IWR: Interactive www response in the wireless and mobile environment using the concept of universal www access

With the rapid progress of computer and communication technologies, (1) wireless and mobile networks and the Internet will be merged together sooner or later, and (2) more and more various client e-devices that allow people wireless, mobile WWW access will come out. The new wireless and mobile client e-devices are small and light, with medium powerful computing capability. Thus, how to allow users to interactively, i.e., step-by-step, retrieve information from WWW using the emerging various wireless and mobile e-devices, becomes a main issue in constructing a successful wireless and mobile information world. In this paper, we call the interactive procedure for retrieving information from the WWW Interactive Web Response (IWR); universal WWW access means that people can get information from the WWW using various kinds of client e-devices, including desktop PCs, light, small, wireless mobile pocket PCs and WAP/GPRS cellular phones, traditional communication e-device, e.g., DTMF phones and fax machines, and future e-devices, e.g., 3G/4G wireless mobile e-devices, that can connect to web servers. We will describe three main concerns for how to realize IWR using the concept of universal WWW access. Then, an IWR system is introduced in detail.