Presentation
Up til
now, the Physical Markup Language has described instrinsic
properties of physical objects. At some point, however,
it is necessary to present information about physical
objects that is not inherent, but ascribed to the
object by people.
Advertising,
service manuals, user instructions, registration information,
warranties, logos, warnings and compliance information
are all associated with the physical object through
text, lights, images, audio, video clips and other
means. Various media are used in this presentation
included directly printed material, documents, shelf
labels, lights, audio alarms, computer screens and
television.
Perhaps
the most obvious approach is to simply adopt the HyperText
Markup Language (HTML) by itself as the means for
present this information. The difficultly, however,
is the wide variety of media that might be used to
present information about physical objects.
The
World Wide Web and HTML work well because people are
already at their computers when viewing information.
With the Physical Markup Language people will most
likely be interacting with physical objects far from
a computer monitor. In a distribution center, warehouse,
grocery store, hospital, car or home, information
about physical objects needs to be communicated immediately
to the user through a variety of methods.
In
addition manufacturers and retailers need substantial
control over the manner in which product information
is presented to the customers. The name of the product,
description, icon, image, animation and video components
are all carefully crafted to guide product perception
and usage.
Present
We
propose a presentation, or present
element, that is simply a "light-weight"
container element that guides the purpose, media
and use of information. The present
element may also be used to hold small object descriptions,
such as a name, icon, logo or title, as well as
larger documents, such as a service manual, warranty
or user instructions.
The
present
element contains information on the (1) purpose
of the document, (2) target media and (3) target
audience. The purpose of a document might be a name,
logo or description, or perhaps a larger document,
such as an advertisement, user manual or service
arrangement. The target media is the communication
means - "light", "label", "icon",
"print", "television", "Web",
etc. Finally, the target audience is the intended
viewer of the document.
The
present element has the following simple form
