Page 1 29-Jan-07 Protocol 3.0 © FlexiPanel Ltd Patents pending www.FlexiPanel.com

FlexiPanel

FlexiPanel Protocol 3.0

User Interface Services Layer for Bluetooth

Summary

The FlexiPanel Bluetooth Protocol is a remote user

interface service for computers, electrical

appliances and other machinery.

A FlexiPanel server resides on the application and

holds a user interface database that reflects the

appliance’s human-ma chine interface needs.

A FlexiPanel client can connect at any time, read

the database and displays the user interface. A

user may then control the application from the

client device. Using Bluetooth, the client can be

up to 330 feet away, without need for line-of-sight

communication. FlexiPanel clients have been

implemented on a range of PDAs and cellphones

and are freely available.

Like many higher-level protocols such as OBEX

file exchange, FlexiPanel sits on top of the

RFCOMM serial port emulation layer of the

Bluetooth protocol stack (see graphic below). It is

not part of the “official” Bluetooth standard.

However, the standard is relatively open in that

anyone is free to create FlexiPanel clients, and

FlexiPanel server licenses are mode st.

Creators of FlexiPanel Servers must pay a license fee.

Creators of FlexiPanel Clients need not.

The types of control that may be created, and the

underlying data types they represent, are listed in

the table below. Under the hood, the FlexiPanel

Protocol is based on just a few basic types of

message passed between client and server –

these are the core of the protocol described in this

document.

The main differences between the FlexiPanel

Protocol and regular user interface services (such

as Microsoft Windows) are:

Client Device Independence: The nature of the

client’s user interface may be unknown. The

controls displayed will always be logically correct,

but appearances may vary between different client

devices, e.g. a cellphone and a PDA. If the client

device can be anticipated in advance, certain

additional preferences can be requested, such as

a particular control layout or keyboard accelerators.

Fail Safe Performance: The connection might be

broken at any time, for example if the client’s

batteries fail or the client goes out of range. The

appliance must enter a fail-safe state if connection

is lost at a critical moment.

Compact Server Code: FlexiPanel servers might

be very small, low cost microcontrollers.

Consequently system requirements on the server

side must be extremely lean and communication

very succinct. The remote client device takes over

as many responsibilities as possible. For example,

a server is not required to buffer any I/O,

manipulate any floating point numbers or make

any conversions between single-byte characters

and Unicode.

Control type Function / value

Button Single-press event

Latch, check box,

radio button

Binary value

Text Character string

Number Integer or fixed-point value

Matrix, chart 2-D array of numbers

Date, time Seconds to years

List box 1-of-n selection

Section, popup

Arranges controls in a

hierarchy

Password Provides access control

Message box Alerts user

Blob Exchanges binary data

Files Exchanges files

Image Graphical image

Baseband

Link Manager, Link Controller & Radio

L2CAP

ical Link Control

Audio

RFCOMM

Serial Port Emulation

SDP

Service Discovery

FlexiPanel

Remote UI

OBEX

Appliance

FlexiPanel Protocol 3.0

Summary ........................................................................................................1

Overview.........................................................................................................3

Message Header ............................................................................................4

Greetings From Client...................................................................................6

Greetings From Server..................................................................................7

Goodbye From Client....................................................................................8

Goodbye From Server...................................................................................9

New Control Panel From Server.................................................................10

Control Update From Client........................................................................36

Control Update From Server ......................................................................40

Control Partial Update From Server ..........................................................44

Ping From Server.........................................................................................46

Ping From Client..........................................................................................47

Ping Reply From Server..............................................................................48

Ping Reply From Client...............................................................................49

Acknowledge From Server .........................................................................50

Acknowledge From Client ..........................................................................51

New Server...................................................................................................52

Control Properties Update From Server ...................................................53

Files From Server ........................................................................................54

Files From Client .........................................................................................55

Profile Request From Client .......................................................................56

Profile Data From Server ............................................................................57

Program Device ...........................................................................................58

Device-Specific Data From Client..............................................................59

Device-Specific Data From Server.............................................................60

FlexiPanel Protocol Revision History........................................................61

Protocol Errata History ...............................................................................62

Glossary and Notation ................................................................................63

Legal Notices ...............................................................................................65

Contact Details ............................................................................................65