Web-Enabled Entertainment System

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Web-Enabled Entertainment System
By Ajay Kosaraju Andrew Bianchi Panos Tzanos
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Presentation Goals

• Motivation for our work
• Objectives
• Technology
• Implementation
• Problems
• The Future
• Conclusions

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Motivation

• An end product that a consumer can use
• Desire to web-enable an appliance
• Wish to learn JAVA
• Integration of hardware and software
• Cutting-edge technology
• Professional engineering experience

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And of Course

• to get an A!

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Why Web-Enable?

• Make life easier
• Allow people constant and instant access to their
  home appliances (e.g. coffee pot, oven,
  heating/cooling, home entertainment)
• Security
• Education
• Communications

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Design Options

• Hardware
• Low Cost
• Easy to Use
• Dependable
• Software
• Established High-Level Language-JAVA
• Servlets

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Objectives

• Allow a user to control his home entertainment
  system from the web
• Do it in a way that does not take a lot of
  bandwidth (servlets)
• Have an interface that is simple to use
• Make it accessible to anyone on the world wide web

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Set-up
Computer
Remote Control (SP4001)
TINI
Serial
Ethernet
Cable
Infrared
Entertainment System
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The Tiny InterNet Interface (TINI) Board

• The TINI board is a JAVA web server that uses a
  TINI chip set plus commodity SRAM and interface
  circuitry in a 68 pin SIMM stick.
• 60 MHz clock rate
• 4 MB NV SRAM
• Real-Time Clock
• Ethernet 10Base-T interface
• RS-232 serial port interface

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Software What You Need to Operate TINI

• To operate the TINI board, download the
  tinibeta2.2 file. This can be obtained at
  www.ibutton.com/TINI/software/index.html
• Download JAVA development software (JDK 1.1-1.3)
  from the Sun Microsystems web-site
• Download a TINI web server from
  www.smartsc.com/tini/index.html
• Develop your own servlet software!

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Servlets

• What are they?
• Server-side version of applets
• Low bandwidth
• Processing done on server
• Use server for data storage and processing
• Why did we use them?
• The server software is optimized for servlets
• Leading-edge technology
• Thin clients wave of the future

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Our TINI Servlet Software

• Allows us to interface with the TINI through the
  world wide web
• The user can select the different devices of
  his/her entertainment system (e.g. TV, VCR, Cable
  Box, DVD)
• Enables a person to program different name-brand
  devices (SONY, RCA, Toshiba, etc.)

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Innotech SP4001 Universal Remote Control Chip

• Convenient means of controlling TVs, VCRs,
  satellite dishes, cable boxes, and DVD players.
• Innotechs proprietary code library
• Converts asynchronous serial data words into
  control signals for driving infrared diodes
• Very robust

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Remote Control Circuit

• Infrared LED has range of about three feet
• Amplifies signal from SP4001 chip
• Choppy crystal oscillator
• Status LED for testing purposes
• Dont forget RS-232 to TTL converter!

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Serial Port

• RS-232 DB-9 connection
• Standard PC cable
• DB-9 8-pin hardware handshaking
• TINI provides Rx, Tx, and ground no flow control
  (unnecessary for SP4001)
• DTR normally Data Transmit Ready, used as
  manual reset on TINI

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Problems Encountered

• Shipping delays
• Integration of various software packages
• Working with incomplete documentation
• Beta version of TINI had incorrect resistors, DTR
  reset
• IR LED very sensitive to ambient light
• Weird flurries of crashes

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End Results

• Ability to control basic functions of TV, VCR,
  and DVD player
• Slow server response
• Functional web page
• No implementation for setting VCR to record
  future programs
• Tested outside of ece.uiuc.edu domain

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Future

• Install a graphics-intensive option
• Create secure site with multi-user password
  protection
• Implement VCR programmability
• Develop support for other devices
• Make TINI Slush OS more reliable
• Web-enable the world!

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Conclusions

• Web-enabled entertainment system is a step into
  the future The Jetsons
• TINI empowers integration of the web with
  everyday life
• JAVA allowed us to abstract ourselves from
  low-level interfacing issues with TINI
• Thin clients and the web are revolutionizing
  access to the world, to people, to ideas
• The internet is a tool to implement everything
  from national defense to turning on your TV