Opportunistic, collaborative and synchronized, proximal device ecology

Abstract

CoSync is an on-device software framework for coordinating proximal consumer electronic devices in order to create a synchronized, opportunistic and collaborative device ecology. The CoSync device ecology combines multiple stand-alone devices and controls them opportunistically as if they were one distributed, or diffuse, device at the user's fingertips. CoSync interconnects these devices without requiring their users to coordinate in advance. CoSync is inspired by the observation that people participate in serendipitous collaborations with those around them, both friends and strangers; proximal networking compliments the well-established client-server model with a more society like device ecology. This thesis is centered on the design, implementation, and evaluation of CoSync. CoSync is architected to be platform independent and an Android specific reference implementation is provided. Several use cases are demonstrated, including device discovery, opportunistically using another device as network carrier connection, real-time media sharing, co-creation of media such as multi viewpoint video, and close synchronization between devices taking collective action, e.g. coordinating the flash on multiple cameras, and recording synchronized sound and images using separate devices. This thesis work was partially supported by a research grant from Qualcomm Corporation, the Media Lab Digital Life Consortium and the Communications Futures Program.