware Platform Requirement PalmPilot Palm Personal or Professional or Palm III or Palm V Serial cable (currently), RF eventually Windows CE device Currently only palm-sized CE devices (Casio E-10) Eventually others PC Any, Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 98 Currently, multiple serial ports We use Quatech QSP-100 PCMCIA card to get 4 ports on a laptop Eventually, RF