CAMP: A magnetic poetry interface for end-user programming of capture applications for the home

Abstract

As the trend towards technology-enriched home environments progresses, the need to enable users to create applications to suit their own lives increases. While several recent projects focus on lowering barriers for application creation by using simplified input mechanisms and languages, these projects often approach application creation from a developer's perspective, focusing on devices and their interactions, rather than users' goals or tasks. In this paper, we present a study that examines how users conceptualize applications involving automated capture and playback of home activities and reveals a breadth of home applications that people desire. We introduce CAMP, a system that enables end-user programming for smart home environments based on a magnetic poetry metaphor. We describe how CAMP's simple interface for creating applications supports users' natural conceptual models of capture applications. Finally, we present a preliminary evaluation of CAMP and assess its ability to support a breadth of desired home applications as well as the user's conceptual model. © Springer-Verlag 2004.