Last updated: 1/14/2004 - 1 - Personalizing shared ubiquitous devices David M. Hilbert and Jonathan Trevor Fuji-Xerox Palo Alto Laboratory, Inc. Everywhere we go, we are surrounded by shared devices: TVs, stereos, and appliances in the home; copiers, fax machines, and projectors in the office; phones and vending machines in public. Because these devices don't know who we are, they provide the same user interface and functionality to everyone. This lack of personalization in the real world is reminiscent of the World Wide Web in its infancy—no matter who you were, you saw the same Web pages as everyone else. Today, personalization pervades the Web, and is beginning to play a role in everyday devices such as cars and DVRs. This article describes two years of experience with a research prototype for personalizing shared workplace devices such as projectors, public displays, and multi-function copiers. The system combines users’ networked resources—or “personal information clouds”— with device-specific user interfaces for performing common device tasks. We developed and compared personal interfaces that are embedded (i.e., integrated or co-located with the shared device) and portable (i.e., accessible via personal devices such as mobile phones and PDAs). Our experience indicates that a little personalization can go a long way toward improving user friendliness, efficiency, and capabilities of shared document devices, helping them “weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life” [1]. We also gained important insights into subtle differences between embedded and portable approaches to ubiquitous computing systems. Figure 1. The BMW 7 Series remembers your seat, mirror, and steering wheel settings and recalls them automatically when you use your unique key to enter the car (Left). TiVo DVRs learn your TV viewing preferences and automatically record TV shows you like (Right).