Describing Appliance User Interfaces Abstractly with XML

This paper describes an XML-based language for describ- ing the functions of appliances, such as televisions, VCRs, copiers, microwave ovens, and even manufacturing equip- ment. Our description language is designed to be concise, easy to use, and contain no presentation information. It has been used to describe more than twenty diverse appliances. The functional descriptions written in our language are used to automatically generate remote control interfaces for appliances. We have used these descriptions to generate both graphical and speech interfaces on handheld com- puters, mobile phones, and desktop computers. control all of the appliances in the users' environments. We imagine that these user interface devices would use a vari- ety of platforms, including handheld devices with graphical interfaces and hidden PCs with speech recognition soft- ware. To remotely control an appliance, the user interface device engages in two-way communication with the appli- ance, first downloading a description of the appliance's functions written in our UIDL, and then automatically cre- ating a high-quality interface. The device sends control signals to the appliance as the user interacts with the inter- face, and also receives feedback on the changing state of the appliance.