Intelligent home-enjoying computing anywhere

Abstract

The computing mode is changing. Computer is disappearing, Information Appliances, especially Internet Appliances, are increasingly used for computing. Most devices that usually appear at home are involving computing now. The questions are, how to integrate them to a distributed computing environment, for example, how to integrate entertainment facilities, communication facilities, as well as traditional computing devices (PC, Laptop, printer, scanner,) in a system? How to guarantee their effective and conditional access to Internet? How to provide effective information service to such home facilities? Taking iHome (intelligent Home) as example, which is a project launched in Shanghai, supported by the company SVA1 and ECNU, as well as IBM, this paper intends to answer these questions. The architecture of Intelligent Home, the software architecture for device UPnP, as well as the distributed information service structure are presented. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.