Web-based Object-oriented Remote Control of Computer Hardware Interfaces

H. Liu, T.P. Skinner, and D.A. Perreault (USA)

Keywords

Web-based Hardware Interface, ObjectOriented Hardware Interface, Remote Control, .NET

Abstract

Computer hardware interfaces dedicated in systems such as automation, control, communication, data acquisition, and even home electronics are gaining more and more popularity. They facilitate software access to the targets with such dedicated hardware interfaces. These computer hardware interfaces typically possess four characteristics that distinguish them from others: stringent data bit timing, strict latency requirement, very limited number of predefined data exchanges, and extremely short message sizes. Web-based object-oriented remote control of such computer hardware interfaces is the trend. However, the data bit-timing constraint is hard to satisfy across the network. The network latency is uncertain. The limited number of predefined data exchanges and the extremely short message sizes result in rapid hardware interface handshakes, which, if implemented across the network directly, will greatly deteriorate the performance due to the network communications latency. In this paper, we propose a Hardware Interface Object Model that enables "timing free" object-oriented software integration. We propose a script generation/execution mechanism for the Hardware Interface Object Model to dynamically handle the network communications handshaking. Web-based remote control of the computer hardware interfaces is achievable by capitalizing upon the Hardware Interface Object Model and the Microsoft .NET Framework. Preliminary experiments have confirmed the feasibility of the methodology.

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