Feature Story

Start your engines!

Java technology helps NASCAR.com put racing fans in the driver's seat.

22.Apr.03--The networked device revolution continues at breakneck speed. As yet another example of the ever-expanding notion of the network, a "network of things," Java technology now puts NASCAR racing fans in the driver's seat. NASCAR.com's PitCommand applet offers virtual dashboards that display the real-time speed, RPM, braking, and throttle data of the racers--delivered direct to the PC desktop via in-car GPS telemetry boxes. In effect, race cars have now become mobile devices on the network.

Robert Metcalfe, one of the developers of Ethernet, formulated Metcalfe's law--which states that the usefulness of a network increases by the square of the number of nodes (users or devices) connected to it. (After all, imagine how useful the telephone system would be if only two people in the world owned telephones.) And NASCAR.com's PitCommand facility was clearly developed with Metcalfe's law in mind. "This is a perfect example of why you would want to connect things to the network," says John Fowler, software CTO of Sun Microsystems, "to aggregate data from diverse devices, and then deliver that data to equally diverse devices--in informative and compelling ways."

Java technology is the architecture for the network. It enables the development of secure network-based applications for every device, independent of platform. "This is what Java technology is all about," adds Fowler, "enabling developers to enable the network. We want to facilitate and accelerate Metcalfe's law, and companies like NASCAR.com are doing just that--creating new and immersive experiences."

PitCommand

If the measure of a new technology facility is both customer popularity and increased business revenue, then PitCommand has been a thorough success. "PitCommand has been a big hit in terms of drawing sign-up traffic to the NASCAR.com site," says Drew Reifenberger, executive vice president and general manager of Turner Sports Interactive. The company owns the rights to NASCAR.com, and in partnership with Sportvision produced the PitCommand application, which is the latest addition to TrackPass, the site's fee-based online service. Since launching PitCommand in November 2002, the company has effectively doubled its TrackPass subscriber base. "For all of last season, we signed up over 100,000," reports Reifenberger. "But just since November, which includes two and a half months of off-season time, we're already up to 150,000 total sign-ups. So only two months into the 2003 season, we're off to a great start."

For the 2003 racing season, PitCommand provides real-time weekly coverage of all Winston Cup races. The applet accesses the same in-car GPS telemetry data delivered to the television networks, but presents it in a customizable, interactive fashion. GPS data drives a virtual on-screen racetrack, displaying the position of each car. Two cars at a time can be interactively selected for virtual dashboard telemetry. Meanwhile, in conjunction with RealNetworks, the RealOne Player provides streaming in-car banter between drivers and their teams, as well as live audio coverage of the race.

Because PitCommand is Java applet-driven, and thus executes on the client side, its bandwidth needs are inherently minimal. Since only telemetry data packets are being transmitted to the desktop, the applet delivers the same engaging experience to both broadband and 56 K dial-up users. While the facility is currently designed for the PC desktop, Java technology is inherently device and platform neutral, so there's nothing to stop a future version of PitCommand from being deployed even on handheld wireless devices.

"Java technology is a universal technology enabler for developing such application infrastructures," says Fowler. "We want to offer developers the freedom to build these secure network applications independent of the operating system and independent of the runtime platform."

"Java technology was a great fit with our development needs and the requirements of our client," says Jay Sandhaus, Sportvision's director of Software Development, Media Productions. "It allowed us to develop a full-featured desktop application and deploy it over the Internet. Usually our vision is far ahead of the technology, but Java technology is flexible enough and powerful enough to make PitCommand both appear and behave exactly the way we want it to. This is a huge contrast from the experience we've had trying to force older Web development platforms to perform."

But the real test of any technology is the ultimate value offered to the end user. "PitCommand offers a rich complementary experience to the TV broadcast of a race," says Reifenberger. "You get the visuals from the television, and from your PC you can track how a given car is doing, listen to the radio chatter between that driver and his race team, and even see the dashboard telemetry from individual cars. This comes as close to the action as you possibly can without being at the event. It's the ultimate Web experience."

A Network of Things

Over the last ten years, the concept of "the network" has expanded to include everything from cell phones, to PDAs, to cars. And this expansion will only continue to accelerate. Within a matter of years, the ubiquity and speed of wireless networks will make it a near zero marginal cost to connect almost anything to the network. As a result, the notion of a "networked device" will also drastically change. The "network of things" paradigm can, in the long run, be applied to everything from environmental sensors, to medical sensors (delivering real-time medical data from astronauts in space down to mission control), to wireless Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. With RFID, also sometimes referred to as Automatic Identification (Auto-ID), miniature wireless ID devices can be used to tag where a product or object was made, when it was made, how it was delivered, its surrounding temperature, and more. The possibilities for such technologies, in terms of asset management, and supply chain management, are virtually endless.

But with this expanded notion of a network of things comes the need for a technology that is designed for secure network applications, and that is inherently device and platform neutral. It is here that Java technology truly shines. "If you think about it," says Fowler, "any information you want is generally located somewhere else. But Java technology allows you to develop applications anywhere and everywhere, and in so doing, to truly enable the network."

A Call to Action

In order to catch this gathering next wave of technology, it's vital that developers and enterprises adapt to this expanding notion of the network, to adjust their conceptual thinking to one of an all-encompassing network of things.

"This is a real call to action," says Fowler, "for businesses to expand their idea of what devices are, how they can be attached to the network, and how they can then be used to create compelling services."

With NASCAR.com's PitCommand facility, Turner Sports Interactive and Sportvision were clearly thinking in just such an expansive fashion. "They're creating new and immersive experiences with this technology," adds Fowler, "attaching cars to the network, aggregating telemetry data from those cars, and then delivering it in a compelling fashion to the race car fans. Using Java technology, they can gather information from diverse sources, and deliver it to diverse sources. And as a result, the inherent value of the network goes up exponentially."

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