HP introduces CoolTown concept

BANGALORE: Hewlett Packard (HP) has announced that it would develop and

customize a set of new technologies based on ‘CoolTown’, HP Labs’ Web

centric concept of a future world, at its India Software Operation facility in

Bangalore. The developed product would be targeted at the Asia Pacific market.

CoolTown is a framework of technology aimed at creating information appliances,

software and services using the Web and the underlying framework of a

fundamentally open solution.

In the CoolTown environment, devices could interact independently with each

other. It’s a world where every person, place and thing has a Web page, and

are connected to the Net. In this world, Web servers will be embedded into a

wide variety of devices, which will be able to transmit information to each

other. This is made possible by a software called E-squirt. In concept, the

software allows PDAs, mobile phones, wristwatches and other devices to access

rich Web content and services by wirelessly sending or squirting a URL pointer.

The PDA doesn’t need to be connected to the Web or even to a network. It

uses infra red (IR) to squirt the URL to a printer, projector, PC, DVD player or

any other device that can display rich multimedia content and has Internet

access or is networked to a connected device. If the receiving device lacks IR

capability, IR ports can be purchased as accessories. E-squirt also allows you

to create and interact with CoolTown beacons. A beacon is a simple device that

broadcasts a URL wirelessly. A personal device can receive URLs and bring the

Web directly over a wireless network, or E-squirt the URLs at another Web

appliance. The beacon developed by HP is a prototype costing about $3-4.

E-squirt is now in alpha prototype release and can be downloaded free at the

CoolTown Web site.