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1 Provided by he auhor(s) and NUI Galway in accordance wih publisher policies. Please cie he published version when available. Tile Conneciviy soluions o link a blueooh camera o he inerne Auhor(s) Ionas, Adrian; Corcoran, Peer M. Publicaion Dae Publicaion Informaion 2001 P. Bigioi, A. Ionas, G. Susanu, P. Corcoran (2001) " Conneciviy soluions o link a blueooh camera o he inerne", IEEE Transacions on Consumer Elecronics, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp Publisher IEEE Iem record hp://hdl.handle.ne/10379/281 Downloaded T12:32:17Z Some righs reserved. For more informaion, please see he iem record link above.

2 294 IEEE Transacions on Consumer Elecronics, Vol. 47, No. 3, AUGUST 2001 CONNECTIVITY SOLUTION TO LINK A BLUETOOTH CAMERA TO THE INTERNET Peronel Bigioi, Adrian lonas2, George Susanu and Peer Corcoran2 FooNaion Ireland Ld. Galway, Ireland 2Dep. of Elecronic Engineering, Naional Universiy of Ireland, Galway Absrac Digial phoography is gaining day by day more and more credibiliy over convenional phoography due o a number of facors easy o guess. Blueooh conneciviy in he digial camera provides cordless communicaion wih PC, priner and phone resuling in beer usage of digial cameras. More over, wih he adequae sofware, he digial phoographs could go direcly from camera o desired arge: disk, priner, web sies, or web prins. 1. Inroducion Blueooh wireless echnology is a low-cos, low-power, shor-range radio link for mobile devices and for WAN/LAN access poins. I offers fas and reliable digial ransmissions of boh voice and daa over he globally available 2.4 GHz ISM (Indusrial, Scienific and Medical) band. The Blueooh wireless echnology comprises hardware, sofware and ineroperabiliy requiremens. I has been adoped no only by all major players in he elecom, compuer and home enerainmen indusry, bu also in such diverse areas as he auomoive indusry and healh care, auomaion and oys, ec. - almos all secors of he economy. Blueooh chipse vendors have done a lo of work bu sill inegraing blueooh wih a arge applicaion is a very complex ask, involving someime a full redesign of he applicaion, making he adopion of blueooh difficul. In his paper a complee blueooh conneciviy sysem, sofware, hardware and firmware is presened. The sysem is aimed for easy inegraion wih he arge applicaion, digial camera. The whole sysem, Figure 1, comprises of a blueooh enabled prooype digial camera, blueooh enabled PC, firmware and sofware. Moreover, he PC side sofware is able o deec a blueooh enabled digial camera, download he picures, sore, prin locally or upload for prin or sharing on phoographic sies. Convenional downloading mechanism incurs he exisence of a cable, RS232, USB or This sysem provides an alernaive wireless means of inerconnecing / elecronic equipmen wih a minimal requiremen for addiional user ineracion, keeping he convenional cable connecion mehods. I provides easy picure ransfer beween he digial camera and Inerne hrough a sandard PC. PC (Blueooh Enabled) Conneciviy (blueoohsenal, usb) Figure 1: Conneciviy sysem Digial camera Cameia Securiy and daa encrypion for he wireless connecion are inheren componen of he blueooh archiecure upon which his sysem relies. A developmen sysem comprising of a sandard PC, wo blueooh modules and a prooype digial camera has been used. Addiional blueooh modules have been used o prove he inerpreabiliy and no radio inerference beween he es modules and any oher blueooh hardware ha migh operae in he same coverage area. 2. Achievemens The major goal behind his produc lies in he implemenaion of a complee blueooh soluion ha enables wireless picure ransfer beween a digial camera and a sandard PC. The abiliy of blueooh proocol o replace he physical serial connecion wih a virual one, made possible o design a camera communicaion proocol ha works in he same manner wih direc cable or a blueooh link. The difference beween he wo is made a he PC end by specifying he ranspor ype. Moreover, he camera communicaion proocol is ranspor independen, easily usable for oher ypes of ranspor such as USB or Manuscrip received June 25, /00 $ IEEE

3 Bigioi e al.: Conneciviy Soluion o Link a Blueooh Camera o he Inerne 295 The device discovery and name discovery, buil in he blueooh archlecure, enabled he PC o auo discover he digial camera. The blueooh address and name discovery provided a mean o uniquely idenify he digial camera and he proocol i runs and load he appropriae device drivers and applicaion sofware. The image processing module, included in he applicaion sofware a he PC end, ogeher wih homelinerne prining and uploadinglsharing capabiliies make he sysem a very powerful ool for end cusomers. Tradiionally, before a digial picure reached is final desinaion (i.e. prining, sharing, processing and soring) had o go hrough a leas hree of four differen applicaions. Unless special demands are rising, wih he proposed sysem an all in one meaning is provided. 3. Sysem overview The presened sysem provides an easy mean of inerdevices conneciviy over blueooh links, aking advanage of exising hardware and sofware infrasrucure. In paricular, a complee conneciviy ki argeed for digial cameras is provided. The idea of providing such a ki originaes form he lack of digial image manipulaion from boh digial cameras and scanners. Today, a digial image, from source o desinaion akes a very long a complicaed pah. In example, if professional prins are waned ou of a digial image locaed in a digial camera, several acions need o be aken: o make he cable connecion wih PC, o sar he acquisiion sofware, o sar image processing sofware, o sar he uploading sofware and finally, o sar an inerne browser o place he prin order). All hose operaions make he usabiliy of a digial camera a nighmare for he end user. The overall workflow and digial imaging devices usabiliy would be allo improved if he user wouldn need o connec he device o PC and moreover, auomaically, a sofware applicaion ha would include all he above menioned funcionaliy, would auomaically sar. In his secion, we describe he sysem archiecure, hardware, sofware and firmware and is inegraion wih he PCs operaing sysem. The sysem comprises of following componens: PC sofware comprise of several componens: lowlevel ranspor device drivers, ranspor absracion layer, digial camera proocol implemenaion, image processing and filering layer, image managemen, including prining local soring and inerne sharing, soring or prining. 0 Blueooh modules, a boh PC end and digial camera end. 0 Digial camera firmware, including he communicaion proocol, OS adapaion layer and ranspor adapaion layer. 4. Sysem descripion 4.1 PC sofware In his secion, we describe he sofware required o manage he sysem, divided in wo pars: blueooh nework managemen service and user applicaion. A funcional diagram of he PC sofware is given in Figure 2. Figure 2 PC sofware HCI VIRTUAL COM The ineracion beween he applicaion and he Blueooh sack is done hrough a virual serial por, ha expors owards he applicaion an exac sofware inerface as a physical serial por. More inimae ineracion beween he blueooh sack and our sofware is done a he blueooh nework vnager level, where we have ineracion wih SDP (Service Discovery Proocol) layer and HCI (Hos Conroller Inerface) layer. To keep he compaibiliy wih cameras ha aren blueooh enabled, he PC sofware is able o communicae direcly wih hose cameras. This is possible by exporing owards he applicaion a generic camera access API.

4 296 IEEE Transacions on Consumer Elecronics, Vol. 47, No. 3, AUGUST 2001 UPLOAD/ DOWNLOAD IN&? PROCESSING LOCAL STORAGE CAM ACCESS SDK CAMERA.1 BT CAMERA CAMERA N PROTOCOL PROTOCOL " TRANSPORT ABSTRACTION LAYER BT SERIAL BTUSB I I DIRECT SERIAL ] Figure 3 User applicaion [ BTPCMCIA ] PRIMER Figure 6: BT Manager (3) Figure 7: BT Manager (4) ' Blueooh Nework Manager This componen runs as a background service on he PC, performing repeaed device inquiry, a programmed inervals. Once a new blueooh device is found, a furher name discovery is performed. Once he device is idenified and i appears o be imaging device, hen he user is signaled and he applicaion componen could be sared. The Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7 show he blueooh nework manager operaion: scan wihou success, scanning for new cameras, new camera found and offering opions for acion. Figure 4: BT Manager (1) Figure 5: BT Manager (2) User Applicaion This sofware componen is he main piece of he PC end sofware. I is designed as a collecion of sub sofware componens, incorporaing he user inerface, image processing, suppor for muliple camera proocols, home prining and Inerne conneciviy. A deailed view of he sub-componens and of he ineracion beween hem is given in Figure 3. Some feaures suppored by he applicaion are: 0 Muliple ranspor suppor (blueooh, direc serial cable, direc USB cable); Muliple camera suppor (virually, any camera ha has a known proocol can be suppored by wriing a very hin layer ha implemens he camera proocol); Generic access o camera proocol, hrough a dedicaed camera access API (his layer expors owards he applicaion a se of generic camera access funcions); Image processing feaures (unique algorihm for red eye reducion, unique algorihm for auo picure fix, crop, loose-less roaion, ec).; Direc home prining, including pre-prining image processing; Direc Inerne conneciviy, boh upload and download o a sandard sharing phoo server using a cusomisable API (his module can be used in sandard mode or secure mode); 0 Easy o use user inerface and picure managemen (his inerface expors owards he user all he above funcionaliy, in a very simple and concise manner); Upon reques, oher funcionaliy could be added ino he user applicaion, such as direc web prining, more image processing bcions, skin suppor, ec.

5 7. Bigioi e al.: Conneciviy Soluion o Link a Blueooh Camera o he Inerne 297 The sofware elemen ha glues he oher ogeher is he IMAGE MANAGER, which is basically a GUI elemen, making use of he all sofware sub-componens. Mos of he componens are designed as COM objecs, wih independen funcionaliy and a very well defined inerface wih ouside world. Les ry o summarize and highligh he funcionaliy of every componen of he user applicaion: 0 Image manager is he graphical user inerface, which pulls ogeher all he oher sofware componens of he sysem, exporing o he end user all he feaures of he sysem; Cam access SDK is mainly a se of easy o use access camera funcions, exporing he same behavior for each individual digial camera; Camera proocol layer comprise of a se of proocols, one per suppored digial appliance. This is he only place were, if a new camera is released, new code o suppor i occurs; The ranspor absracion layer expors o he camera proocol a se of funcions, always he same, independen of he used ranspor. The link beween he ype of he used ranspor and he applicaion is made a his level; Uploaddownload module is a sofware componen ha provides direc web conneciviy for clien side applicaions; 0 Home prin module provides he flexibiliy o prin digial images o he local priner, providing funcions such as prin preview, layou organizaion, preprin image processing and region prining. Image processing module comprise of in-house developed image processing echniques, such as looseless roaion, auo picure fix, a unique red eye reducion echnique and cropping. Addiional feaures could be added upon reques. Figure 9: Applicaion - Selec Picures from Blueooh Camera Figure 10: Applicaion - Upload Picures Figure 11: Applicaion - Home Prining I I Figure 8: Applicaion - SelecPicure Source 4.2 Blueooh modules The camera end blueooh module runs boh he lowlevel blueooh sack and he high-level blueooh proocol sack. The Figure 12 shows exacly he organizaion and ineracion of he blueooh proocols.

6 29 8 IEEE Transacions on Consumer Elecronics, Vol. 47, No. 3, AUGUST os ACCESS Cc MODULE COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL MODULE COMPACT FLASH Figure 12 Blueooh firmware The blueooh sack proocols a he PC end are disribued beween he embedded blueooh module and he PC. This organizaion is required for access o specific feaures of he high-level blueooh proocol sack, such as device discovery, name discovery, ec. 5. Digial camera firmware Of course, only he firmware concerned wih he ransfer proocol will be described. Oherwise, he digial camera incorporaes an impressive amoun of firmware, which is ou of he conex of his paper. The ineracion of he ransfer proocol wih he digial camera resources, such as sorage and operaion sysem is shown in Figure 13. The componens of he digial camera firmware are: Communicaion proocol is he core proocol, packe based, ranspor independen; Sorage access module is exporing owards he communicaion module sandard file accesdsearch funcions used by he core module o find, access and delee images on he camera s file sysem; OS access module expors generic operaing sysem funcions, such as memory allocaion funcions, basic imers, display, ec. The adapaion beween he camera s OS and core module is done here; Transpor absracion module expors ranspor generic access funcions owards he communicaion proocol module and make he llnk wih he ranspor specific funcions available in he serial driver module or USB driver module; TRANSPORT ABSTRACTIZATION MODULE SERIAL DRV DIRECT CABLE Figure 13: Digial camera firmware 6. Conclusions ca----l USE DRV * CHIPSET The curren sysem is argeed as a communicaion SDK for camera manufacurers. The mos expensive componens are he blueooh chipses, bu he evoluion of blueooh marke laely indicaes a clear endency for usabiliy in consumer indusry, so criical facor, such as price, will be overcame. Beer approaches could have been used, such as building a dedicaed profile for imaging devices, bu we have preferred o use he mos known blueooh profile (serial por profile) as a working base for our work. The simpliciy of he serial por profile assures he compaibiliy of our soluion wihin differen blueooh hardware manufacurers. 7. References [l] Blueooh official sie hp:// [2] Digianswer AIS: Blueooh applicaion noe hp ://m. digians wer. com [3] Troy XCD hv://royxcd.com (41 Bren A. Miller, Chaschk Bisdikian Blueooh Revealed, Prenice Hall, [5] Jennifer Bray, Charles F. Surman Blueooh Connec Wihou Cables, Prenice Hall, 2001

7 Bigioi e al.: Conneciviy Soluion o Link a Blueooh Camera o he Inerne Bibliographies degree in Elecronic Transilvania Brasov, Romania, in in 1998 M.S. degree in Elecronic Design received a M S degree in elecronic engineering a Naional Universiy of Ireland, Galway in Currenly he is working as R&D Engineer wih FooNaion Ireland, a Zing Neworks subsidiary. VLSI design, communicaion embedded sysems. His research ineress include nework proocols and background in windows archecure and echnologies (AciveX, COM, DCOM) he is currenly working as programming eam leader wih FooNaion Ireland. George Susanu received his BS degree in microelecronics from Kishinev Polyechnic Insiue, Kishinev, Republic of Moldova. Wih an experience of eigh years in RTOS and embedded sysems, having a wide experience in CK++ programming he currenly is working as R&D engineer.wih FooNaion Ireland Ld. His research areas include real ime operaing sysems and device conneciviy. Peer Corcoran received he BA1 (Elecronic Engineering) and BA (Mah s) degrees from Triniy College Dublin in He coninued his sudies a TCD and was awarded a Ph.D. in Elecronic Engineering for research work in he field of Dielecric Liquids. In 1986 he was appoined o a lecureship in Elecronic Engineering a UCG. His research ineress include microprocessor applicaions, environmenal monioring echnologies. He is a member of I.E.E.E. Adrian Ionas received his BS in compuer science from Lucian Blugu Universiy. Sibiu, Romania, in His ineress include Objec Oriened Programming, Objec Oriened Design and Objec Oriened Analyze. Wih a srong