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URC Framework

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Universal Remote Console (URC) framework

The Universal Remote Console (URC) framework facilitates operation of information and electronic products through remote and alternative interfaces and intelligent agents. The basic concept and components are specified in ISO/IEC 24752:2008 (5 parts).

  • Part 1: Framework. Provides an overview of the components of the URC framework, and how they interact. Specifies conformance requirements for target devices/services and controlling devices/services.
  • Part 2: User interface socket description. Defines the "user interface socket", an abstract user interface model through which a target device/service exposes its functionality to a controlling unit. Specifies an XML language for describing a user interface socket.
  • Part 3: Presentation template. Specifies an XML language for describing a flexible user interface language that can be used as "user interface implementation description" for a specific user interface socket.
  • Part 4: Target description. Defines the "target description" and pertaining XML language. A target description contains pointers to sockets and resources as provided by a target, for the purpose of building a user interface that fits to its sockets.
  • Part 5: Resource description. Specifies how user interface resources are described via an RDF-based language in terms of "atomic resources", "resource sheets", "resource directories", and "resource services".


URC Framework Components

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In the URC framework, a target device/service provides information about itself through a "target description". The target description points to one or multiple user interface sockets through which the target can be remotely accessed and controlled. Target resources such as resource sheets with labels, help texts, access keys, keywords and groupings may be used by a controlling unit to build a user interface to access and control the target. Presentation templates and other User Interface Implementation Descriptions (UIIDs) may also be provided by the target, thus providing a ready-to-use user interface tailored for the target's sockets.

A controlling unit ("URC") can access the target description, socket descriptions and target resources via any network. (The URC framework does not depend on a specific networking environment.) Through its interface generator, the URC can build any type of user interface for the target, including visual, auditory and tactile elements as output, and any input methods.

In addition to the resource provided by the target, any party can provide user interface resources for any target - these are called "supplemental resources". A URC can discover and download supplemental resources via any network, and use them to build a user interface to the target that is tailored to the preferences and needs of the user, the URC device and the usage environment.

URC Implementations

The URC Consortium [URCC 2009] is promoting and implementing the URC technology. It is developing a set of Technical Reports that are providing implementation guidance for the URC framework. An interesting approach is the Universal Control Hub (UCH) [UCH 2008], a middleware-based implementation of URC, with the hub acting as a URC-conformant gateway between any controller and any target device/service. The European project i2home has adopted the UCH architecture, and several other projects have followed.

More technical information on URC and UCH is available at [URC Technial Primer 2008].

URC Design Goals

  • "Universal" Remote
  • Bi-Directional Communication
  • Middleware-Neutrality
  • Device & Modality Independence
  • URC-Specific Custom User Interfaces
  • Direct Access to Target Functions
  • Support for I18n
  • Reuse Existing Standards and Technologies
  • Easy Target Maintenance
  • User Interface Extensions Beyond What’s Built Into the Target
  • Extensibility for Emerging Technologies
  • Accessibility


References

[ISO/IEC 2008] ISO/IEC 24752:2008 Information technology - User interfaces - Universal remote console. Multi-part standard (5 parts). http://www.iso.org/iso/search.htm?qt=24752&searchSubmit=Search&sort=rel&type=simple&published=on.

[URCC 2009] URC Consortium. http://myurc.org.

[UCH 2008] URC Consortium. Universal Control Hub 1.0. http://myurc.org/TR/uch1.0-20081124/

[URC Technical Primer 2008] URC Consortium. URC Technical Primer 1.0. http://myurc.org/TR/urc-tech-primer1.0-20081124/.

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