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CE-HTML

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CE-HTML[1] is a language for creating user interface pages for Consumer Electronics (CE) devices such as televisions. These CE-HTML pages are typically placed online and are based on a 10-foot user interface for easy control from a distance. It is profiled on XHTML and associated standards with special CE-HTML extensions.

Example CE-HTML page, with description

CE-HTML is part of the CEA-2014 standard (also referred to as Web4CE[2]), defined within the Consumer Electronics Association [3].

Features

CE-HTML consists of the following internet languages:

CE-HTML can both be used in-home through UPnP as via the internet. It allows the content creator to use the common and known languages in the web to define a user interface that can be controlled on a CE device. A CE-HTML client typically consists of a web browser adapted for the CE-HTML standard running on a consumer electronics device. CE-HTML offers specific extensions for these browsers such as :

  • Multi-tap or other CE-specific alpha-numeric input support, by making use of the CSS3 input-format tag [12].
  • media (audio/video) playout through the use of an audio/video scripting object.
  • operation via remote control (spatial navigation) using the up, down, left, right and OK keys
  • client capability matching - to match the client capabilities to the user interfaces that the server offers. For this purpose, each CE-HTML compliant client is making use of a capability profile. This profile, placed in the user-agent string of the client, lets the server know what part of CE-HTML is supported by the client. The server in turn transmits its capabilities in a so called "XML UI Listing" so the client can choose between the various CE-HTML user interfaces the server offers.
  • user interface profiles for usage on CE devices such as a television. These are predefined capability profiles on which a CE-HTML client can base its capabilities. They define e.g. the fonts supported, screen-size of the device and the media that is supported by the a/v scripting object in the device. All profiles are based on a 10-foot user interface.
  • 3rd party notifications which allow a client to poll for messages from an external server, and display these to the user regardless of the currently displayed user interface.
  • a specific new MIME-type for CE-HTML content: "application/ce-html+xml".

Typical CE-HTML code looks like this [13]: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"ce-html-1.0-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>CE-HTML</title>
</head>
<body onload="myvid.play(1);">
CE-HTML a/v object:<br/>
<object type="video/mp4" id="myvid" data="myvideo.mp4" width="640" height="480"></object>
</body>
</html>

History

CE-HTML was developed within the Consumer Electronics Association R7WG9 working group - consisting of a number of CE-manufacturers - to formulate an answer to the problem of displaying HTML (internet) content on a device that does not possess the characteristics of a typical personal computer [14]. CE devices have problems displaying regular internet pages because these pages make use of:

  • small fonts and images, not readable from a distance as when experienced from a TV or set-top box
  • only mouse or keyboard based navigation, not navigable using remote control
  • no highlight on the navigable elements so a user cannot see the element they navigate
  • many non-portable browser specific extensions (DOM level 0/legacy DOM)
  • no standard audio/video object implementation
  • the use of proprietary - not CE-compatible - extensions such as Adobe Flash

Further difficulties with using a CE device to display internet content are caused by the fact that CE devices typically have different capabilities such as different resolutions, remote controls and audio/video codecs.

Use

CE-HTML is increasingly used within other standards, such as the Open IPTV Forum [15], the Digital Living Network Alliance (as of version 2) and HbbTV. Some research suggests that CEA-2014 (of which CE-HTML is an important part) will be one of the key technologies in the living room internet experience [16]. There are currently a number of browser vendors and solution providers that claim to have a CE-HTML capable browser, such as Oregan [17] and the Wedison project [18] which is based on Webkit.

Philips released the first televisions which support the CE-HTML standard [19], [20] through the Net TV feature in Europe in April, 2009[21][22]. Connected TV's are also being released by Samsung[23], Sharp[24], Panasonic[25] and Sony[26], although these base their work on different languages[27][28][29][30].

References

  1. ^ http://www.domoticspoint.com/archive/2006/02/26/ce-html-for-remote-user-interfaces-for-consumer-devices/ CE-HTML for remote user interfaces for consumer devices
  2. ^ http://www2007.org/posters/poster1017.pdf Web4CE: Accessing Web-based Applications on Consumer Devices
  3. ^ Consumer Electronics Association: CEA-2014
  4. ^ http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm Ecmascript 262, 3rd edition
  5. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xhtml1-20020801/ XHTML 1.0 transitional/strict
  6. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/CR-css-tv-20030514 CSS TV Profile 1.0
  7. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-XMLHttpRequest-20070227/ XMLHttpRequest object
  8. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Core-20001113 DOM level 2.0 Core
  9. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Style-20001113 DOM level 2.0 Style
  10. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113 DOM level 2.0 Events
  11. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-DOM-Level-2-HTML-20030109 DOM level 2.0 HTML
  12. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-roadmap/ CSS3 working draft
  13. ^ http://www.ce.org/Standards/CEA-2014-A_Errata_TextOnly.pdf CEA-2014 errata
  14. ^ http://www.celinuxforum.org/CelfPubWiki/ELC2007Presentations?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=CEA_2014_Overview.pwz CELF-2007 CEA-2014 standard introduction
  15. ^ http://www.openiptvforum.org/docs/Release1/Release1_1/OIPF-T1-R1-Specification-Volume-5-Declarative-Application-Environment-V1_1-2009-10-08.pdf Open IPTV Forum - Declarative Application Environment
  16. ^ http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4534279458.html World Wide Web ensnaring the living room
  17. ^ http://oregan.net/oregan_media_browser.php Oregan media browser information
  18. ^ http://www.wedison.org Wedison project information
  19. ^ http://us.wannahaves.com/item/babefa80/a/philips-net-tv Philips Net TV
  20. ^ http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-philips-demoing-net-tv-when-will-web-tv-work-on-the-sofa/ Philips demoing Net TV
  21. ^ http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/20/philips-net-tv-rumored-to-go-live-in-april/ Philips Net TV live in April, 2009
  22. ^ http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/22430/23454/Philips-announces-Net-TV-internet.phtml Philips announces Net TV
  23. ^ http://www.inquisitr.com/2673/samsung-internet-enabled-televisions-this-year/ Samsung internet enabled televisions this year
  24. ^ http://gizmodo.com/341272/sharp-aquos-net-widget-tv Sharp Aquos Net Widget TV
  25. ^ http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/20/panasonic-vieracast-internet-enabled-plasmas-due-this-summer/ Panasonic Vieracast internet enabled plasmas due this summer
  26. ^ http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/gallery-and-hands-on-sony-bravia-internet-video-link-box-226824.php Sony Bravia internet video link box
  27. ^ http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/developer Samsung Connected TV Yahoo
  28. ^ http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9841890-7.html Sharp puts Internet, sort of, on its TVs (CNET)
  29. ^ http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/learn/televisions/whats-hot-pz850.jsp Panasonic Vieracast
  30. ^ http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8497272379.html Linux device links TVs to Internet videos
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