By Leslie T. O'Neill

May 14, 2007 -- As five Taiko drummers pounded out a beat, hundreds of Java devotees crowded into James Gosling's annual Toy Show on May 11 to see 12 new implementations of Java technology.

Gosling appeared just as excited by the technology as the winning engineers were to be sharing the stage with the father of Java. Gosling walked through the demos with the engineers, and by the end of the Toy Show, he had been joined on stage by robots, a helicopter, a submarine, and several other ground-breaking applications--all running 100 percent Java.

Gosling declared that the devices that can be built with Java are "pretty much endless." He showed pictures of an ATM that he called "a big bag of Java code wrapped in steel" and a Hobart meat scale, which performs instant pricing updates with a Java VM and a Web browser.

"Be inspired! A lot of really interesting stuff happens when these Java implementations touch each other," said Gosling.

Twelve "Toys"

This year's Toy Show made one thing clear: Almost anything can be accomplished in Java. In order of appearance, the demos included:

• Project D-Light: a Sun Studio plug-in that leverages the DTrace application performance analysis tool
• Sun Grid Compute Utility: a new NetBeans plug-in that allows users to work with Sun Grid directly from NetBeans
• NetBeans IDE 6.0: the better, faster editor includes a new local file history
• Ricoh network printer: a customizable display powered by Java
• Ubiquitech Virtual Document Management System (VDMS): a printer display appears on Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices
• Blu-ray: uses Java to add interactive content to DVDs
• Cineshot from Cinegistics: Java Swing application to capture real-time video input to analyze on a laptop
• Project Wonderland: a virtual workspace that allows real-time collaboration on native-x applications
• RSMedia robots: Java APIs control all body movements
• ABB industrial robot: the first industrial robot controlled by Java is also the world's fastest industrial robot
• Project SONIA: autonomous underwater vehicle with Java-developed software components
• Perrone Robotics helicopter: X86 processor runs Solaris 10 and Java to build 3D terrain maps

Revelling in Robots

All the demos were met with applause and hoots of approval, but none elicited as much glee as three grey and orange robots from RSMedia, each about 18 inches tall, that danced onstage to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." All the body movements were programmed with Java APIs.

Gosling was quick to point out the practical potential of these toys. By adding a SunSpot on the robot's back, for instance, it could perform RF networking, sensor input, and more.

In the next demo, Greg Bollella, a Sun Distinguished Engineer, controlled the ABB industrial robot with off-the-shelf Solaris and Java. In a game of mumbly peg, the robot stabbed around the digits of an empty glove. Bollella declared the robot safe enough to risk his own hand in the game, if only the lawyers allowed it.

Paul Perrone, CEO of Perrone Robotics, demonstrated a small, unmanned helicopter flown on wires above the stage. Perrone and Gosling laid on the stage and were mapped by the copter's laser. "This is 1/100th the cost of competing technology, and we can do this because we have Java RTS," explained Perrone.

Java for Multimedia

The Toy Show also demonstrated how Java technology can create stellar multimedia experiences. Danny Kaye, executive vice president of technology strategy at 20th Century Fox, showed what Java applications can do on Blu-ray DVDs, such as creating an online trivia game synched to movie scenes.

Using the nautical adventure "Master and Commander," Kaye demonstrated a map function written in Java code that shows the viewer where on the planet the ship is during the movie. A trivia track could also be added to teach viewers more about the world in which the movie is set. "One could easily imagine an entire wikipedia just for 'Master and Commander,'" said Gosling.

For Sun Developer Paul Byrne's walk-through of the virtual collaborative environment called Project Wonderland, he used an avatar modeled after Gosling, saying, "We can look at the world through James's glasses!" As the virtual Gosling moved through Project Wonderland, he was able to approach another avatar and start a conversation with realistic audio as well as use desktop applications running in the virtual space.

Project Wonderland uses the Project Darkstar server as the back end and an open source Java 3D-based graphics engine to generate the lifelike virtual environments. "People all over the world can collaborate in the same space," said Gosling.

As the Toy Show concluded, John Gage, Sun chief researcher and director of the Science Office, called Gosling back to the stage to issue a challenge. Inspired by Project Wonderland as well as the robotics, Gage asked if developers could use Java to build a 3D environment that would allow users to fly in ways not possible in the physical world--and build it by next year's JavaOne. Gosling laughed and said, "There's a lot of fun to be had."

For more information on Java, go to java.sun.com.