Remote control for pervasive services

In this paper, we present the REACHeS architecture for controlling pervasive services through physical user interfaces, using a mobile terminal and icons placed in the environment. An icon advertises a service that can be started by touching the icon with a mobile terminal. This service activation configures the mobile terminal as a remote control for the service. We have implemented this architecture and designed an icon set. The physical user interface is based on RFID technology: the terminals are equipped with RFID readers and RFID tags are placed under the icons. We present the first prototype applications and the first usability tests that we have carried out.