Dynamic PAN-Based Virtual Device

In this paper we introduce a novel concept, which considers all the autonomous devices on the user 's Personal Area Network (PAN) as one big "Virtual Device" having multiple input and output units and providing a coherent and surround interface to the user. Such a concept is quite valuable to the user since it allows him to manage all his devices as one. The paper also proposes and describes a PAN middleware that enables the formation of a Virtual Device on the PAN and that is capable of handling the dynamical presence of devices and the diversity of device types. In order to identify the necessary capabilities and functions of such middleware, Two PAN configurations, namely Isolated PAN with multiple Open devices and Networked PAN without Open device are considered thoroughly.