(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005)
Chen, Yuan; Schwan, Karsten; Rosen, David W.
Mirror objects are the key building blocks in the virtual 'workbenches' and 'portals' for scientific and engineering applications constructed by our group. This paper uses mirror objects in the implementation of the RTTB design workbench, which controls components of the RTTB rapid tooling and prototyping testbed. Mirror objects continuously mirror the states of remote software or even hardware entities, and the operations performed on mirrors are automatically propagated to these entities. Thus, end users perceive mirrors as virtualizations of remote entities. This paper presents the concept of mirror objects, their JMOSS Java-based implementation, the interoperation of JMOSS Java mirrors with the CORBA-based MOSS mirror object implementation, demonstrations of mirror functionality and utility with a virtual `design workbench' used by engineers for rapid tooling and prototyping processes, and performance evaluations of mirror objects. We also present initial evaluations of JMOSS mirrors in mobile environments, where workbench users can continue their PC-based online interactions via handheld devices carried to the shopfloor.