How IPv6 Appli Contest 2003 Idea Award Winners Used the Advantages of IPv6

Entry for IPv6 Appli Contest Idea Category will be closed in mid October. Application process is simple. You just explain your idea on two pages of A4 paper. But some people might be wondering how to include the advantages of IPv6 in their ideas. In this article, we explain how each of Idea Award winners last year used the advantages of IPv6 in their ideas. Description of each idea below comes from “IPv6 Appli Contest Winners” article.


Winners of the Award for Promotion

Jessica Little
MIDI Composition To Copyright Tool for IPv6 (MC2C6)
This is a tool for music composers using MIDI devices to automate the process of copyright protection. It can assist creating form for copyright application, MIDI-to-MP3 conversion, CD creation from MP3 library. MIDI devices and PC will be IPv6-enabled, and they will have MC2C6 server and lient software running, for automatic transfer of MIDI music files from MIDI devices to PC.

Comment:
Communication between a MIDI device and a PC is currently conducted through MIDI interface or IEEE 1394. At last, an electric musical instrument appeared in 2004 that supports wireless LAN connection. This idea takes advantage of IP address autoconfiguration to ease IP communication between PCs and MIDI devices.


Miguel Angel Diaz Fernandez
Parking Control System with MIPv6
This is a parking guidance system for parking lots. The system automatically assigns appropriate parking space for cars and check if each of them parks at the right space. The system bases itself on Mobile IPv6 support by automobiles. When a car enters a parking lot, it uses wireless technology to communicate with the system. The system would idntify each car using global IPv6 address, to notify where the particular car should park. The system also examines if each car parked as directed. If a car is not parked at a space directed by the system, or if a car inappropriately uses 2 or more parking lots, additional charge is made as a fine.

Comment:
IPv6 can give unique global address to vehicles. And Mobile IPv6 support by these cars enables constant communication using the same address everywhere they go. This idea uses these advantages to identify cars in the parking lot, to monitor correct parking.


Hiroko Furukawa
Pedometer and IPv6: a Healthcare system for the Elderly
This is a pedometer capable of IPv6 communication. Healthly elderly peoplewould be given one of these, and pedometer data will be monitored remotely to confirm his/her health. It the elderly wears the pedometer all the time, wakeup time, sleeping time, and number of steps he/she has taken forthe day is recorded everyday. Such data can be monitored over network, with corresponding weather information. It is possible to infer for example that the elderly is not in good health as he/she is not walking much although the weather was fine for that day. As long as IPv6 connectivity is available, pedometer data can be monitored in real time, whether he/she is at home or outside. If pedometer data is suddely lost, family or other appropriate personnel may prepare for emergency action.

Comment:
This idea takes advantage of Mobile IPv6, which enables access and monitoring of net-connected devices anywhere these devices are. You can try to do a similar thing with IPv4, but you have to make the device initiate connections on their part to upload information, which makes real time monitoring difficult.


Akihiro Uehara
Home in Zaurus
For remote control of consumer electronics devices from outside, it would be more convenient to place a server at home to enable collective control. But it would be cumbersome to have to place a server at every place you have a device to control. This is a server for control of home appliances built on Linux-based ZAURUS. By carrying this ZAURUS with you, you can centrally control home appliances at multiple places. ZAURUS is connected by mobile phone connectivity. IPv6 is used to communicate with IPv6-enabled consumer devices.

Comment:
The idea to use servers to control electric appliances at home may seem to contradict with the fact that IPv6 enables direct access to these devices. But the author thinks it is better to configure several related devices at home from a server at once rather than separately. The heart of this idea is to make the configuration server portable, for control of devices at home from this server. This is where the idea takes advantage of the fact that IPv6 enables direct communications to various devices. The author also lists plug and play and security features of IPv6 as the reasons to use IPv6.


Andreas BergstrØm / Audun Vaaler
peer to peer network
Peer-to-peer file sharing system using multicast. It provides architecture for sending file announcements and requests by multicast. Clients sending file request set hop limit to 1 first, and then increase the number gradually till enough number of data is found.

Comment:
This idea takes advantage of the fact that IPv6 enables peer-to-peer communication easily through global addresses.


Winners of the Award for Planning

Kenji Yamamoto
Networked Racing Cart
This is a plan to equip electric racing cart with wireless LAN communication capability, and enable audio and video communication among drivers, driving pit crew, and reporters. Voltage, ampere, and acceleration data can be sent over the Internet via wireless LAN to recording device for analysis. By enabling carts to be directly connected to IPv6 Internet, anyone in the world can enjoy real time video from the carts.

Comment:
At F1 and other major car races, racing vehicles can be monitored real time at the pit, but electric racing cart races cannot afford such systems. IPv6 enables low-cost monitoring of vehicle information and voice/video communications. The idea also suggests a new entertainment for Internet users to see vehicle on-board video through peer-to-peer communications.


Norihiko Kimura
Ingrate
This is an information-space sharing application for text-based information sharing. It enables transparent infomration sharing among people with the same interests or people in proximity to one another in terms of network. By using IPv6, IPv6 addresses can be used to identify and group users.

Comments:
One of the advantages of IPv6 used in this idea is ubiquitous peer-to-peer communications. It also uses assigned IPv6 addresses to identify users, and manages groups using multicast.


Akihiro Uehara
Open Servo
It proposes to use Ethernet to integrate wiring in robots, among servo (motors), controller, and sensors, and send control/feedback signals on IPv6. At present, a robot has each sensor/servo connected to controller separately. As the number of servos and sensors multiply, wiring occupies a larger space in a robot. That encourages the use of Ethernet cable for streamlined wiring and use of TCP/IP for control. IPv6 should be used instead of IPv4 because of address issues. With IPv4, address should not be burnt on ROM as that prevents replacement of components. On the other hand, automatic assignment of IP address by DHCP can cause lost of control if temporary loss of power resets address setting. IPv6 is a better solution for this reason.

Comment:
This takes advantage of IPv6 address autoconfiguration, which enables connected devices to configure own addresses themselves, without relying on separate network services.


Haruo Takagi
Ubiquitous Radio
This is a solution for the visually-handicapped and the elderly to be able to listen to news and_@other information anywhere, anytime. Information on news and other Web sites is edited so itis suitable for text-to-speech conversion. And this text information is pushed to PDAs equipped with wireless LAN interface. The PDAs reads the received information to the visually-handicapped, the elderly, and mobile people. Once the information is downloaded, it can be consumed without Internet connectivity. It is also user-friendly because they don't have to handle PCs.

Comment:
Peer-to-peer communication environment by IPv6 is used for real time push of information in this idea.


Masahiro Isaka
Use of IPv6 to Identiy Illegal Vehicles
Diesel vehicles which does not meet a certain emission standard are banned from the Tokyo metropolitan area. But at present, there is no method to instantly know compliant vehicles from non-complicant ones. In this plan, RFIDs are attached to vehicles with appropriate emission cleaners and/or those which passed the conformance test. RFID readers will be placed beside the road to immediately identify a particular vehicle is compliant or not.

Comment:
This idea uses the IPv6 advantage that it enables peer-to-peer communication. A similar system with IPv4 incurs considerable cost in building and maintaining information management servers. But IPv6 enables peer-to-peer communication to do the same without servers.