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What Internet Appliances are
The Internet is no longer only about PCs. Industrial facilities, office equipment, household appliances or even automobiles are all on the way having their own place on the Internet. By integrating with the suitable web-enabling devices, they will be able to go on the internet and are known as Internet Appliances.
Benefits
There are enormous benefits to network-enabling an appliance, once it can interface with the Internet, it becomes instantly accessible from virtually any place in the world. With the adding capabilities of offering e-mail, file transfers, financial transactions, web browsing and data retrieval, its utility will greatly be enhanced, it will perform remote functions like data display, product registration, remote control, diagnosis, communication, configuration, testing and more.
What we do
In view of this profound impact to businesses and consumers, we are positioned to open up new ways of utilizing the net. By delivering the necessary hardware, software and technology, we provide customers with unique solutions to help connecting their products, facilities and services to the Internet.
Web Controller
The NG2000 Web Controller is a web-enabling building block we designed. It enables the customers to easily webify their product or applications with minimum technical effort.
The NG2000 Web Controller seamlessly links the physical world to the internet. It can work as a standalone unit, or be used as a building block for a larger system.
Features:-
It is a simple, flexible, but powerful device to web-enable a product or system.
It can work independently alone (together with a MODEM), or function as a workstation when connected to a LAN.
There is a built-in web server program that can host a multiple sections home-page written in HTML.
Sensors or actuators can be connected to the NG2000 through a standard industrial interface. An RJ45 Ethernet connector is provided for connection to the network. When used as a standalone unit, a MODEM can be connected to the RS232 interface.
Parameters collected from the physical world can easily and conveniently be collected through the internet. Any control command can be sent remotely to the actuators (e.g. a motor, a valve, an electric lock, etc.) via the internet.
Technical consulting services
For customers who don't have the appropriate technology, or just simply need an immediate total solution, they can rely on our technical consultant services. We supply all the necessary hardware, software and technology to provide them with turnkey web-enabling solutions.
We are happy to work on one-off projects to web enable an existing process, e.g. a call center, an industrial setup, etc. It will be charged on a per project basis.
For manufacturers who want to add web capability to their product, we could sell our device as OEM module and will provide all the tailoring services to integrate it to the customers' product.
Sample Applications
Example 1: Web-Enabled Electronic Weighing Scales
Peter is a manufacturer of electronic weighing scales. In order to be more competitive, he needs to enhance his product to make it more than a conventional household appliance. Among the many new features he can think of, web-enabling is the most promising one. By integrating with an embedded-internet module, his scales will measure and store the weight each time the user steps on it. From time to time, this collected data will be sent automatically back to a portal (home page) runs by Peter's company. Each user will have an account there. By logging in, one can review the history of the weight over a period of time. The portal will even display warning/suggestions such as "the weight is coming up fast, need alert", "the weight is above average but is improving", etc. Since the intelligence is from the server (portal), which can be enhanced easily, the users will receive on-going new services without doing anything on the scale itself. In fact, Peter makes extra money by charging users who need advanced features from the portal, which is something Peter does not expect!
We provides the embedded-internet module that can easily interface to a product to make it internet accessible. Each such module comes with a unique built-in serial number that can be used to identify the individual user. Like in the example above, if the users are to be charged, this unique feature of our module provides a secure way of identifying the user and also greatly facilitates the billing mechanism of the portal.
Example 2: Web-Enabled Security Monitoring System
Jack owns a properties management company. He has over a hundred customers scattered over different areas, with some even located overseas. Each building his company takes care of has its own security monitoring system. However, he always want to centralize the monitoring operation over a central control-center as a second backup. The conventional method to do this requires heavy investment in installing expensive dedicated phone line system running on custom-made proprietary software, in addition, he has to pay a huge amount of long distance cost each month. The plan doesn't look justifiable. However, by making use of the low-cost Internet as the infrastructure, the story is different! Thanks to the embedded internet technology, nowadays security devices such as motion detectors, burglar alarm magnetic switches, smoke detectors, etc. can easily be interfaced to the internet. One can monitor easily the status of these sensors by using just a standard web browser. Some entrances can be easily locked or unlocked remotely by energizing the electric locks. There is no expensive and complicated software needed, not even special training is necessary for the operators as long as he knows how to go up the Internet. The best advantage is, there is no long distance cost at all, even when the sites are located overseas. Jack doesn't expect the system to be so easily implemented and is excited about its flexibility, ease of use and upgrading. He is now planning to introduce mobile monitoring and control features to the system by employing the WAP phones and mobile PDA.
We provides the embedded-internet module and services to help the customers realize all kinds of web based monitoring systems. Just come up with the application idea, our experienced engineer will do the rest for you!
Example 3: Web-Enabled Vending Machine
One good application of the NG2000 is to install in a vending machine, with our OEM module, the vending machine operator can find out the stock level of any single machine at any time remotely through the internet, instead of traveling long distance just to find that there is enough pops in a particular machine.
The module can also report any fault conditions, temperature level, etc. that the operator may be interested on. It also has the capability to automatically send a status report in the form of a Email to whoever concerns.
Since all the operation is done only through the internet using a standard web browser, no special training or software setup is necessary.