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Web Applications have become an omnipresent part of our daily lives. They are easy to use, but hard to develop. WYSIWYG editors, form builders, mashup editors, and markup authoring tools ease the development of Web Applications. However, more advanced Web Applications require servers-side programming, which is beyond the skills of end-user developers. In this paper, we discuss how declarative languages can simplify Web Application development and empower end-users as Web developers. We first identify nine end-user Web Application development levels ranging from simple visual customization to advanced three-tier programming. Then, we propose expanding the presentation tier to support all aspects of Web Application development. We introduce a unified XForms-based framework—called XFormsDB—that supports both client-side and server-side Web Application development. Furthermore, we make a language extension proposal—called XFormsRTC—for adding true real-time communication capabilities to XForms. We also present XFormsDB Integrated Development Environment (XIDE), which assists end-users in authoring highly interactive data-driven Web Applications. XIDE supports all Web Application development levels and, especially, promotes the transition from markup authoring and snippet programming to single and unified language programming.

Most Web applications are based on a conventional three-tier architecture, in which the presentation, application logic, and data management are developed and maintained in separate tiers. The main disadvantage of this architecture is that it requires expertise in multiple programming languages, programming paradigms, and data models used in each tier. A single expert rarely masters all the technologies and concepts involved. In this paper, we introduce a tier-expanding architectural approach that unifies the client-side (presentation tier) and server-side (logic and data tiers) programming under a single model. We base our approach on a W3C-standardized client-side markup language, XForms, and its server-side extension proposed in this paper. We derive the extension requirements from the literature and use cases, and demonstrate their functionality on the example of a blog Web application. We also show how the extension can be implemented as part of a comprehensive Web application framework called XFormsDB . The XFormsDB framework is an extensible Web application framework built upon declarative W3C standards. It has four major advantages: (1) one programming language, (2) one data model, (3) based on W3C-standardized declarative markup, and (4) extensibility in all tiers. Our conclusion is that expanding the presentation tier to cover both application logic and data management functionality makes both the development and maintenance of small- and medium-sized Web applications easier.

Web application development in the context of the conventional three-tier architecture is complex, typically requiring a team of experts. Recent Web application architectures and frameworks simplify the development process, potentially turning tier-specific experts into one-person developer teams.

With the development of mobile devices, digital televisions and game consoles, a vast amount of different client terminals become capable to browse the Internet. Content providers have to find adaptation solutions to serve all devices at the same time. This paper introduces a dynamic layout adaptation algorithm for web documents and an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) that supports layout adaptation. The presented layout adaptation language is based on existing World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications, i.e., XFrames and CSS. Adaptation might results in several pages within one document. There is a need for a navigation method for browsing such documents. Therefore, we introduce a navigation method that supports paging. An implementation of the adaptation algorithm and the navigation method is also discussed in this paper.

Multimedia end-user terminals are expected to perform advanced user interface related tasks. These tasks are carried out by user interface runtime tools and include, among others, the visualization of complex graphics and the efficient handling of user input. In addition, the terminal's graphical system is expected, for example, to be able to synchronize audio and video, and control different contexts on the same screen. Finally, the availability of high level tools to simplify the user interface implementation and the adaptiveness of the user interfaces for a diversity of configurations are, as well, desirable features. We present a layered model that meets the just mentioned requirements. The architecture is divided into five different layers: hardware abstraction layer, multimedia cross platform libraries, graphical environment, GUI toolkit and high level languages. Moreover, a prototype system based on the architecture, targeted to digital television receivers, was implemented for the purpose of testing the validity of the concepts. In order to evaluate the prototype, some already developed MHP compliant digital television applications were tested. In addition the prototype was extended with a high level profile(i.e., SMIL support) and a low level one, (i.e., access to the frame buffer memory).

The SMIL 2.0 multimedia standard has been designed for use on the Web. It supports keyboard and mouse as input devices. Typically, SMIL players can play out text, images, audio, and video. SMIL also has a strong support for declarative synchronization and timing. Being an open standard, SMIL could well be utilized in custom applications, in environments such as info kiosks and multimedia consoles. However, these environments usually require better input and output capabilities not available in SMIL. This paper presents nine methods to extend SMIL for custom multimedia applications. The methods include ways to attach new input sources, output capabilities, and extended internal logic. Also, an implementation of an extensible SMIL player is given. As a conclusion, SMIL can be extended in several ways for custom multimedia applications. These extensions will provide new ideas for the future multimedia languages.

Digital television is a new, interesting, and rich platform for developing next generation multimedia services. Navigator is the most important service of digital television. It acts as the main index of all services available in set-top box. In this paper, we describe the definition of a Navigator, its functionality, its information retrieval processes, and its information source based on DVB-SI (Service Information) which is multiplexed in MPEG2 Transport Streams (TS). The process of developing a Navigator in Java language is presented. A software model including navigation model, state model of a remote control, and data structures is introduced. Furthermore, a software reference model for DVB-SI demultiplexing is described. Its implementation was based on a client/server approach using the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). The development issues, performance evaluation, and future research topics are given as conclusions.

World Wide Web Consortium is currently specifying XForms form language, which is intended to be the next generation language for Web forms. XForms is not currently supported by the major browsers, which prevents the early utilization of XForms. In this paper, we describe our implementation of XForms. The implementation is part of our X-Smiles browser, which is an open source XML browser.

Touch-based web browsing with tablet devices is not yet utilizing its full potential. This paper introduces an asymmetric bimanual interaction technique that makes browser-based multi-touch gestures more expressive. In the proposed TouchModifier technique, a semi-transparent panel with modifier controls is docked to the side of the screen. The non-dominant hand operates the side panel, while the dominant hand interacts with the application content as usual. The controls on the side panel operate as fluid mode selectors that enrich and override the semantics of the dominant hand gestures. This opens novel interaction possibilities in browser applications, while remaining interoperable with existing web pages. In this paper, we describe the proposed concept and present its prototype implementation with a use case.

Smart spaces, either public or private, has been a hot topic for more than a decade. They are claimed to bring various advantages for their users. However, only few people are actually using smart spaces. One of the reasons for that is the lack of attention paid to user interfaces used to control the space. Both industrial and academic research is often focused on hardware and device interoperability issues. There is not enough studies about end-user mental models, how and why people want to control and program smart spaces. In this position paper, we propose a strategy of how to bring end-user programming in smart spaces into real life. Our idea is three-fold: 1) concentrate on users' mental models, 2) create intuitive ubiquitous user interface, which combines the direct interaction pattern and the magnetic poetry interface metaphor, and 3) install a control system in a public smart space, where a lot of people can use it on daily basis. We aim to conduct a long term user study, from which we are planning to get unique data about evolution of people's expectations and mental models in the context of smart space control.

Assistive devices help elderly persons to live longer in their homes. Unfortunately, the devices on the market are incompatible with each other. Also, integration to higher-level services is an open issue. In this article, we propose a portal-based home care platform that integrates together multiple assistive devices and their online services. The integration is done at three levels: service, information, and device. At the service level, we use portal technology to integrate together Personal Health Record (PHR), external services, and web-based device user interfaces. At the information level, we integrate the different devices and services to the PHR using REST-based web services. At the device level, we use a home automation gateway to connect the different devices to the PHR and portal. We tested the architecture in a living lab environment. The results show that multiple integration levels improve the flexibility of home health care systems.

Most Web applications are based on a conventional three-tier architecture, in which the presentation, application logic, and data management are developed and maintained in separate tiers. The main disadvantage of this architecture is that it requires expertise in multiple programming languages, programming paradigms, and data models used in each tier. A single expert rarely masters all technologies involved. In this paper, we introduce a framework that allows users---namely, Web designers---to implement entire Web applications using only markup languages. In addition, all application development is performed on the client side, simplifying both development and maintenance work. The proposed framework is based on the XForms markup language and its server-side extension proposed in this paper. We derive the extension requirements from the literature and depict its function using a simple Web-based blog application. We also show how the extension can be implemented as part of a comprehensive Web application development framework called XFormsDB. Our conclusion is that expanding the presentation tier to define both application logic and data management functionality makes both the development and maintenance of small- and medium-sized Web applications easier.

Most Web applications utilize a three-tier architecture, in which the presentation, application logic, and data management are implemented as separate tiers. The disadvantage of this popular approach is that it usually requires expertise in multiple programming languages and paradigms as well as data models used in each tier. A single expert rarely masters all the technologies involved. In this demonstration, we give an overview of the XFormsDB framework that allows developers to implement entire Web applications using only markup languages. The framework is based on the XForms markup language and our server-side extensions. We demonstrate the functionality of the framework using a simple blog application as an example.

Assistive living technologies can help the elderly and the people with disabilities with their daily life. The smart building solutions provide means to implement these systems in homes and can offer valuable applications, for example, an alarming service notifying relatives in case of irregular behavior. However, different systems are generally not able to intelligently communicate with each other, decreasing the usability of such technologies. We propose a new kind of general smart building system model aiming for flexibility and interoperability by offering different parts of the system to behave and cooperate intelligently. We present our implementation of the system with an anticipation method for the lighting control. It anticipates user's intention to enter to the space and thus removes the general system delay and offers more comfortable experience for the user.

In future buildings, all devices will be connected directly to the Internet, surrounding people with a Web of Things. That will bring the amazing possibility to control building facilities from any device with Internet access (PC, mobile phone, etc.). However, while it is already technically possible to connect devices directly to IP networks, most of home and building automation systems still use non-IP field level communication protocols. In this paper we describe an integration platform, which is an intermediate step between future IP based systems and available legacy equipment. The platform uses Web services technology for connecting devices to a stand-alone server. This approach makes the system flexible and independent from underlying platform and communication protocols. Conducted measurements with our oBIX based implementation show that our system model is efficient and can be deployed on cheap embedded devices with limited resources for computing.

Multimedia devices, services, and content are already distributed inside the home network. Mobility, sharing and IP based delivery mechanisms introduce additional challenges to accessibility by extending the range of distribution into interconnected home and Internet scale scenarios. However, the user should be able to access any of these targets in a satisfying, easy, and uniform way despite the differences in target and interaction device technologies. This paper proposes and demonstrates how RESTful and declarative approach could be used in solving extended accessibility and usability problems. In the proposed solution, the network becomes the media center, as one of the networked devices operates as a hub between targets and UI devices, while the actual media is streamed in out of band P2P fashion.

The World Wide Web is evolving from a platform for information access into a platform for interactive services. Several applications are already used through Internet and Web browsers. User interface of such an application is defined by HTML. However, HTML has its deficiencies when used as a general UI description language. Several parties have addressed this problem by defining specific UI description languages. Thus, for instance, a web browser could be used as a user interface for any application. We have revised the requirements for a UI description language from literature and evaluated two XML-based UI description formats against the requirements through use cases.

XML is nowadays widely used to describe structural documents on the WWW. The layout of the documents can be defined by style sheets or by a language itself. XML languages can be combined to get the desired set of features for a document. Those documents are called compound documents. Also, multimedia applications can be defined using XML. In this paper, we have defined general requirements for a compound documents' CSS layout engine, which can be used in an XML user agent. The requirements relate to features of the layout engine, devices in which it can operate, and interfaces of the cooperating components. In addition, we describe our own implementation of a layout engine, which is done according to the requirements and operates in different devices.

XForms is a new language for defining dynamic forms and user interfaces for the World Wide Web. In order to take advantage of the user interaction related features in the language, a client side processor is needed. This paper describes a configurable open source software implementation of XForms. The main goal of the implementation is to conform to the World Wide Web Consortium's XForms Recommendation. The other goals are external to the XForms specification and are related to the portability and configurability of the processor. The important questions are related to implementing an XForms processor for diverse environments, and the integration of XForms and other XML languages with different layout models. In the paper, more detailed requirements are gathered from these goals. Also, the design and implementation are presented in detail, in order to give insight to the more difficult and nonobvious parts of the software. The results of the paper cover the runtime requirements of the XForms processor.

Interactive multimedia software capable of running on different devices, such as smartphones or digital television receivers, will be a consumer expectation in the near future. Supporting each device individually is too expensive. Therefore a common platform is needed. In this paper, a device independent platform for multimedia applications is presented. It is based on XML and Java and takes into account the varying features of the targeted devices. The platform consists of an XML based language profile, capable of supporting networked multimedia applications. The language profile is based on synchronized markup integration language (SMIL) and XForms. For instance, minimal interaction multimedia presentations can be developed using SMIL, whereas a hybrid SMIL and XForms document could provide real interactive multimedia services that allow connection to a server side process. The platform is written in Java and includes a user interface compatibility layer, which can be run on top of different graphics Java application programming interfaces (APIs) depending on the targeted platform.

Television reception is the next challenge mobile handheld terminals will face, which already receive FM radio and can access to Internet. User cases include relaxation at idle times during travels, video information services for business users, entertainment clips and cartoons. This paper introduces two different wireless technologies, DVB-H and MBMS, which can be used to receive digital television in handheld devices. The paper presents both technologies as feasible solutions for the video broadcasting scenario, compares their performance, and it finally tells about their limitations.

The diversity of Internet enabled terminals is increasing continuously. Layout adaptation is becoming a crucial issue for the content providers. They have to support different client devices with minimal effort. This paper presents a document editing system that supports dynamic adaptation. It is implemented as a client-server application and uses cutting edge XML technologies.

The World Wide Web is evolving from a platform for information access into a platform for interactive services. The interaction of the services is provided by forms. Some of these services, such as banking and e-commerce, require secure, non-repudiable transactions. This paper presents a novel scheme for extending the current Web forms language, XForms, with secure client-side digital signatures, using the XML Signatures language. The requirements for the scheme are derived from representative use cases. A key requirement, also for legal validity of the signature, is the reconstruction of the signed form, when validating the signature. All the resources, referenced by the form, including client-side default stylesheets, have to be included within the signature. Finally, this paper presents, as a proof of concept, an implementation of the scheme and a related use case. Both are included in an open-source XML browser, X-Smiles.

Limited number of input buttons on a mobile device, such as mobile phones and PDAs, restricts people's access to digital broadcast services. In this paper, we present a reinforcement learning approach to automatically navigating among services in mobile digital television systems. Our approach uses standard Q-learning algorithm as a theory basis to predict next button for the user by learning usage patterns from interaction experiences. We did the experiment using a modified algorithm in test system. The experimental results demonstrate that the performance is good and the method is feasible and appropriate in practice.

Leading Finnish telecom research institutions, IDC and VTT, and local industry are starting a new large research project to study the data security of mobile technologies and services in and beyond 3G. Six research areas are included. Radio engineering focuses on parasitic radiation from portable devices and data cables and unwanted coupling through antennas. Field programmable gate arrays are the subject of the second hardware theme which concentrates on linear cryptanalysis and biometric recognition. The goal of the third hardware group is to study data security in optical transport network equipment. The aim of the fourth sub-project is encryption in commercial and military frameworks. This area has two subtopics, studying the security of standard 3G algorithms and of newer cryptographic algorithms with respect to their implementability in 3G. Sub-project five deals with security aspects of the Ubik software architecture. The main objective is to track what kind of security support is required to enable versatile multimedia services and business. Finally, the business aspects related to digital rights management solutions supporting mobility are covered.

In this paper, the inclusion of a videoconferencing server is proposed as a new feature for TV broadcast systems. With this feature, TV broadcast stations can enable viewers to participate in TV programs by using a videoconferencing client. Some program concept ideas, such as game, talk, and radio shows, are analyzed in this paper from the feature's point of view. The technical implementation of the feature is studied by sketching the implementation in a real broadcast system as well as creating a reference implementation, which is tested in a real TV broadcast system. The results show that the feature is possible to implement and it suits well into TV environment, because it provides participation with visual aspect. Hence, it can be easily seen that this feature has its place in a future TV broadcast system.

The next version of XHTML is at work-in-progress stage in the World Wide Web Consortium. It adds a lot of features to the most used content language of the Web. The most notable change is the addition of XForms, the next generation WWW forms language. This paper describes the XHTML 2.0 specification and an XML user agent implementation for it. The new features of the language are discussed both from the author’s and the user agent manufacturer’s point of view. In addition, it describes a case study, which takes advantage of the new features.

Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 2.0 has a support for user interactions with its declarative event timing and temporal hyperlinking model. However, complex Web applications require more control over multimedia presentations. This is achieved with a support for a scripting language. The result is Dynamic SMIL, a combination of SMIL and a scripting language. We present the design and implementation of a player for Dynamic SMIL. It consists of a SMIL 2.0 player and a facility to run scripts with the help of XML Events. The SMIL player is also integrated into an XML browser, X-Smiles, thus enabling playing SMIL with XForms, XSL FO, SVG, and XHTML.

This paper presents the hardware architectures of two texture features: mean and contrast. These features are based on the co-occurrence matrix method. However the features can be calculated without the co-occurrence matrix, too. The formalism behind the features without the co-occurrence matrix is shown, and the corresponding hardware architectures are depicted with data flow graphs (DFG). The architecture was developed with the very high speed integrated circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL) and commercially available logic synthesis tool by Synopsys. The VHDL code was synthesized to Xilinx XC4000-series FPGA library.

Because of the increasing variety of user terminals, there is a great demand for server side content adaptation. This paper describes a method to generate different layouts of an XML document automatically on server side, according to some information about the client needs. As a result of the algorithm, an XHTML document is generated from an XML source. The layout of the resulting XHTML adapts to the client's requirements. The information about the client is sent to the server by CC/PP protocol. The generation of the layout is done dynamically on the server according to a predefined general layout template. A simple document is introduced, and tested with the most common web browsers as an example.

Text TV is one of the most important services of the forthcoming digital television. In this article, we discuss how text TV can be implemented using XML. The content is defined using XML, while the spatial and procedural relationships of the media elements are defined using XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) and ECMAScript (European Computer Manufacturers' Association Scripting language), respectively. This approach allows the display of the text TV content in an XML browser. Since digital television set-top boxes (i.e. receivers) won't have a XML browser in the near future, a separate Java application was also designed to display the content. The spatial and procedural relationships of the media component are then pre-defined within the Java application. Our approach allows the development of the text TV content using XML and its display in both the Internet and the digital TV environment.

Digital television allows the development of new kinds of interactive services. The author describes a service architecture for the organization of the services. The services are divided into three categories: navigator, text TV, and interactive programs. Both user interface and technical implementation issues are discussed. Bandwidth and memory consumption estimations show that the service architecture can be implemented in the terrestrial digital television.

Next generation consumer devices will all have an Internet connection. Thus, one vision is that the future multimedia services will be browser based. Extensible Markup Language (XML) is the most likely markup language. In this paper, we introduce a Java based XML browser called X-Smiles. It is intended for consumer devices and supports multimedia services. The main advantage of the X-Smiles browser is that it supports most of the XML related specifications. Different XML based languages can be mixed freely in applications. In addition, the X-Smiles has special user interfaces for different kinds of devices (e.g., digital television, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones). These user interfaces can be used as so called virtual prototypes of the real devices. The X-Smiles browser is available as open source at http://www.x-smiles.org.

The future digital television will provide viewers new interactive services, e.g., Electronic Programming Guide, TV shopping, video-on-demand, etc. The set-top box needs a middleware to launch these applications before interaction and collect garbage after quitting or switching to another service. It is the application manager's responsibility to manage the lifecycles of the services. Thus, the application manager plays a crucial role in controlling the applications and efficiently utilizing the limited resources of set-top box. This paper presents a design of an application manager, including a lifecycle model of an application and a communication protocol between an application and the application manager. Also, the Application Information Table (AIT) which carries the essential application signaling information in a transport stream is introduced. Finally, the implementation, which uses Java technology, is described in detail.

Interactive Television is fast becoming a necessity as it converges the popular web browsing and the standard television systems better. This paper discusses the underlying system - Operating system and Java Runtime Environment - for the Digital TV. A review of the needed system capabilities for Digital TV, a probable solution of the underlying system, and future improvisation of the system are dealt herewith.

Digital television is a new, interesting, and rich platform for developing next generation multimedia services. One of the key digital television standards is Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) which includes hardware devices and software architecture. Navigator is the most important multimedia service of digital television. It acts the main index of all the services available in set-top box. In this paper we presented a Java Navigator developed in Future TV project.