Mobile web browser extensions

Background
Third-party applications for mobile phones have traditionally been Java midlets or native Symbian programs. With the advanced mobile web browsers available today, mobile web applications have emerged, based on standard web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Although these web applications can mimic the look-and-feel of a normal application, the browser environment prevents access to the lower-level APIs of the mobile phone, thus limiting the functionality.

Desktop browsers can be extended with plug-ins and Java applets to provide additional features, but this is currently not possible on mobile phones. However, by running a local web server as a background process on the mobile device, a web application can invoke native phone functionality from the web application by issuing HTTP requests towards it. For example, a web-based map application could send a request to the local web server to extract positioning information from a GPS receiver attached to the phone.

Task
The goal of this thesis is to study and implement a J2ME web server acting as an extension to mobile web browsers, with a JavaScript library for making generic calls to native phone functionality through this local server, possibly by using RPC. Additionally, a mobile web application making use of this library should be developed, to demonstrate the concept, and to be evaluated against pure J2ME applications.

Competence
This is a great opportunity to break new grounds in a very exciting area. We do not expect you to be familiar with J2ME and/or JavaScript (although a plus), but excellent programming skills and an ability to learn fast are required. Applicants from a Master of Science program (civilingenjörsprogram or similar) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering or Engineering Physics are preferred.