A Toolkit for Peer-to-Peer Distributed User Interfaces: Concepts, Implementation, and Applications

Melchior, Jérémie [UCL] Grolaux, Donatien [UCL] Vanderdonckt, Jean [UCL] Van Roy, Peter [UCL]

In this paper we present a software toolkit for deploying peer-to-peer distributed graphical user interfaces across four dimensions: multiple displays, multiple platforms, multiple operating systems, and multiple users, either independently or concurrently. This toolkit is based on the concept of multi-purpose proxy connected to one or many rendering engines in order to render a graphical user interface in part or whole for any user, any operating system (Linux, Mac OS X and Windows XP or higher), any computing platform (ranging from a pocket PC to a wall screen), and/or any display (ranging from private to public displays). This toolkit is a genuine peer-to-peer solution in that no computing platform is used for a server or for a client: any user interface can be distributed across users, systems, and platforms independently of their location, system constraints, and platform constraints. After defining the toolkit concepts, its implementation is described, motivated, and exemplified on two non-form based user interfaces: a distributed office automation and a distributed interactive game.