Telefonica | February 16, 2011 | Press Release
FRIGO REFLECTIONS
A unique sharing experience of your “running applications” between devices. The main
objective of this project is the sharing of content and running applications between devices
belonging to the same user or with third parties. For instance, a PC web session can be
continued at the same point on a mobile device, a video can be viewed from the same point
or a document continued from the same page.
FRIGO Reflections has been developed by Telefo?nica I+D. The product was developed based
on user needs, following a design method which allowed us to test our concepts with real
users, starting from very early development stages.
With this pilot project Telefo?nica seeks to address the primary needs of users with several
types of device: providing mechanisms that permit them to rapidly switch between devices,
without losing the status or context of the tasks that they are performing.
Application and Use
Running tasks can be shared PC to PC or PC to mobile with three main areas of use:
browsing, video and text editing. In all of these examples it is possible to continue a task at
exactly the same point it was left off (whether this be visualizing a webpage, playing a video
or writing a document). If we are working in a file our PC at work, in one click it can be sent to
any device at home where the document will appear open at the same page and paragraph.
In the same way, information can be sent from a PC to a mobile device. A map browsing
session or a video being watched can be instantly moved from a fixed to a mobile device, so
that these activities can be continued seamlessly. In addition to personal use, this sharing
system can be used to send content (and its associated context) to third parties’ devices,
broadening the communication options available.
Technology used
Reflections leverages standard technologies to perform this handover of the status and
context of applications between different devices, using the standard XMPP messaging
protocol to manage instant communications and notifications.
Frigo Reflections uses the following resources to transfer information:
– Plug-ins and add-ins of the selected applications, e.g. Microsoft Office.
– Reflections API, so third party developers can use this API inside their
applications for graceful reflections.
– Cloud systems and services to ensure sharing and follow-up.
– Basic messaging systems to enable instant communications and notifications.
