Development of Mobile Interfaces to Interact with Automatic Control Experiments [Focus on Education]

Mobile devices have been widely adopted in recent years. Market researchers and futurists forecast that personal computers (PCs) will become a relic of the past, being gradually overshadowed by low-cost por-table devices like tablet computers and mobile phones [1]. Today's mobile devices have wireless network connectiv-ity, granting users increased accessibility and mobility. In industry, engineers have already begun to leverage these benefits of mobile devices to perform their jobs more con-veniently and collaboratively [2]. Companies that design applications (a.k.a. apps) for engineering say "people need tools equivalent with what they have on their desktop but that they can take with them wherever they go" [2]. In a similar vein, mobile applications that free users from being tethered to a PC to monitor, command, or control labora-tory equipment can allow hands-on experiential learning to be accessible from virtually anywhere and at any time, including at unexpected moments. For instance, if an engi-neering student is reminded of a laboratory experiment while going about her daily life, a mobile app can enable her to connect with the experiment to examine her hypoth-eses immediately instead of waiting to access the labora-tory on campus and possibly forgetting valuable ideas. That is, since new ideas often arise spontaneously, mobile devices may support the creative learning process [3].