A device independent XML user agent for multimedia terminals

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.