MIT.EDU: system architecture for real-world distributed multi-user applications in classroom settings

In this paper we describe the MIThril mobile-IT education (MIT.EDU) platform, an innovative architecture that allows for the rapid prototyping of wireless mobile multi-user applications for use in classroom settings. MIT.EDU is a proven, accessible system that combines inexpensive, commodity hardware, a flexible sensor/peripheral interconnection bus, and a powerful, light-weight distributed sensing, classification, and interprocess communications software architecture to facilitate the development of distributed real-time multi-modal and context-aware applications. We demonstrate the power and functionality of the MIT.EDU platform by describing a number of system deployments of real-world applications in a number of educational settings.