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Tools and Prototype Implementations for the URC Framework

This page lists publicly known tools and prototype implementations of the Universal Remote Console framework. Some of them are available for download. Please report new projects or changes to existing projects to Gottfried Zimmermann.

Page contents:

Universal Control Hub (UCH) Reference Implementation (Trace Center)
UPnP AV Target Adapter (Trace Center)
GC-100 Targets Reference Implementation (Trace Center)
Satellite Box Applet (Trace Center)
PlayIt URC (Trace Center)
DragIt URC (Trace Center)
PickIt URC (Trace Center)
Webclient JavaScript Library
Resource Server (Trace Center)
Control of Smart-Flow speech-to-text transcription service (NIST)
MedURC Interface Generator (Marquette University)
MedURC Simulation Environment (Marquette University)
UniTherapy for Home Rehabilitation Platform (Marquette University)
MUPAD for URC Document Authoring (Marquette University)

Universal Control Hub (UCH) Reference Implementation (Trace Center)

The Trace Universal Control Hub (UCH) is an open-source reference implementation of the Universal Remote Console (URC) standard by the Trace R&D Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. It comes comes in two flavors: UCHj (for Java) and UCHe (for C/C++).

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UPnP AV Target Adapter (Trace Center)

The UPnP AV Target Adapter is an open-source software library that connects UPnP AV 1.0 media servers and media renderers as targets to the UCH according to the UCH specification. There is a Java and a C/C++ implementation of UPnP AV TA.

GC-100 Targets Reference Implementation (Trace Center)

The GC-100 Targets project is an open-source reference implementation of a target adapters for Global Caché's GC-100 master controller, based on the UCH specification.

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Satellite Box Applet (Trace Center)

The Trace Satellite Box applet is an open-source implementation of a target simulation in a URC environment. It can be used as a test target for the Universal Control Hub (UCH). It is also used as sample target in the Webclient tutorial on how to build HTML templates for the UCH.

PlayIt URC (Trace Center)

PlayIt makes your PDA a controller for your UPnP Media Server and Media Renderer devices. Thus you can command slide shows, movies and music performances at home with the convenience of a wirelessly connected PDA. Unlike other controller software, it does not require any installation on the PDA other than a Web browser and a Flash plugin.

DragIt URC (Trace Center)

With DragIt the user can control a home entertainment system remotely from a Web browser (Internet Explorer), by clicking, dragging and dropping icons. For example, dragging a picture icon onto a TV icon will show that picture on the screen. Or dragging a song will start playing it. If run on a tablet PC, the user can control their home entertainment system with the tip of their stylus.

PickIt URC (Trace Center)

With PickIt you can upload photos to a Media Server, browse through its content and show pictures, listen to music or watch movies from the Media Server through the Media Renderer. PickIt shows an example of the kind of user interfaces that will be more easily facilitated by the upcoming CEA-2018 standard on task model representations (currently developed by CEA r7wg12).

Webclient JavaScript Library

The Webclient JavaScript software provides HTML-based binding to UCH-provided sockets, based on the URC-HTTP protocol. It is designed to allow for simple to advanced HTML user interfaces, with the HTML author not having to care much about the binding activities for the socket. Please refer to ISO/IEC 24752 (in particular part 2) for details of the Universal Remote Console Standard, and to the URC-HTTP specification for details on the URC-HTTP protocol.

Resource Server (Trace Center)

The Resource Server http://resources.myurc.org provides URC Resources that URCs can download. Currently Resources are available for selected UPnP devices. A URC can get an appropriate Target Description by sending an HTTP query to the Resource Server, and receiving the URI of the appropriate Target Description.

Control of Smart-Flow speech-to-text transcription service (NIST)

The NIST SmartSpace is a work environment with embedded computers, information appliances, and multi-modal sensors allowing people to perform tasks efficiently. It uses the NIST Smart Data Flows technology, a middleware capability that moves large data flows between “clients”. The clients can process, produce and consume these streams of data called “The Flows”. With a URC, the user can interface to the SmartSpace Speech Recognition Service based on the Smart-Flow architecture.

MedURC Interface Generator (Marquette University)

This project has focused on a robust URC interface generator for devices, initially with windows the size of a PocketPC PDA, given four URC standards-compliant files that express the nature of the socket for the selected Target device or service. An "on-the-fly" interface is then generated using the C# language within the MS .Net environment. It is based on implementing an algorithm that consists of a series of stages that include considerations of the Target files to determine the collection of viable interface design widgets, followed by use of an "accessibility/preferences" filter to select user-preferred interface widgets from the viable alternatives, and then followed by a layout algorithm that uses rules and maxima-minima criteria to determines screen layout, widget ordering and grouping and number of pages.

MedURC Simulation Environment (Marquette University)

This project provides the web-based simulation environment for MedURC. This includes a collection of Target files (Target Discovery, Socket Description, Presentation Template, Resource Description File) for each of three classes of devices: vital sign monitors, controls for exam tables/bed/chairs, and exercise ergometers.

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UniTherapy for Home Rehabilitation Platform (Marquette University)

The UniTherapy technology includes URC support. Specifically, the "Home Patient" user interface targeting home rehabilitation (called "home rehab appliance") can be treated as a Target service. A URC prototype running on the PocketPC has been implemented.

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MUPAD for URC Document Authoring (Marquette University)

A software program called "MUPAD" has been developed with Microsoft Visual Studio .Net. It provides a GUI interface for authoring URC-compliant xml documents without requiring the knowledge of the specific XML languages. It currently supports generating Socket Description and Presentation Template documents, and can be run from MS Notepad.