Over the past three years, the Information Access Division (IAD) has actively helped the InterNational Committee for Information Technology (INCITS) V2 Technical Committee in the development of five universal remote console standards. On September 19, 2005 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) announced the adoption of these standards. The five approved standards are: Protocol to Facilitate Operation of Information and Electronic Products through Remote and Alternative Interfaces and Intelligent Agents: Universal Remote Console (URC) (ANSI INCITS 389-2005), User Interface Socket Description (ANSI INCITS 390-2005), Presentation Templates (ANSI INCITS 391-2005), Target Description (ANSI INCITS 392-2005), and Resource Description (ANSI INCITS 393-2005).

In the development of these standards, IAD provided invaluable resources including: technical reviews and editorial changes to the standard specifications, writing XML schemas, implementing a prototype environment for testing the specifications of the standards, and coordinating meetings. The prototype environment has provided much needed verification of the standard specifications and is available for testing future enhancements. The XML schemas are critical for the legal building blocks of XML documents that are required by industry when implementing the standards.

When adopted by industry, these standards will provide a way for products to disclose information about their functions and controls to the URC (i.e., a cell phone, computer, and/or handheld organizer). The URC could then be easily configured by users to display only the functions that they need.

Through INCITS V2’s International Representative to ISO SC35 a working draft of these ANSI standards are being developed for adoption as an international standard.

CONTACT: Charles Sheppard, ext. 3269