Supporting a community of mobile authenticated workers with a small number of stationary devices is an alternative to providing each person with a portable wireless computer. In contrast to the PC's desktop metaphor, Palplates use a place metaphor that reflect the actual rooms, corridors, and buildings that are part of the office place.
Users interact graphically with applications supported by a geographic database.
Keywords ubiquitous computing, context-aware computing, mirror worlds, mobile computing, kiosk systems, MUDs. In our workplace people frequently leave their desks and spend a significant amount of time away from their desktop computers. During these times, tasks arise that are best supported by a computing system. The user interface for Palplates is keyed to its location, showing the most likely tasks and providing the most specific information for that place. Although Palplates are not mobile computers, they do aid mobile users.