At its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle, Microsoft will announce a specification, software development kit and partner support for new technology that links consumer-electronics devices to Windows.
The announcements build on WS-Discovery, a separate specification introduced in February by Microsoft, Intel, Canon and BEA Systems at the Intel Developer Forum. This specification uses Web services to make it easier for devices and services to find one other on a network. For instance, the software will enable a personal digital assistant to locate available services such as printing or file sharing on a wireless network.
The concept is a departure from Web services' current role as a technology for linking business software, within big companies and across the Internet and corporate networks. Microsoft and other companies see Web services playing a key role in making consumer technology easier to use.
Jim Allchin, Microsoft's vice president in charge of Windows development, is set to demonstrate Tuesday at WinHEC a printer from Hewlett-Packard that uses WS-Discovery to connect to a Windows-based PC, according to Microsoft. Both HP and Canon are expected to showcase prototype printers supporting WS-Discovery.
The Windows Network Connected Device Technology, the development kit that will be announced and distributed to conference attendees on Tuesday, includes tools and sample code to show hardware makers how to build Web services on devices, said Dave Mendlen, director of Web services technical marketing at Microsoft.
In addition, Microsoft, Intel, Lexmark International and Ricoh have co-authored a specification called the Device Profile for Web Services. It provides guidance for how software makers and hardware builders can connect devices using WS-Discovery and Web services.
One company not participating in the new specification is Sun Microsystems. Sun in the 90s proposed a similar connection technology called Jini that could be used to link devices using Java software. Mendlen said Microsoft has not spoken to Sun about the Web services for devices technology or the new specification. Sun representatives were not immediately available to comment. Sun and Microsoft last month announced a settlement of longstanding legal issues and said they planned to cooperate on future technologies.
Mendlen said the Device Profile for Web Services specification is being sent to the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) Forum, an industry organisation, for consideration as part of the UPnP 2.0 Device Architecture standard. The standard governs how devices such as printers, digital cameras, home stereo and computing products communicate.
The linking technology won't be in consumers' hands for at least a few years, however. "Longhorn," the version of Windows that will support connections using Web services, isn't expected to debut until at least 2006.
And the online directories needed to house information on devices don’t yet exist, said Mendlen. Microsoft's plan calls for using a specification called Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) to build online servers that would contain descriptive information on consumer electronics devices and other gear.
Talkback
What a great idea. Where we currently have an 50 quid inkjet printer that just plugs in and works on almost every OS we can now have the same printer for 100 quid that only works on the latest version of Windows.
Almost as funny is Lexmarks involvement considering the amount of junk they install along with their drivers.