Mithun Sheshagiri

SeeNSearch: A Context Directed Search Facilitator for Home Entertainment Devices

The Internet has become an extremely popular source of entertainment and information. But, despite the growing amount of media content, most Web sites today are designed for access via web browsers on the PC, making it difficult for home consumers to access Internet content on their TVs or other devices that lack keyboards. As a result, the Internet is generally restricted to access on the PC or via cumbersome interfaces on non-PC devices. In this paper, we present unobtrusive and assistive technologies enabling home users to easily find and access Internet content related to the TV program they are watching. Using these technologies, the user is now able to access relevant information and video content on the Internet while watching TV.

Interplay: a middleware for integration of devices, services and contents in the home networking environment

Current home networking technologies such as UPNP, Jini and HAVi, only focus on connecting devices electronically in a variety of different forms that allow simple device interactions. The result is that devices act in incompatible islands, making their use confusing to users and a nightmare for application developers. To realize a smart home environment, we need to seamlessly integrate devices and services into our every day lives. In this paper, we describe a middleware platform to provide the integration of devices, services and contents in a home. Our middleware facilitates integration of both data (content, preferences, etc.) and applications across home networking technologies to improve consumer and developer usability.