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Usability classification for spontaneous device association

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Abstract

As wireless devices increasingly becoming ubiquitous, spontaneous interaction opportunities are accordingly becoming common. Although spontaneous interaction research has been ongoing for many years, a key question of spontaneous interaction still remains open: how can users associate devices in a natural, intuitive and secure manner. Over the past decade, researchers have demonstrated a plethora of device association techniques. Nonetheless, users were often neglected during design or they were only involved in a later stage, like testing. We argue that since device association is performed by end-users, usability factors need to be considered in the early stage of design. In this article, we present a categorisation of factors that influence the usability of device association. This paper aims at providing a framework that informs researchers and system designers of the considerations needed when designing or adopting an association technique.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. Alternative terminologies, such as pairing, binding, or coupling of devices, have been adopted by other literature. Essentially, the underlying concept remains the same—to establish an ad hoc network amongst multiple devices.

  2. Suomalainen et al. [39] defined an association model as the part of an association procedure that is visible to the user(s).

  3. To establish a secure connection, a common secret key for encryption must be agreed amongst the participating devices during their association.

  4. Apple’s Nike+iPod. http://www.apple.com/uk/ipod/nike.

  5. We thank Rene Mayrhofer for pointing this out during a conversation we had.

  6. Project Blinkenlights. http://blinkenlights.net/.

  7. A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack is a form of active eavesdropping. An assailant impersonates both endpoints of a connection, establishes independent connections with the victims and relays messages while making the victims perceive they are communicating with each other over a private connection. During the communication, the attacker can intercept and inject false messages.

  8. Some literature refers an OOB channel as an auxiliary channel.

  9. We found no research that explores the senses of taste and smell for device association.

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  1. School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Ming Ki Chong & Hans Gellersen

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  1. Ming Ki Chong
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  2. Hans Gellersen
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Correspondence to Ming Ki Chong.

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Chong, M.K., Gellersen, H. Usability classification for spontaneous device association. Pers Ubiquit Comput 16, 77–89 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-011-0421-1

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