Marios Mikhalakis

An Experimental Hardware Extension Platform for Mobile Devices in Smart Spaces

Mobile devices are developing a central role in the user interaction with smart environments. Currently there is an intense research interest on how to use mobile devices to make this interaction intuitive for non-expert users. For this reason, a number of new hardware enhancements are proposed. However, prototyping new hardware technologies and interfacing
mobile devices can be a tedious and time-consuming task. This thesis presents the "Smart Sleeve", an extensible experimental platform that allows the easy addition of new sensing and communication technologies to enhance the capabilities of mobile devices. The Smart Sleeve comprises of a core system which can be extended with add-on modules that offer a new
functionality. We present our experience designing and building the smart sleeve and some interesting and useful add-on modules. These modules add examples functionalities, such as a touch interface (near field communication), location awareness (indoor and outdoor location sensing), and motion (robotics) to commercially available mobile devices.

Thesis Committee:
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Prof. Bahram Shafai (Advisor)
Prof. Stefano Basagni
Dr. Dimitris Kalofonos (Nokia)