Web-Enabled Remote Scientific Environments

The authors introduce a new approach to developing Web-enabled environments for remote diagnostics, maintenance, and experimentation in engineering. They've based their approach on a middleware layer, called a Java-Internet-Labview (JIL) server, which provides a transparent mechanism for communicating Java programs with Labview virtual instruments (VIs) running on different computers, without prior communication facilities. Via this layer, the user can control the VI via the Internet, and its controls and indicators become writable and readable from a Java applet. They illustrate their approach by applying it to the development of a complete Web-enabled application for remote control of a thermal process.