IP: Tuned in, turned on. -- Philly (Philadelphia Inquirer) Tech Article

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Feature story: Penn Students turn PalmPilot into Universal Remote
(http://www.philly-tech.com/feature_3.htm)

Tuned in, turned on.

By Milica Stets, Photos by Brad Bower

When Eugene J. Huang and Peter A. Daley imagine the couch potato of the
future, they see 3Com Corp.'s PalmPilot in the viewer's hand. And on the
screen of the personal digital assistant is a different display, depending
on whether it's the television, VCR, stereo or some other appliance being
controlled.

As students at the University of Pennsylvania last year, they conceived of
such a software-based, universal remote control as an engineering-design
project. Now, along with their professor, Internet pioneer David Farber,
and their attorney, they have formed the board of a new Philadelphia
company called Navispace Inc. to develop and market the product. With a
prototype and business plan in hand, they are looking for $500,000 in
financing to continue their research into the remote, which they call
InSight.

"We wanted to build a universal remote control with the information
services built into it," said Huang, 22, who is a senior at Penn this fall.
He and Daley, 23, who graduated last spring with degrees in finance and
electrical engineering, came up with the idea in November and then
struggled for five months to make it work.

The project started as an exploration of the possibilities of a
wireless-communication network within the home. Huang and Daley realized
that many household appliances are already controlled by remotes, which
transmit commands on infrared beams.

"Remotes are sort of a wireless network, just very simple one-way
communications," Daley said. From this initial idea, they decided to
increase the capability of a universal remote control by incorporating a
computer and
software that allowed the user to interact with the device.

Daley remembered that when they first approached Farber, who is the Alfred
Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunications, he and Huang had nothing but
a one-page description of the general system design. "After two or three
sentences of explanation, he understood exactly what we were talking about
building. We could see him racing through possibilities in his mind; the
light turned on," said Daley.

"You want to create devices that are very small, that are easy to manage,"
Farber said in an interview. "The fact is we all want small things, but we
also want to be able to input things."

Huang remembered that he and Daley "spent the whole of December through the
end of April, many, many long nights in the Penn lab.'' Sometimes they
walked into the lab at 10 p.m. and worked until after sunrise. By the end
of April, they had a prototype.

They decided to use 3Com's PalmPilot as a platform for their invention
because it is easy to use, plus has an on-screen keyboard and the
capability to host software. Like most existing remotes, it can transfer
data on infrared beams. The PalmPilot also has the capability to
synchronize data and download information from a personal computer through
a cradle attachment. The device runs on two AA batteries. By the end of the
year, analysts estimate more than 2.2 million PalmPilots will have been
sold at $200 to $400 each.

Evaluated by an independent panel of six judges, Huang and Daley's
invention won this year's senior design competition in the Department of
Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. "They had a great
idea with a commercial product like the PalmPilot and were able to make it
into a new product," said one judge, Jerry Lomurno, president of Eastern
Instrumentation of Philadelphia, a professional electronics-engineering
reseller based in Moorestown.

On behalf of his students, Farber approached Eric Benhamou, chairman and
CEO of 3Com Corp. "I thought you might enjoy this product. It works like a
charm," wrote Farber. After Farber's intercession, Daley and Huang signed a
nondisclosure agreement with 3Com.


The software in Daley and Huang's device would allow a user to download
customized data files distributed over the Internet onto the universal
remote control, according to Daley and Huang. Regardless of which cable,
satellite or broadcast service they use, viewers would be able to have an
updated electronic
program guide for that service. It would allow users to sort program
listings by specific criteria, such as movies or sports, or search by
keyword.

Daley and Huang have competition in trying to make the PalmPilot emulate a
remote control. The Grand Design, a contract-engineering firm in
Massachusetts, is working on a prototype. In February 1997, another
company, a start-up called Evolve Products Inc., signed an agreement with
Universal Electronics Inc., in Twinsburg, Ohio, intending to develop and
market a new generation of remote controls that would incorporate an
interactive program guide.

Huang and Daley's remote control would also able to operate and coordinate
other home appliances that receive commands on infrared beams, such as the
stereo, home theater, cable box and VCR. The device has a potential to
evolve into a portable home-network controller, Huang said.

As part of Huang and Daley's plan to make the smart remote easier for the
consumer to use, Daley has also designed a keypad attachment that would
give the consumers an option to access data through either PalmPilot's
touch screen or the keypad.

The two expect that the monthly subscription to the program-listing service
would cost around $2, while the remote, including both software and
hardware, is designed to sell for $50, beginning in the third quarter of
1999, according to the business plan.


By then, Huang will have graduated from Penn with three degrees: public
policy and management, electrical engineering and telecommunications. As
president of Navispace, he primarily developed the InSight software.


During a break from college, Huang traveled to rural Kenya where he helped
teach ninth- and tenth-graders algebra and chemistry. He also participated
in Mayor Rendell's 1995 re-election campaign and took off a year from
college to work in Mark Warner's U.S. Senate campaign in Virginia.
Originally from Beverly Hills, Calif., he said he loves living in
Philadelphia. Lanky and bespectacled, Huang exudes energy and enthusiasm.

If Huang is the live wire of the twosome, Daley is the slow charge. As
chief operating officer of Navispace, Daley developed the hardware for the
device. Like Huang, he spent a year away from Penn, studying finance and
semiconductor engineering at Oxford University in England. Since his
graduation from Penn last spring, he has been employed as an analyst for
the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Group in San Francisco. Daley is
originally from Sinking Spring, Pa., near Reading.


Huang and Daley are already considering a second generation, stand-alone
device, which would be able to store automatically the information from the
Internet without connecting to a PC. This device could have a modem built
into a cradle that would allow a direct Internet connection.

"Basically, your imagination is the only thing that is going to limit what
this product will be able to do," said judge Lomurno.


Milica Stets is a freelance writer who recently moved from Philadelphia to
Frankfurt, Germany.





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