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IP: Tuned in, turned on. -- Philly (Philadelphia Inquirer) Tech Article
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 08:18:12 -0400
Feature story: Penn Students turn PalmPilot into Universal Remote (http://www.philly-tech.com/feature_3.htm) Tuned in, turned on. By Milica Stets, Photos by Brad Bower When Eugene J. Huang and Peter A. Daley imagine the couch potato of the future, they see 3Com Corp.'s PalmPilot in the viewer's hand. And on the screen of the personal digital assistant is a different display, depending on whether it's the television, VCR, stereo or some other appliance being controlled. As students at the University of Pennsylvania last year, they conceived of such a software-based, universal remote control as an engineering-design project. Now, along with their professor, Internet pioneer David Farber, and their attorney, they have formed the board of a new Philadelphia company called Navispace Inc. to develop and market the product. With a prototype and business plan in hand, they are looking for $500,000 in financing to continue their research into the remote, which they call InSight. "We wanted to build a universal remote control with the information services built into it," said Huang, 22, who is a senior at Penn this fall. He and Daley, 23, who graduated last spring with degrees in finance and electrical engineering, came up with the idea in November and then struggled for five months to make it work. The project started as an exploration of the possibilities of a wireless-communication network within the home. Huang and Daley realized that many household appliances are already controlled by remotes, which transmit commands on infrared beams. "Remotes are sort of a wireless network, just very simple one-way communications," Daley said. From this initial idea, they decided to increase the capability of a universal remote control by incorporating a computer and software that allowed the user to interact with the device. Daley remembered that when they first approached Farber, who is the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunications, he and Huang had nothing but a one-page description of the general system design. "After two or three sentences of explanation, he understood exactly what we were talking about building. We could see him racing through possibilities in his mind; the light turned on," said Daley. "You want to create devices that are very small, that are easy to manage," Farber said in an interview. "The fact is we all want small things, but we also want to be able to input things." Huang remembered that he and Daley "spent the whole of December through the end of April, many, many long nights in the Penn lab.'' Sometimes they walked into the lab at 10 p.m. and worked until after sunrise. By the end of April, they had a prototype. They decided to use 3Com's PalmPilot as a platform for their invention because it is easy to use, plus has an on-screen keyboard and the capability to host software. Like most existing remotes, it can transfer data on infrared beams. The PalmPilot also has the capability to synchronize data and download information from a personal computer through a cradle attachment. The device runs on two AA batteries. By the end of the year, analysts estimate more than 2.2 million PalmPilots will have been sold at $200 to $400 each. Evaluated by an independent panel of six judges, Huang and Daley's invention won this year's senior design competition in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. "They had a great idea with a commercial product like the PalmPilot and were able to make it into a new product," said one judge, Jerry Lomurno, president of Eastern Instrumentation of Philadelphia, a professional electronics-engineering reseller based in Moorestown. On behalf of his students, Farber approached Eric Benhamou, chairman and CEO of 3Com Corp. "I thought you might enjoy this product. It works like a charm," wrote Farber. After Farber's intercession, Daley and Huang signed a nondisclosure agreement with 3Com. The software in Daley and Huang's device would allow a user to download customized data files distributed over the Internet onto the universal remote control, according to Daley and Huang. Regardless of which cable, satellite or broadcast service they use, viewers would be able to have an updated electronic program guide for that service. It would allow users to sort program listings by specific criteria, such as movies or sports, or search by keyword. Daley and Huang have competition in trying to make the PalmPilot emulate a remote control. The Grand Design, a contract-engineering firm in Massachusetts, is working on a prototype. In February 1997, another company, a start-up called Evolve Products Inc., signed an agreement with Universal Electronics Inc., in Twinsburg, Ohio, intending to develop and market a new generation of remote controls that would incorporate an interactive program guide. Huang and Daley's remote control would also able to operate and coordinate other home appliances that receive commands on infrared beams, such as the stereo, home theater, cable box and VCR. The device has a potential to evolve into a portable home-network controller, Huang said. As part of Huang and Daley's plan to make the smart remote easier for the consumer to use, Daley has also designed a keypad attachment that would give the consumers an option to access data through either PalmPilot's touch screen or the keypad. The two expect that the monthly subscription to the program-listing service would cost around $2, while the remote, including both software and hardware, is designed to sell for $50, beginning in the third quarter of 1999, according to the business plan. By then, Huang will have graduated from Penn with three degrees: public policy and management, electrical engineering and telecommunications. As president of Navispace, he primarily developed the InSight software. During a break from college, Huang traveled to rural Kenya where he helped teach ninth- and tenth-graders algebra and chemistry. He also participated in Mayor Rendell's 1995 re-election campaign and took off a year from college to work in Mark Warner's U.S. Senate campaign in Virginia. Originally from Beverly Hills, Calif., he said he loves living in Philadelphia. Lanky and bespectacled, Huang exudes energy and enthusiasm. If Huang is the live wire of the twosome, Daley is the slow charge. As chief operating officer of Navispace, Daley developed the hardware for the device. Like Huang, he spent a year away from Penn, studying finance and semiconductor engineering at Oxford University in England. Since his graduation from Penn last spring, he has been employed as an analyst for the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Group in San Francisco. Daley is originally from Sinking Spring, Pa., near Reading. Huang and Daley are already considering a second generation, stand-alone device, which would be able to store automatically the information from the Internet without connecting to a PC. This device could have a modem built into a cradle that would allow a direct Internet connection. "Basically, your imagination is the only thing that is going to limit what this product will be able to do," said judge Lomurno. Milica Stets is a freelance writer who recently moved from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, Germany. --
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- IP: Tuned in, turned on. -- Philly (Philadelphia Inquirer) Tech Article Dave Farber (Oct 14)