The vast layout of the CTIA Wireless 2001 show last week in Las Vegas was a little dizzying, with meetings and conferences spread out across the city’s famous strip. One company, making its official debut at the show last week, offered a new technology suite that would allow wireless users to find their way around.
But unlike many companies at the show, BitFlash Inc. isn’t pushing a location-based service-instead, it is offering a technology that will allow all wireless users to view and manipulate a map, which in the long run could be much more valuable than simple global positioning system functions.
BitFlash’s technology is a type of “screen scraper,” one that changes the look of a wireless device screen. In BitFlash’s case, the company offers a graphical overlay that makes the wireless experience on a personal digital assistant similar to that obtained on a WAP-enabled mobile phone. And the experience is much more appealing than one typically receives on most Internet-enabled devices.
The company’s technology runs from the BitFlash Server, which is installed in a service or information provider’s network. The server works to optimize content from different sources to various types of wireless devices. Images are delivered through the company’s Reflexis graphics rendition engine, which is written in Java, and the technology’s internal standards are based on a graphical subset of XML that uses SVG two-dimensional graphics.
The end result is an interface that allows the user to zoom in and out of bit pictures and maps. With the map function, users can move from side to side on the map, or zoom in and out, without losing any detail in the map’s quality. The same is true with pictures.
And perhaps the most surprising feature of the technology is how fast it operates. Using standard wireless connections available today in the United States-BitFlash executives are not holding their breath for the rollout of third-generation technology-a bit map can be downloaded almost instantaneously. Frederic Charpentier, BitFlash’s chairman and chief technology officer, calls mobile devices “depraved devices.” But with the BitFlash graphical overlay, every download occurs much faster, with charts, maps and pictures visible on PDAs almost instantly.
“What we deliver is consistent end-user feel,” said Antoine Paquin, BitFlash’s president and chief executive officer. “What we essentially provide is a graphical layer.”
Paquin said mobile devices are fundamentally unreliable because they all look and act differently. But BitFlash’s technology brings all devices together so they can run on the same field. This way, two-way messaging devices, PDAs and Web-enabled phones all feature the same look and feel.
This, BitFlash executives said, will also be a major draw for businesses looking to go wireless because with the technology they can be assured of offering a standard screen to workers.
“You can’t mandate a single device for one organization,” said Gayle Moss, vice president of marketing for BitFlash. However, with BitFlash technology, a company could incorporate a variety of wireless devices into its business structure without worrying about differences among the devices.
The company received a large push though its new deal with IBM Corp., announced last week. Under the agreement, BitFlash’s Reflexis graphics engine will be integrated into IBM’s VisualAge Micro Edition, which is IBM’s implementation of embedded Java technology. BitFlash said its Reflexis technology will provide the visual layer for compact and efficient user interfaces within connected embedded Java applications.
While BitFlash is looking to push its technology to businesses, it’s also opening itself up to developers. Charpentier said the situation now for wireless application developers is a “nightmare” because they have to take into account all types of differing standards. And even though BitFlash is introducing another standard, Charpentier said it is much easier to use because it’s XML based.
