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PlayIt - Flash User Interface for Your PDA
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About
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.
PlayIt is based on the Universal Control Hub (UCH) architecture and the Universal Remote Console (URC) framework. It runs on a thin client with Flash support, such as a PDA. It connects to the Universal Control Hub which functions as a control point for UPnP AV devices in the local network.
PlayIt demonstrates how the Universal Control Hub architecture can support mobile devices to function as controllers for existing Targets. Target vendors can deploy their user interfaces (in different formats) to the MyURC resource server where they will be picked up by the Universal Control Hub and eventually rendered on appropriate controller devices.

Playit running on a Fujitsu-Siemens LOOX PDA, as demonstrated at CES 2006 and CES 2007.
Demo Video
A video clip is embedded below, showing a demonstration of PlayIt. Depending on your bandwidth, it may take a few minutes to download the video file before you can start watching the video. Please click on the "play" button in the controller field at the bottom of the video. Or set focus on the video, and press <Enter> to start and stop.
PlayIt demonstration video.
Use
this link to open the video in QuickTime player.
Alternate formats are available for download:
- Download zip file with low-resolution video files (8 MB, see instructions below)
- Download zip file with high-resolution video files (22 MB, see instructions below)
Download instructions for zip files: Download the zip file locally on your computer, and extract its content into a new directory (e.g. c:\playit). Then double-click (or select and press <Enter>) on the file "PlayIt.mov" (high-res) or "playit-web.mov" (low-res). You need to have either Quicktime or RealPlayer installed on your computer. If you want to play the video with captions, start Quicktime on your local computer and open the file "PlayIt.qt.smil" (high-res) or "PlayIt-web.qt.smil" (low-res) through the "File" menu in Quicktime.
Quick Facts
Project status:
- Version 3.2 demonstrated at CES 2007
- Version 4.0 in development
Organization: Trace Center
Team: Gottfried Zimmermann (lead) & Plenar Technologies
Acknowledgement
The creation of the underlying software was funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), US Department of Education under grants H133E980008, and H133E990006; the National Science Foundation (NSF) via the Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI); and gifts from Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.
See also
Last update: Gottfried Zimmermann, 2007-06-29