6.6 Examples

6.6.1 Cooltown

Cooltown is a vision presented by Hewlett-Packard of future mobility, connectivity, community, and transformation based on open standards and user needs. As Hewlett-Packard puts it: "In Cooltown technology transforms human experience from consumer lifestyles to business processes by enabling mobility."

In Cooltown, people, places, and things are first-class citizens of the connected world, wired and wireless. It is a place where Web services meet the physical world, where humans are mobile, devices and services are federated and context-aware, and everything has a Web presence. In Cooltown, technology transforms human experience from consumer lifestyles to business processes by enabling mobility. Cooltown is infused with the energy of the online world, and Web-based appliances and e-services give you what you need, when and where you need it for work, play, and life.

The Cooltown vision of a responsive world of mobile services requires clear, creative thinking about technology. For several years , HP Labs has been working at the intersection of nomadicity, appliances, networking, and the Web. The model for this research is one of open collaboration and partnership with others who share similar goals. In Cooltown, even a wristwatch has the capability of becoming an intelligent Web appliance.

Above all else, creating a Cooltown ecosystem requires a community of like-minded people who believe in open participation, investing in the Web, and creating real solutions that add value to people's lives. Hewlett-Packard's goal is to help bring that community together, to openly share ideas and implementations , and to make a real contribution to the Web and to the world.

In Cooltown, personalization can lead to richer, more efficient daily experiences. For instance, a variety of useful objects can sense your presence and seamlessly cooperate to give you enhanced customer service. Smart devices in your pockets become your personal remote control for Web services. On command, they can access and capture information wirelessly transmitted by devices called beacons. These beacons broadcast a URL for the object or place, pointing you to a Web presence providing product information, entertainment, advertising, or a gateway to e-services for the item or the location. Capturing information from a beacon on your mobile device is like bookmarking the physical world. In effect, your pocket device becomes a remote control for the world at large (see also the Web site in Figure 6.3).

Figure 6.3. Cooltown Web Site

In Cooltown, URL bookmarks can be gathered from online interactions, messaging services, synchronization applications, etc. Once bookmarked, URLs can be sent to remote Web locations, or beamed directly to a variety of Web appliances using a beaming technology called "e-squirt." Using this technology, your mobile phone or handheld wireless device can "squirt" the URL, enabling you to instantly put presentations on a screen, documents on a printer, or music on a connected stereo.

Other examples are numerous . A student may use an e-service that can download a Spanish dictionary from her computer to her watch. Once the program is downloaded, the young Spanish student is able to access the knowledge stored in everyday objects via beaconsinstantly translating that information into Spanish.

In Cooltown, emergency services are made more effective through the use of smart, connected appliances. Technology saves lives by providing a vital link to emergency medical services. Your personal portal becomes a critical access point for service providers who need to know the status of your physical condition. The result: fast, informed medical attention via biometric detection, personal portals, and medical e-services.

For firemen, a Cooltown-enabled visor is actually a context-aware appliance with the ability to display real-time building and victim information. The data displayed on the fireman's visor is provided by, and accessed through, a Web-linking appliance. As he passes through the rooms, the information is updated by the space manager, which maintains the Web presence for the house.

Even the cat has a Web presence. She is linked to the environment via a location identifier that is emitted by a beacon embedded in her collar and acquired by the space manager. The cat's Web presence is automatically located in that space and made available for immediate use by the fireman's smart, connected visor.

Cooltown core technologies create a Web presence for your car that is linked to the car's electrical, mechanical, and information subsystems. The car is a rolling Cooltown space, a physical location that also provides a corresponding mobile Web presence for the vehicle, the driver, and driving- related services. To maximize safety and simplicity, the driver's interface uses multi-modal voice browsing that allows him to control interactions with the vehicle while he drives without having to reduce concentrate at the road ahead.

When Cooltown technologies are used in combination with other open-building-block capabilities such as wireless communications, GPS, short-range wireless networking, and smart handheld devices, the car is no longer simply a means of transportation. It becomes a participant in a vast ecosystem of automotive and transportation services. And the service station becomes an island of connectivity, an e-oasis where a variety of helpful transactionsfrom car repair to alternative transportation optionsare effortlessly fulfilled.

Cooltown is more than a futuristic vision; it is also a pragmatic architectural approach for researchers and developers to create Cooltown services and environments and to participate in a community of likeminded experts.

6.6.2 .NET Passport

Microsoft .NET Passport (see Figure 6.4) is a suite of e-business services that allows purchasing goods and services online. Passport provides its members with the Single Sign In and Express Purchase services at participating sites, reducing the amount of information that has to be remembered or retyped.

Figure 6.4. Passport Web Site

The idea behind Passport is to increase sales for businesses and help build stronger relationships with customers by streamlining the purchase process and by providing a high-quality , more secure online experience for a large member base.

When members sign in to a participating site, the system sends the members' zip code, country/region, and city information. Members can also choose to provide their nickname, e-mail address, age, gender, and language preference to participating sites.

Consumers can store billing and shipping information in their .NET Passport Wallet. When using the Express Purchase service, members can see the contents of their .NET Passport, select the data to be sent, and then send their encrypted information to a participating merchant site with a single click.

Besides these two services, the Microsoft Kids .NET Passport service is an example of providing children with a positive, safe online experience. Kids .NET Passport helps parents protect their children's privacy online by allowing parents to decide whether their children can use services provided by participating Web sites that collect and/or disclose personally identifiable information. These services can include newsletters, discussion groups, pen pal programs, wish lists, and contests.

While Passport sounds like a great solution, many privacy groups fear that too much information about users is handed over to Microsoft. On one hand, it is not clear what Microsoft will do with the data. On the other hand, Microsoft is the number one target for hackers due to the security holes in the software that they provide, making it a security risk to leave these services openly available on the Internet. Hackers could try to steal the information and reuse it for their own benefit.