With Bluetooth components getting smaller and cheaper, we
might soon integrate wireless microservers into all kinds of electronic
devices. Here we are implementing these servers by using WAP over Bluetooth.
This seminar explores applying a general purpose, pluggable microserver, based
on wireless application protocol and Bluetooth technology, for remote control
purposes.
Since the early days of the Web, server-side executable
content has been an important Ingredient of server technology. It has turned
simple hypertext retrieval into real applications. Not surprisingly, the idea
of remotely controlling devices through the Web1, 2 has always seemed near at
hand. Because hypertext user interfaces can run on any Web browser, UI
development boils down to Web content creation. Furthermore, thanks to the HTTP
standard’s smart and scalable nature, we can fit embedded servers into simple
8-bit microcontrollers with only a few Kbytes of RAM and ROM
Ever since we started integrating hypertext browsers into
mobile phones, people have proposed using mobile phones as remote controls.
Now, with the provision of short-range wireless connectivity— for example,
through Bluetooth mobile phones and other handhelds might substantially change
the way people interact with electronic devices. Here, we report on our effort
to create a low-power wireless microserver with a very small form factor and
connect it to mobile devices using standard consumer technology.
Future implementations of both mobile and embedded servers
will be more powerful and thus will use true distributed computing middleware.
However, for now, we have shown that connecting electronic devices to the Web
with inexpensive standard technology is possible and is sufficient for many
applications. A major challenge will be to identify application areas where we
can deploy pervasive computing technology in consumer domains without major
investments in infrastructure. One possibility is to determine where we can add
value to legacy systems by adding embedded server technology, like we did with
the EIB implementation. Finally, we have to give device manufacturers a cost
efficient option for making their products ready for integration into a
pervasive computing environment without committing to a particular pervasive
computing technology or middleware. A simple—yet to be standardized—control
interface is such an option.
APPLICATION
Consumer electronics have used wireless low cost remote
controls for decades. Adding embedded servers to devices will create a new
range of use cases beyond the limited capabilities of infrared remotes:
• Browsers could then allow real interaction instead of just
sending one-way commands such as infrared remotes.
• We could harmonize similar operations in terms of a Web
UI, even if the built-in UIs of the particular devices differ. A good example
is setting a device’s clock, which is a common operation in many consumer
devices but always requires a unique— and often error-prone— implementation.
• We could distribute the UI among the device’s built-in UI
and the handheld’s UI. For example, we could export parental control
functions—such as “edit play-time budget or game type”—of game consoles to a
mobile phone.
• A server with memory could personalize its UI and service
by collecting and interpreting its own usage patterns and those of adjacent
servers.
• Devices that lack a UI, have a restricted UI, or are purposely
hidden could export a UI to a handheld.
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