sqid: A Multipurpose Virtualization Tool, Streamlining Setups for UbiComp Research

Abstract

Frequently, pervasive computing research involves numerous distributed and interconnected components that must work in concert. Setting up the required technical backbone is often demanding, time-consuming, tedious, and repetitive. Existing tools for developing, testing, and tuning data-processing pipelines to extract high-level control data from low-level sensor data rely on specialized interfaces that are nontransparent, complicated, and inflexible, requiring specific personnel, such as programmers, which limits accessibility for specialists in other related fields, such as interaction designers. To address these challenges, we present a virtualization platform for data processing, transfer, and relaying. By coupling the visual programming paradigm with coherent data visualization and a network-based architecture, it facilitates adaptability and modularity, and is also compatible with a variety of hardware devices and third-party software.