Occurrences

Paper

../papers/02-04-01/02-04-01.html

Date of Presentation

Tuesday, 21 May

Time of Presentation

11.00

Presentation Level

In-The-Middle

Abstract

The W3C Scalable Vector Graphics 1.0 Specification defines an XML grammar for describing resolution independent two-dimensional graphics on the web. The concepts in SVG are well suited to the application areas that are typical of mobile devices, including location-based services (e.g. displaying a map and route to the nearest parking station), in-field CAD/engineering diagrams (e.g. a diagram of a circuit board with hyperlinked component descriptions), and entertainment (e.g cartoon-like animation). However, the SVG 1.0 specification is primarily focused at desktop machines, and as such does not specifically address the needs of devices with resource limitations such as mobile devices. For example, a typical PDA has a palm-sized display with low resolution, and a mobile phone has potentially extreme limitations on power and memory consumption. Both may be limited to an intermittent low-bandwidth network connection. These restrictions make it difficult for such devices to render the full range of SVG 1.0 content. The W3C SVG working group, aware of the need for a 2D graphics language for resource limited devices such as PDAs, mobile phones and printers, is developing a set of SVG profiles for these devices. The presentation will describe the current status of this work at the W3C, beginning with a discussion of the modularization of the SVG 1.0 specification and then paying particular attention to the profile for mobile devices (PDAs and mobile phones). Once this groundwork has been laid, the presentation will continue by describing authoring guidelines for producing SVG content that can be displayed both on mobile devices and desktop machines. This will involve a discussion of mobile SVG application development, and the differences between creating an SVG application for a small device and an application for a desktop machine. For example, the constrained display size and memory of portable devices may produce a situation in which it is acceptable for the application to trade geometric accuracy for file size. Another example could be an application that renders an XForms document (an XML based forms description language developed by the W3C) in SVG, taking into account the differences in available input methods for a portable device and desktop computer. Given that the advantages that SVG provides to desktop machines - resolution independence, XML graphics and a small file size - are equally beneficial in the resource limited area, the new work on SVG should produce exciting graphical content for small devices.