Candidate Applications and Technologies I N T E G R a T E D E N V I R O N M E N T S

S ince the early days of the Web, server-side executable content has been an important ingredient of server technology. It has turned simple hypertext retrieval into real applications. Not surprisingly, the idea of remotely controlling devices through the Web1,2 has always seemed near at hand. Because hypertext user interfaces can run on any Web browser, UI development boils down to Web content creation. Furthermore, thanks to the HTTP standard’s smart and scalable nature, we can fit embedded servers into simple 8-bit microcontrollers with only a few Kbytes of RAM and ROM (see the “Embedding Servers into Devices” sidebar).3 Ever since we started integrating hypertext browsers into mobile phones, people have proposed using mobile phones as remote controls. Now, with the provision of short-range wireless connectivity—for example, through Bluetooth—mobile phones and other handhelds might substantially change the way people interact with electronic devices. Here, we report on our effort to create a low-power wireless microserver with a very small form factor and connect it to mobile devices using standard consumer technology.