| Embedded browser supports TV, multimedia standards |
May 20, 2004
Espial Group recently released the latest version of its web browser for embedded systems and devices. The company claims its Escape 5.1 browser, which supports Microsoft's Windows Embedded and Windows Mobile software platforms, provides a desktop PC-like browsing experience on TVs and other devices. In addition, the latest Escape release adds support for Microsoft's Internet Explorer extensions to web content standards, and renders the same content on TV and other devices that IE renders to the desktop PC, Espial says.
Escape includes support for integrated multimedia plug-ins like Macromedia Flash, Real Networks Real One Player, and MP3, according to Espial. Escape's fit-to-width, font-flooring, and other features make Web content suitable for display on consumer electronics, where display and user interface factors tend to be much different and more challenging than in the PC world.
According to Espial, Escape leverages a single code base to support multiple platforms, including XScale, StrongARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and x86 processor architectures, running Windows XP Embedded, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC and Smartphone, and other popular embedded operating systems.
Use of Escape requires the presence of a Java virtual machine (VM) execution environment, which is available from several third-parties including Esmertec Jeode, NSIcom CrEme, Skelmir CEE-J, Tao Intent, and others. Additionally, an optional Espial Portability Engine is available that includes the required VM, along with various fonts and APIs optimized for video applications.
Content developers can write content once and depend on Escape to render the content with the look and feel appropriate for the device on which it is displayed, Espial says. For example, it may be useful to have an electronic TV program guide available on a Pocket PC device as well as on the TV and PC. Any of the devices may be able to leverage network connectivity to program a digital video recorder (DVR) as well as provide advanced functionality such as search or sorting program information.
Espial claims that in contrast to other browser solutions, Escape complies with international television standards including MHP, OCAP, and ARIB, and supports internationalization to meet the requirements of the North American, Middle Eastern, Far East, and European markets.
"One of the greatest challenges in bringing Internet content to every home has been ensuring that the pages show accurately whether they are on a traditional desktop, television, mobile phone or PDA," notes Dr. Neale Foster, Director of Television Marketing at Espial. "It's not easy adapting the software requirements designed for a resource-rich desktop environment to the resource-constrained TV market."
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