iMMS: Interactive multimedia messaging service

IBM Journal of Research and Development, Sep-Nov 2004 by Shen, J, Sun, P, Zhang, J, Song, S

* Optimize the communication traffic: The interaction with local resources could optimize communication traffic, since it could reduce the number of round trips between MMS clients and servers. Generally, the performance of a wireless network is not as good as that of a wired network, so the local interaction feature would enable a better user experience for mobile phone users, especially when wireless applications are used on mobile phones.

* Support disconnected operation: The local interactive feature supports disconnected operation. MMS is a mobile application. When a terminal disconnects with a remote server because the network signal is too weak, the user can continue to use MMS messages received on the terminal and submit a request to the server. The request is sent out automatically when the wireless network is ready. Unlike the Web application, MMS is a messaging system. Since the user is not aware of the message transmission before the whole message has been delivered and received, the communication delay is imperceptible. This reduces the requirement for network performance and makes MMS as convenient and friendly to use as SMS.

Interactive presentation

SMIL describes only how to show a media object on a screen with no interactive characteristics. Therefore, an interactive presentation should be added to the MMS standard. As discussed above, iMMS provides two classes of interaction-client-side responsiveness and local resource interaction. These two classes have similarities with Web application interfaces, since the Web is a typical interactive application. For example, a form tag in a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) [9] page is used to support a browser to interact with a remote Web server. Currently, XHTML Mobile Profile [10-12] is defined by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) as a presentation for WAP applications. Therefore, one way to define iMMS is to adopt XHTML Mobile Profile as one type of presentation language in MMS.

Three kinds of presentation language are supported in the iMMS description part: MMS SMIL for compatibility with the current MMS standard; XHTML Mobile Profile for interactive capability; and the combination of XHTML Mobile Profile and MMS SMIL as the presentation part of the MMS message. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has an XHTML SMIL proposal [13] that could be used as a basis to further the work of integrating SMIL functionality into XHTML. It defines a set of abstract XHTML modules that support a subset of the SMIL 2.0 specification. It includes functionality from SMIL 2.0 modules providing support for animation, content control, media objects, timing and synchronization, and transition effects. The proposal also integrates SMIL 2.0 features directly with XHTML, European Computer Manufacturers Association Script Language (ECMAScript) [14], and cascading style sheets (CSS) [15], describing how SMIL could be used to manipulate XHTML and CSS features.

We have developed a prototype on an HP iPAQ pocket personal computer with Java to demonstrate this kind of interactive technology. In a home surveillance scenario, illustrated in Figure 5, many different detectors, such as infrared sensors, gas detectors, and cameras, may be used to monitor the situation at home. When not at home, the householder wants to know what is really happening when those detectors encounter something unusual. To satisfy that need, when the home monitoring system is triggered, home cameras record pictures, package these pictures in an MMS message, and send it to the householder. The householder can then examine the home situation by viewing the pictures taken from different rooms. If there is no problem (for example, the alarm system was accidentally triggered by wind or by a pet), the user can reset the alarm system by clicking the reset button, which causes an MMS message to be sent that includes an XML reset request (see Figure 5). The home monitoring system receives and processes the reset request.