Token-based access to digital information

Several systems have been designed where a physical object is used to access digital information that is stored outside the object, but as yet no common vocabulary exists to describe such systems. We introduce a schema with three types of physical objects that can be linked to digital information: Containers are generic objects used to move information between different devices or platforms; tokens are used to access stored information, the nature of which is physically reflected in the token in some way; and tools are used to manipulate digital information. This paper gives special notice to token-based access system, and design implications for such systems are discussed. As an example of token-based access we have implemented WebStickers, where physical objects can be coupled with WWW pages. We present some examples of how tokens are used to access digital information in this system, and discuss future work in this area.