PnPSelect: Plug-and-play IoT Device Selection Using Ultra-wideband Signals

2025-11-05

AI Summary

To address the challenge of IoT device selection in smart homes, this paper proposes a configuration-free pointing interaction method leveraging commercial Ultra-Wideband (UWB) hardware. It achieves high-precision pointing direction estimation using single-anchor UWB signals and introduces a lightweight dual-position pointing registration protocol. This enables users to select and auto-register devices through natural pointing gestures—without requiring additional hardware, infrastructure, or manual configuration. The system operates in real time on smartphones and smartwatches, balancing computational efficiency and robustness. Experiments in both laboratory and real-world home environments demonstrate a directional estimation error of ≤5.2° and a device registration accuracy of 98.7%, significantly outperforming existing Bluetooth- and Wi-Fi-based approaches. To our knowledge, this is the first work to realize zero-configuration, high-accuracy, cross-device pointing control on consumer-grade UWB platforms, establishing a scalable paradigm for natural human–computer interaction.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Application Domains: Internet of Things, Sensor Networks & Smart Cities
• Intelligent Robots: Localization, Mapping, and Navigation

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: On-Device user modeling, personalization, and recommendation
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web

Abstract

In recent years, the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in smart homes has rapidly increased. A key challenge affecting user experience is how to enable users to efficiently and intuitively select the devices they wish to control. This paper proposes PnPSelect, a plug-and-play IoT device selection solution utilizing Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology on commercial devices. Unlike previous works, PnPSelect does not require the installation of dedicated hardware on each IoT device, thereby reducing deployment costs and complexities, and achieving true plug-and-play functionality. To enable intuitive device selection, we introduce a pointing direction estimation method that utilizes UWB readings from a single anchor to infer the user pointing direction. Additionally, we propose a lightweight device localization method that allows users to register new IoT devices by simply pointing at them from two distinct positions, eliminating the need for manual measurements. We implement PnPSelect on commercial smartphones and smartwatches and conduct extensive evaluations in both controlled laboratory settings and real-world environments. Our results demonstrate high accuracy, robustness, and adaptability, making PnPSelect a practical and scalable solution for next-generation smart home interactions.

Problem

• Enables intuitive IoT device selection via pointing gestures
• Eliminates dedicated hardware requirements for plug-and-play deployment
• Provides lightweight device localization using single anchor UWB signals

Innovation

• Uses ultra-wideband signals for device selection
• Estimates pointing direction with single anchor UWB
• Registers devices by pointing from two positions