INCITS V2 Universal Remote Console Standards: Public Review Information

The INCITS V2 Universal Remote Console suite of standards is a set of standards to facilitate operation of information and electronic products through remote and alternative interfaces and intelligent agents. The purpose of these standards is to provide a framework of components that combine to enable remote User Interfaces and remote control of network-accessible electronic devices and services through a Universal Remote Console (URC).

The documents under public review are listed at http://www.incits.org/prsweb.htm (please look for the projects "INCITS 389" through "INCITS 393").

The public review period is from Feb 11, 2005 to Mar 28, 2005.

Comments should be sent by email to Barbara Bennett (bbennett@itic.org) with copies to V2 (info-v2@nist.gov) and to ANSI, ATTN PSA Dept. (psa@ansi.org).

Comments should include one or more references to specific paragraphs or clauses, and an indication of the severity of the issue as defined below. Wherever possible alternate wording should be provided. If no alternate wording is provided, the Technical Committee reserves the right to defer detailed consideration of the comment to the next version of the standard.

The severity of a comment may be indicated as follows:

High - without fixing this the standard is not implementible (or breaks other mandatory requirements or standards).
Medium - these are problems that affect harmonization, ease of use, desired functionality, or practicality (implementation) that can be addressed in future versions of the standard (or in the current version if major modifications must be made for other reasons)
Low - matters of preference and aesthetics.
Editorial - spelling, syntax or grammar issues that do not affect meaning.

The Draft URC Standards

Project 1678 - INCITS 389, Information Technology - Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products through Remote and Alternative Interfaces and Intelligent Agents: Universal Remote Console

This standard provides an overview of the URC framework and its components, and describes how they combine to enable remote User Interfaces and remote control of network-accessible electronic devices and services through a Universal Remote Console (URC).

INCITS 389 Draft 2 for purchase.

Project 1679 - INCITS 390, Information Technology - Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products: User Interface Socket Description

A User Interface Socket is an abstract concept that describes the functionality and state of a device or service (target) in a machine interpretable manner. The purpose of this standard is to define an XML language for describing a User Interface Socket. The purpose of the User Interface Socket is to expose the relevant information about a target so that a user can perceive its state and operate it. This includes data presented to the user, variables that can be manipulated by the user, commands that the user can activate, and exceptions that the user is notified about. The User Interface Socket Specification is applicable to the construction or customization of user interfaces.

INCITS 390 Draft 2 for purchase.

Project 1680 - INCITS 391, Information Technology - Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products through Remote and Alternative Interfaces and Intelligent Agents: Presentation Template

The purpose of this standard is to define a language (Presentation Template Markup Language) for describing modality-independent user interface specifications, or Presentation Templates associated with a User Interface Socket Description, as defined by ANSI INCITS 390-2005. The purpose of a Presentation Template is to provide hints for building a usable and consistent user interface for a Target device or service that is described in a User Interface Socket Description as referenced above. The hints are of an abstract nature, and are intended to apply to any delivery context. These hints primarily provide information on structuring, grouping and linearization of the Socket elements. Elements within a Presentation Template may be referenced by Atomic Resources whose format is given by ANSI INCITS 393-2005. Taken together, a Presentation Template, Socket Description, and appropriate Atomic Resources can be used to construct a user interface in any modality (e.g. visual, auditory, tactile, multimodal), through which a user can access and control a Target.

INCITS 391 Draft 2 for purchase.

Project 1681 - INCITS 392, Information Technology - Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products through Remote and Alternative Interfaces and Intelligent Agents: Target Description

The purpose of this standard is to define an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based language for the description of Targets and their Sockets, as used within the URC framework for discovery purposes. A document conforming to this language is a Target Description.

INCITS 392 Draft 2 for purchase.

Project 1682 - INCITS 393, Information Technology – Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products through Remote and Alternative Interfaces and Intelligent Agents: Resource Description

The purpose of this standard is to define a syntax for describing Atomic Resources, Resource Sheets, User Interface Implementation Descriptions, Resource Services, and Resource Directories relevant to the user interface of a device or service ("Target").

INCITS 393 Draft 2 for purchase.