MAX Human-centric searching of the physical world

Abstract

MAX is a vision of searching the physical world in seconds, as we are searching the Internet today. Built on the intuition that humans are powerful ``sensors'' that works well with landmark based information, we design the system to allow people to search for and locate objects as and when they need it, instead of organizing them a priori. Location information are presented in a form natural to humans in the system, i.e., with reference to identifiable landmarks (e.g., on the dining table) rather than precise coordinates. MAX was designed with three main objectives in mind: (i) human-centric operation, (ii) privacy, and (iii) efficient search of any tagged object. In the system, all physical objects, from documents to clothing, can be tagged and people locate objects using an intuitive search interface. In this thesis, we propose a hierarchical architecture consisting of tags (bound to objects), sub-stations (bound to landmarks) and base-stations (bound to localities), to facilitate an efficient search. To optimize system performance, we present a methodology to design energy and delay optimal query protocols for a variety of device choices. Also we provide privacy for the users of MAX. Tags can be marked as either public or private, with private tags searchable only by the owner. MAX also provides for privacy of physical spaces. MAX requires minimal initial configuration, and is robust to reconfiguration of the physical space. We also present an implementation of MAX, providing search facility for the wide physical area. We contend that a MAX-like search system will enable sharing (e.g., books on a college campus) and trading (e.g., buying and selling used books) of physical resources, and will be the engine for a host of new applications. It is our thesis that the ability to efficiently search the physical world through MAX will provide unprecedented convenience to people.