Inverted browser: A novel approach towards display symbiosis

Abstract

In this paper we introduce the Inverted Browser, a novel approach to enable mobile users to view content from their personal devices on public displays. The Inverted Browser is a network service to start and control a browser that is then used to view the content. In contrast to a traditional Web browser, which runs on the client device and pulls content from a server, content is pushed to the Inverted Browser from a personal data source upon user input. This approach allows a wide variety of personal content to be viewed by facilitating symbiotic relationships between mobile devices and intelligent displays in the environment. Our initial Inverted Browser prototype is based on a Web Services wrapper around a traditional Web browser. Our experiments show that the Inverted Browser approach is superior to other solutions in terms of user convenience, ease of use, energy consumption, and privacy, but interaction latencies need improvement. © 2006 IEEE.