AACHEN, Germany—A consortium of European businesses and colleges unveiled an Application Programming Interface (API) designed to allow users to access content across mobile devices.
The $2.1 million project, which was underwritten by the European Commission, seeks to reduce the development time and cost of multimedia platforms and to improve the interoperability of mobile phones, personal digital assistants, interactive set-top boxes and laptop computers. The group presented the first implementation of an embedded, open, operating system-independent API to unify ways to access both wired and wireless links.
Backers of the Generic Open Link-Layer API for Unified Media access (GOLLUM) include European Microsoft Innovation Centre, STMicroelectronics, Materna, Telefonica, Toshiba Research Europe and two universities.
The European effort comes as cross-platform—or “place-sharing”—issues are beginning to make headlines in the United States. Companies like Sling Media and Orb, which look to allow users to access their own content on mobile phones and elsewhere, are facing roadblocks from carriers concerned about wireless data revenues and network traffic issues.
“The adoption of the GOLLUM API will enable operators and software vendors to provide new kinds of services and greatly enhance the user experience,” said Petri Mahonen, a professor at RWTH Aachen University. “In fact, terminals could properly adapt to changes in wireless network connectivity and environments, allowing new smart applications to be developed.”
