Mobile Instant Messenger supporting Multimedia Conversation in Virtual World Interface

초록

Today’s information technology has seen a rapid movement of end-devices from desktop computers to mobile systems such as PDAs, handheld PCs, and embedded computers in cellular phones or personal appliances. Mobile systems require new methods of interaction and control. Widespread interaction devices such as mouse and keyboard are often not available, which makes classical user interfaces based on them inappropriate. Therefore, the major challenge for the success of mobile systems is the design of intelligent user interfaces as well as software that is flexible enough to handle changes in both user context and availability of resources. This paper presents the development of an instant messenger that enables multimedia conversation on mobile systems. Our instant messenger provides service and terminal mobility as well as selective presence indication. Service mobility refers to the provision of instant messaging service from any device such as PDAs, handheld PCs, and desktop computers. Terminal mobility refers to the provision of seamless instant messaging service during physical movement of the user. By selective presence indication, the user can present his status differently to different buddies depending on the availability of the user. Experimental results show that the instant messenger with virtual world interface is a useful model of user interface for multimedia conversation on mobile systems.