in050378
InterNational
Committee for
Information
Technology Standards
Information
Technology Access Interfaces
Technical
Committee
(INCITS/V2)
US TAG to
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC 35
US TAG to ISO/IEC JTC1 SC 35 WG 6
US TAG to ISO/IEC JTC1 SC35
WG 7
US TAG to ISO/IEC JTC1 SC35
WG 8
ANNUAL
REPORT
Annual Report for: INCITS/V2, US TAG to ISO/IEC JTC1 SC35,
Covering
the Period from October 2004
to June 2005
Title of
INCITS Subgroup: Information
Technology Access Interfaces Technical Committee
Links:
Informal Description of Work:
Though V2 is charged with developing national standards for Information Technology Access Interfaces, we believe that our resulting standards will impact how everyone in the world interacts with intelligent devices of all kinds.
The first
project of the technical committee has been to develop standards for a
Universal Remote Console (URC). This family of standards
complements and
builds on industry activity in home networking, wireless networking,
consumer electronics
control and integration, and metadata registries for discovery and
interoperation of devices. The Universal Remote Console
specification and
related standards will enable IT products and services to be more
accommodating
of the needs and preferences of the consumer by allowing for
alternative user
interfaces. While addressing the special needs of people with
disabilities, the option to change interfaces will have a broader
market
application. Indeed we believe that these standards will
revolutionize
how we all, throughout the world, interact with electronics and
information
technology (E & IT) in the near future.
As of this report, INCITS/V2 has 9 member
organizations of
record; has held 19 Plenary meetings (3
during the 8
month period of this report) and over 150 informal working meetings (30
during
the period of this report, most by teleconference). The committee
has had
5 draft proposed America National Standards
(dpANSs)
for the Universal Remote Console component and ancillary specifications
issued
for public review, has addressed all comments and has submitted the 5
to
INCITs/ANSI for publication. Work continues by several
organizations on developing prototypes using various technologies.
In
addition, an implementors' suite is being developed by one of the
organizations. In December 2003, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC35, User
Interfaces, the
International standards committee for which V2 serves as the US TAG,
requested
that US prepare a new work item proposal (NP) for our URC dpANS.
This was
done and the work item has been approved by JTC1. In
response, JTC1 SC35 has created a new
working group (wg8) to create a multi-part standard incorporating the
five V2
dpANSs currently being processed, and has appointed a member of the
The V2 Technical
Committee has developed a set of five standards for the discovery,
selection,
configuration, and operation of user interfaces and options. The
purpose
of these standards is to facilitate the development and deployment of a
wide
variety of devices (from different manufacturers) that can act as
Universal
Remote Consoles (URCs) for an equally varied range of devices and
services
(called "Targets"). In other words, the standards will
allow users to control any number of Electronic and Information
Technology
devices in their environment.
The potential
Targets include both devices and services. They may range from
things as
simple as a light switch and thermostats, to more complex items such as
audio
visual equipment, home appliances, electronics in a car or other
constrained or
specialized environment, web-based services, and any other devices or
services
that can be controlled electronically (or via Communications or
Information Technology
-- CIT).
Targets may be in
the same location as the individual who desires to control the Target
through
the URC, or the Target can be at any distance from the URC/user, as
long as
there is some type of network connection between the URC and the
Target.
This is possible since a URC provides the user with all of the
necessary
controls as well as the prompts and other information displayed by the
Target.
The five standards
specify communications between a Target – a device or service the user
wishes
to access – and a Universal Remote Console – software that is typically
hosted
on a user's personal device. The standards specify mechanisms for the
discovery, selection, configuration, and operation of user interfaces
and
options:
First, the Universal Remote Console specification provides a framework
of
components that combine to enable remote user interfaces and remote
control of
network-accessible Targets through a URC. This document describes the
URC
architecture.
Second, the User Interface Socket Description specification defines XML
language for User Interface Socket Descriptions. A User Interface
Socket is an
abstract concept that describes a Target's functionality and state in a
machine-interpretable manner. The Socket exposes a Target's relevant
information so that a user can perceive its state and operate it.
Third, the Presentation Template specification defines XML language for
Presentation Templates, which provide hints for building a usable,
consistent
user interface for a Target. The hints are abstract and are intended to
apply
to any delivery context.
Fourth, the Target Description specification defines an XML document
describing
a URC-conformant Target so that a URC can discover it. A Target
Description
provides the information a URC needs to connect to one of the Target's
Sockets
to start a control session. A Target has exactly one Target Description.
Finally, the Resource Description specification defines the syntax for
describing Resources relevant to a Target's user interface. A Resource
is an
identifiable object that's used as an entity in the construction of a
concrete
user interface. Resources can include text elements of a user interface
such as
labels, help text, keyboard shortcuts (access keys), and associated
words
(keywords). They might also include non-text elements such as icons,
sounds, or
videos.
URC functionality
could be provided by common devices such as personal computing and
Information
Technology devices (e.g. laptops, PDAs), telecommunications/ WAP
devices (e.g.
cell phones), etc. They could also be functions implemented in
assistive
technology devices, or they could be devices that were specially built
to
function as Universal Remote Consoles. They may also be devices
that were
built to function primarily as Remote Consoles for a particular family
of
products (e.g. a Remote Console designed to control components of an
integrated
home audio-visual system), but would also serve to control any other
device
that is (V2) URC compatible. They are similar in behavior to
universal
remote controls today, except
a) they have much
greater function and scope,
b) they synchronize with the Target in both directions (i.e. they can
display
the current status of the Target),
c) they don't need to be programmed by the user, (since they will
automatically
discover devices that are controllable in a user's vicinity, discover
the
abstracted user interface of the Targets and present it in the way
preferred by
the user), and
d) depending on the networking technology used, they may be used out of
sight
of the product they are controlling.
The output interfaces provided by URCs could be
all visual,
all tactile, or all verbal in nature (or any combination thereof),
because the
(V2) URC specifies the content of a Target user interface independently
from
the form in which it is presented. Similarly and for the same
reason, the
control interfaces may be by voice, keyboard, mouse or any other
available
technology. Thus, URCs could be designed that an individual could
talk to
and, through the URC, the user could have
speech
access to any (V2) URC compatible Target listed above without any of
these
Targets having any voice recognition or voice control functionality
themselves. A person might, therefore, be able to say to their
URC,
"Record channel 12 and show me 'Law and Order'". Or they could
be laying in bed and say, "Set the alarm to 6:30 AM, turn the coffee on
at
6:00 AM, and turn on the home security system". Or, if one's
spouse
is already asleep, a person could pick up their PDA or any other (V2)
URC
compatible URC device and accomplish these same tasks silently either
by
calling up control panels or by issuing the instructions in writing.
(The (V2)
URC standard does not provide the natural language control, but would
provide
all of the information and control necessary for control by a natural
language
processing URC.)
The purpose of the Universal Remote Console specification efforts
within V2 is
to provide a framework of components that combine to enable remote User
Interfaces and remote control of network-accessible electronic devices
and
services through a URC.
The NP submission on a URC framework by V2 (as the US TAG to JTC1 SC35) was approved by the JTC1 members. The new working group wg8 User Interfaces for Remote Interactions has been established for work on this new project, and Gottfried Zimmermann from V2 has been appointed editor. In March 2005, V2 has submitted 5 working drafts for the 5 parts of the international URC standard.
Three participating organizations have
demonstrable reference implementations (Trace, NIST, and the Wireless
RERC). Other organizations have indicated
interest in
developing implementations. These implementations use different
technologies and are used to ensure that the specifications are
implementable
and generic. In addition, software development kits (SDKs) are being
developed
by two of the organizations (Trace and Medical Instrumentation
RERC).
The following presentations and
publications were authored by various V2 participants:
INCITS Project: 1678 - D
Title: Information Technology - Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products through Remote and Alternative Interfaces and Intelligent Agents: Universal Remote Console
Standard to be published: ANSI/INCITS 389-2005
INCITS Project: 1679 - D
Title: Information Technology - Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products through Remote and Alternative Interfaces and Intelligent Agents: User Interface Socket Description
Standard to be published: ANSI/INCITS 390-2005
INCITS Project: 1680 - D
Title: Information Technology - Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products through Remote and Alternative Interfaces and Intelligent Agents: Presentation Template
Standard to be published: ANSI/INCITS 391-2005
INCITS Project: 1681 - D
Title: Information Technology - Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products through Remote and Alternative Interfaces and Intelligent Agents: Target Description
Standard to be published: ANSI/INCITS 392-2005
INCITS Project: 1682 - D
Title: Information Technology Š Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products through Remote and Alternative Interfaces and Intelligent Agents: Resource Description
Standard to be published: ANSI/INCITS 393-2005
INCITS
Project: 1778 - L
JTC1 SC35 WG8
ISO/IEC WD 24752 – Information technology - User Interfaces - Universal Remote Console
§ Part 1: Framework
§ Part 2: User Interface Socket Description
§ Part 3: Presentation Template
§ Part 4: Target Description
§ Part 5: Resource Description
INCITS Project: 1658 - L
Title: Information technology - Survey of icons and symbols that provide access to functions and facilities to improve the use of IT products by elderly and persons with disabilities
ISO/IEC PDTR 19765
JTC 1 SC35 WG6
INCITS Project: 1659 - L
Title: Information technology - Guidelines for the design of icons and symbols to be accessible to all users - Including the elderly and persons with disabilities
ISO/IEC PDTR 19766
JTC 1 SC35 WG 6
INCITS Project: 1779 - L
Title: Information technology - Framework for establishing and evaluating accessibility in interactive systems
JTC1 SC35 WG6
ISO/IEC NP xxxxx (number not yet assigned)
INCITS Project: 1780 - L
Title: Information technology - User Interfaces - Model for describing user interface objects, actions, and attributes
JTC1 SC35 WG7
ISO/IEC NP xxxxx (number not yet assigned)
INCITS Project: 1464 - D
Title: Alternative Interface Access Protocol (AIAP)
Obsolete
Retaining and adding to membership.
Coordination and harmonization with other
organizations
developing standards and specifications with overlapping scopes (JTC1
SC25 WG1,
SC35 and SC36, OASIS UIML, CMU Pebbles Project, NIST Pervasive
Computing
Project, Consumer Electronics Association User Interface for Home
Networks
Standards Group, Digital Living Network Alliance, Universal Plug and
Play, W3C
XForms). One V2 member is providing part of the funding request
by INCITS
to support
October 4-5, 2004 - V2 Plenary #17
January 17-18, 2005 - V2 Plenary #18
http://www.nist.gov/incits/v2/
April 23, 2005 - V2 Plenary #19
ITI Headquarters –
20. July 11 - 12, 2005;
21. October 2005; By
Phone
22. January 2006 By Phone
23 March – April Washington (?)
External:
Internal (other INCITS Sub groups):
|
Position (and training date) |
Name and organization represented |
|
Chair (10/01) |
Bill LaPlant, |
|
Vice Chair (9/02) |
Gregg Vanderheiden, |
|
Secretary |
Joe Roeder, National Industries for the Blind |
|
International Representative (11/03) |
Gottfried Zimmermann, |
|
|
|
Free Standards Group
Georgia Tech, RERC on Wireless
Technologies
IBM
Marquette University/RERC on
Accessible Medical Instrumentation
Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs
National Industries for the Blind
National Institute for Standards &
Technology
Duke University
RERC on Communication Enhancement
University of
Liaison Members (5):
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC 36 Learning
Technologies
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC 25 WG 1 Home
Electronic Systems
CEA R7 Home Networking
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)
Internal to INCITS (2):
L8, M1
A burgeoning market already exists for personalization of content and appearance on the Web, with regard to small handheld devices and for commercial sales purposes. Companies such as IBM, ATG, and Vignette have products and services for this explicit purpose. This market should grow considerably in the next three years.
Another rapidly emerging segment of
technology is that of pervasive computing, whereby intelligent devices
of all
sorts are distributed into the living environments of home, shopping,
and other
activities involving mobile systems. Of particular note are the
numerous
offerings in:
This follows the burgeoning of wireless technology
from
companies such as Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola, as well as
the
efforts of groups that promote wireless device applications. Such
groups
include the Wireless Application Protocol Forum (which merged with the
Open
Mobile Architecture initiative to form the Open Mobile Alliance, www.openmobilealliance.org)
and the Salutation Consortium (www.salutation.org).
Handheld devices such as the Palm and the Pocket PC are targeted at the
mobile
computing environment. Another important factor in the wireless
environment is
the Bluetooth RF (radio frequency) infrastructure, for which many
manufacturers
are building compatible devices.
The International Standards community
is
creating gateway standards for many of the home-based and consumer
technologies
through the work of ISO/IEC JTC1 SC25 WG 1.
Whereas these services look towards
increasing access for user's critical information, they rely on
end-users to
configure, change, or maintain configurations for their
access. In addition, the burden of incorporating
multiples of
these offerings into a daily regimen is taxing on the user, and
certainly
highly error-prone. The key shortfall, however, rests in the
personalization
of the user's interaction with each of these separate systems, and the
changes
and dynamics that individual users' will need to effectively coordinate
and use
these services effectively. This can be made especially difficult
for a
user with a disability or who is aging.
To make these systems truly usable,
service providers must bridge the user's networks (office, mobile,
home); the
user's devices (phone, web-pad, computer); and the user's information
spaces
and channels (email, documents, news/information, calendars).
Key to interaction across devices and
information spaces is the ability to provide a ubiquitous user
interface.
Two related initiatives are needed:
The URC is seen as the integrating factor for these initiatives. Moreover, the URC will be a major factor in providing preference and capability transfer in non-networked, non-mobile uses as well. The Composite Capabilities and Preferences Profiles (CC/PP) and Device Independence efforts at the W3C is aimed at standard representations of the capabilities and preferences of users and devices. The Open Mobile Alliance (formerly the WAPForum) has been using the CC/PP to describe the features and capabilities of some wireless devices such as smart phones.
Moreover, there is an abundant market
for third-party developers to build products that will carry out
interface
transformations for content, appearance and user controls and to build
applications that lend themselves to interface selection or
transformation. This trend is reinforced by networking
technologies
such as Universal Plug and Play, Jini (Sun), or HAVi, which provide a
platform
for discovery and control in a network of devices and services.
V2 is
making sure that these technologies can be harnessed for implementing
its
standard.
Although these services aim to
increase access to a user's critical information, they rely on users to
create,
change, or maintain configurations for this access. In addition, the
burden of
incorporating these many devices and services into a daily regimen is
taxing on
the user and highly error prone. The key shortfalls, however, rest in
the
personalization of the user's interaction with each of these separate
systems
and in the changes and dynamics that individual users will need to
coordinate
and use these services effectively. This can be especially difficult
for a user
who has a disability, who is aging, or who might need or prefer a
different
interaction mode.
To make these systems truly usable,
service providers must bridge the user's networks (office, mobile, and
home),
devices (phone, Web pad, and computer), and information spaces (email,
documents, and news and information).
Key to interaction across devices and
information spaces is the ability to provide the solution in a
ubiquitous form
factor. Users should be able to interact with the devices and services
around
them in a consistent way, appropriate for the personal device they're
using and
their own interaction preferences.
V2 has no funds collection.
V2 has no written procedures for
meeting or other committee activities. We use the current INCITS
Procedures.