Presentation held at InterMedia Summer School 2009, 9.6.2009-12.6.2009, Platanias, Crete, Greece

: Jentsch, M.

Abstract
In ubiquitous computing environments it is often hard to identify interactive objects. This paper introduces an intuitive spotlight metaphor to highlight smart objects. Users hold their mobile phone like a flashlight and scan the environment. A portable LED projector then highlights smart objects in the spotlight focus. Different colors of light indicate the object's quality for a selected application. As the information is directly augmented to the real world, it is easy to understand for the users. Infrared LEDs are attached to the smart objects and identified by a mobile phone's camera. This preserves the concept of calm computing as the LED light is invisible for the human eye. At the same time, the system is easy to set up and applicable for any environment.