[Embedlets-dev] JXTA proposal

[Ted K. <tk...@ya...>]

The Light Blinker test application that I have been developing is close to
being completed.  I did, however, run into a deprecated class and I made the
decision to try to use the undocumented replacement class which has put me a
bit behind on the late Sunday evening schedule that I had guessed at.

I have, however, done enough testing to be very confident that the idea is
going to work.

After reading the JXTA project proposal guidelines I have discovered that it is
a 2 step process.  Step 1 is simply submitting the project proposal idea to the
main JXTA list for discussion.  If the discussion is favorable then the project
can be officially submitted for approval or rejection as step 2.

Since this is the case, I would like to submit the following proposal to the
main JXTA list for comments early in the week.  If you have comments or
suggestions on the proposal please post them to our list.

Ted


<proposal>

Proposed Project: Global Light Blinker project

Hello,

My name is Ted Kosan and I am the project administrator for the Embedlets
Embedded Java group (http://embedlets.org).  Most of our group's members have
been involved with Embedded Java since at least 1999 and our main area of
expertise is monitoring and controlling things in the physical world using
Embedded Java devices like the following:

http://embedlets.org/target_systems.html


For nearly the past year now, the Embedlets group has been working on a Java
based embedded software component technology (called Embedlets) along with a
container to run them in (think Servlet container for embedded software
components).  We have recently completed an alpha level version of the
Embedlets software and we have been looking for some real-world applications to
start applying it to.

At JavaOne a few weeks ago some of our Embedlet group members attended most of
the JXTA related sessions and BOFs and they also had some interesting
discussions with a few project JXTA members.  From this experience we learned
that the newly released JXTA 2.0 offers network-related capabilities that our
group has been looking forward to levering and this lead to the conception of
the Global Light Blinker project idea.


GLOBAL LIGHT BLINKER PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The purpose of the Global Light Blinker project is to create a world-wide JXTA
GlobalLightBlinker PeerGroup which will allow people to experiment with
remotely controlling embedded devices through the internet.  The project will
have both a software component and a hardware component and we envision that
the initial hardware platform will look similar to the following:

http://tkosan.javadevices.org/misc/embeddedjava/blinker_hardware2.jpg


As this diagram shows, a typical GlobalLightBlinker's edge peer will consist of
a Windows, Linux or Macintosh PC interfaced to an appliance controller box
through a serial port.  The controller box will be plugged into whatever type
of wall power socket is present in the area of the world where the edge peer is
located and it will be capable of controlling up to 2 small appliances.  The
controller box will also be capable of reading temperatures and the status of
an input switch (which could be used to monitor things the state of a door, a
motion sensor, etc.).

For simplicity's sake the initial version of the project will use an Embedlet
Container hosted on a PC in order to perform the control and monitoring
functions but the Embedlets group also has the capability of implementing
Embedlet Containers on stand-alone Embedded Java systems which can use JXME in
order to communicate with the PC based edge peer using ethernet or other
network technologies.


JXTA PROJECT CATEGORY

For a number of years now, the vision of a world where billions of embedded
systems are connected to the internet has been discussed and eagerly awaited. 
So far, however, the Computer Science oriented software community and the
Embedded Systems community have been unable to integrate these diverse fields
to the point needed to make this vision a reality.

It is the opinion of the Embedlets Group that the time to begin this necessary
integration has now arrived and it is our hope that a joint JXTA/Embedlets
Global Light Blinker project can be an initial step in this process.  We would
like the project to serve as a demonstration of the wonderful opportunities
that the bringing together of Embedded Systems and advanced network
technologies provides in a way that even non-technical people can easily
understand an participate in.

We therefore think that the project fits best in the JXTA DEMOS category.


Respectfully,

Ted Kosan, on behalf of the Embedlets Group.
http://embedlets.org

</proposal>


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