Software is central to the development of IT products and services. In Denmark there are a number of traditional industries developing appliances and the use of IT has become an important element in these appliances. For these companies a joint effort together with researchers is crucial to be able to integrate IT successfully in the appliances. Objects in appliances are a group of projects that focuses on the use of object-technology for embedded systems in appliances.

Partners
The participants in the activity are companies developing appliances, companies developing software, researchers and educators in software and the Alexandra Institute. The projects are mainly located within the area of object-technology, but other areas such as the LEGO lab and the mobility area are also involved. Currently, the following partners are involved:

• Bang & Olufsen
• Danfoss
• Grundfos
• COTAS
• Lego
• Terma
• Personics
• Systematic Software Engineering
• Mjølner Informatics
• The Engineering College of Aarhus
• Vitus Bering, Horsens
• University of Aarhus

Goals
The purpose of the activity is to bring the participating companies to a state-of-art level in use of object-technology in appliances and to provide an experimental basis for long-term projects and research in pervasive computing.

Themes
The following themes have been defined so far:

• Use of object-technology in general in appliances
• Evaluation of the portability of Java virtual machines
• Support for Java-like languages in 8- and 16-bit microprocessors
• Evaluation of the real-time aspects of Java
• Distributed objects in embedded systems
• Mobile objects in appliances
  

Results
The projects are expected to generate results of the following kind:

• Experience and techniques for using object-technology in embedded systems
• Experience with porting Java virtual machines
• Techniques for implementing Java in small embedded microprocessors
• Experience with real-time aspects of object-oriented languages
• Techniques and frameworks for support of distributed objects in embedded systems
• Experience and techniques for supporting mobile objects in embedded systems
  

People
The following persons participate in the projects:

• University of Aarhus: Peter Andersen, Michael Caspersen, Henrik Bærbak Christensen, Ole Lehrmann Madsen (responsible), and Ulrik Pagh Schultz
• Engineering College of Aarhus: Finn Overgaard Hansen, et al.
• Vitus Bering Horsens: Stephan E. Korsholm, Hans Søndergaard, et al.
• Sun: Lars Bak, et al.
• Danfoss: Hans Peter Jepsen, Ole Kammeyer, et al.
• COTAS: Jesper Schmidt, et al.
• B&O: Carsten Bjerring, Mogens L. Lauridsen, et al.
• Terma: Jesper Bak, et al.
• Grundfos: Carsten Nøkleby, et al.
• Mjølner Informatics: Flemming Gram, Jørgen Lindskov Knudsen;
• Systematic: Morten Granum, et al.
• Personics: Mikkel Thormod

The level of activity varies among the industrial partners, depending on the actual projects. For each industrial partner, one or two prime contacts are mentioned. In actual projects, more people may participate. If the company is currently not active in a project, participation is restricted to erfa- and status meetings, where several people usually participate from each company.

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