United Arab Emirates University

College of Information Technology

Speaking and Writing

ITBP 261

Fall Semester ..................

Improved Digital Multimedia Player

Student Name: ..................

ID Number: ..................

Section ..................

Instructor: ..................

Date: ..................
1. Abstract

The music player has evolved during the last three decades, starting with the

phonograph and passing through the magnetic tape, and CD player and finally the

Digital Multimedia Player. The DMP has many advantages over all the earlier

generations of music player; it’s smaller and can store thousands of files. However, one

of the limitations is that in order to add new tracks to the music library, the user needs to

connect the device to a PC. The proposed solution to this problem is to use

communication technology such as GSM to download legal music directly to the device.

I am so excited about this idea because I always want to add new tracks to my library at

anytime.

Keywords: music player, digital multimedia player, GSM, legal music.

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2. Background

A digital multimedia player (DMP) is a portable device that is capable of organizing,

storing and playing digital media files. Digital multimedia players play digital audio files

of certain types such as MP3, WAVA, or WMA files [1], and in addition they can also

display images, play videos and be used to play games.

In 1979, the earliest digital multimedia player was designed by the Briton Kane Kramer,

but it did not enter commercial production. The first digital multimedia player entering

commercial production was created in South Korea in 1997 by SaeHan Information

Systems, which started to sell its device in the middle of 1998. In October 2001, Apple

Inc. unveiled the first generation of iPod, which is currently the best-selling digital

multimedia player series in history [1], [2].

The digital multimedia player has improved year by year since its first release in 1998.

MPMan F10 was the first digital multimedia player that appeared in the summer of

1998, which was manufactured by Elger Labs. It had only 32MB of storage and a very

basic unit and wasn't user-expandable, but it could be upgraded to 64MB by sending

the unit back to Elger Labs. MPMan F10 also embedded a tiny LCD on the front to give

an indication as to what the user was listening to. MPMan F10 connected to the host PC

via a parallel port to add audio files and ran rechargeable NiMH batteries [2], [4]. In late

1998 Diamond Multimedia released PMP300, boasting a larger display and featuring a

Smart Media slot allowing users to add additional memory. PMP300 was powered by a

single AA battery which provided between 8 and 12 hours of playback time [2]. However

when the iPod was released in 2001, Apple Inc took the digital multimedia player device

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to a new level. The first generation iPod was available with 5 and 10 GB hard drive

featuring a minimalistic user interface and now Apple Inc. have released different

models which have many improvements [5],[6],[7]. In 2007, the iPod Touch was

released, which is the latest model of iPod; a Multi-Touch graphical user interface has

been added to the iPod line and is available with 8, 16, or 32 GB of flash memory, which

is capable of playing audio, displaying images, playing videos, and playing games [8].

However, all the previous digital multimedia players share the same limitation, which is

whenever the user needs to add new file to his device the user has to connect the

device to a parallel port on the host PC from which files could be copied to the player.

Therefore, in order to add new files the user has to carry the USB cable and a PC to

copy the files to the device, but the USB cable or PC may be not available every time

the user wants to add files to the device.

Nowadays, since digital multimedia players are popular, record labels have lost a lot of

money since the users are able to add files to the devices even if these file are legal or

not [9].

The Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) service will solve these problems

by providing access to the internet to download only legal digital files directly to the

devices, whenever and wherever the service is available.

3. Project Description

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The aim of the project is to improve the digital media player device, in which the user

will be able to download legal multimedia files directly to his device without using a USB

cable or a host PC to transfer the file from. This improvement will be achieved by using

the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) service, which provides access to

the Internet where the user will be able to browse, preview, purchase, and download

legal media files.

The user must have an account to access the Global System for Mobile

communications (GSM) service, which is usually provided by a local communication

company for a specified fee, for example Etisalat or Du in the UAE. The device will be

enhanced with a smart card called SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) chip, which holds

customer information and GSM security infrastructure. By turning the SIM into a Web

server the devices can provide security services to the Internet using the Web standard

HTTP protocol [10] The SIM chip will be provided by the local communication company

that provides the GSM service.

Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) technology is based on the

Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) standard, which provides set of

services to mobile computer and phone users, no matter where they are located in the

world. This service allows transmission of text, audio, video, and multimedia at data

rates up to 2 megabits per second (Mbps), which its can used in the potable multimedia

devices in order to transmit the media file directly into the device [11].

Moreover, the special software must be installed in the host device. The software is

graphical interface based which primarily allows the user to establish a connection to

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the Internet through the GSM service. It’s also responsible for managing the logs.

Moreover, the application allows the user to browse the Internet easily in order to

purchase, and download files directly to the device (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Information and media file transmission.

The application allows the user to browse different sites which allow the user to search

for the file she wants. It also enables the user to preview the file before she decides to

purchase it. When the user decides to purchase a certain file the user will be requested

to enter her account information and credit card number to download the file to the

device, which is a process similar to the process that is followed to purchase items from

any e-commerce web-based application. A typical purchase sequence is shown in the

following series (Fig. 2-8).

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 e

gure 2: Enter the username and pass, and check on the login button. Figure 3: Enter the desired URL, and check on Go.

Figure 4: The website will appear on the screen. Figure 5: Browse, search and, preview media files.

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Figure 6: Check on the Buy Button. Figure 7: Enter your username and credit card number.

Figure 8: The file has been downloaded and added to the library.

3.1 Design Phase

The design phase will be divided to two main sub-phases. First, hardware and software

design provides a blueprint and how the hardware equipment will be developed. It also

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will show the conceptual design of the software that will be installed in the device.

Second, developing prototypes will include generating several prototypes to show some

functions of the system or to illustrate how the system will be used or what outputs will

look like.

3.1.1 Hardware and Software Design

In this step the SIM chip (see Figure 9) that is used with the mobile phone will be

upgraded to be used properly on the portable media device. Hardware specialists will

be needed to design the new SIM chip. The new chip requires a program in order to

cooperate with the DMP functionality .Assembly will be the language used to write the

chip’s program because it allows writing control instructions directly to the hardware

equipment and the tool that will be used to write the assembly is the Win32 Assembler

[12]. One of the most important modifications that will be applied to the original SIM chip

design will be the chip’s shape and size. The new chip design will present the chip in a

smaller size and a new shape to fit with the other components of the PMD.

Figure 9: SIM chip used on the mobile phone.

The next step in the design phase will be developing the software application that will be

installed in the device to enable the user download the file to his device. The application

will be GUI-based since the primary functions that are provided by the software are

interface based, which will make the application more friendly and easy to use. Software

engineers and software programmer will be needed to design and develop the

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application code. Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the modeling tool that will be

used to develop the blueprint of the application. The UML will help the software

engineers by offering them different design views. First, the functional requirements

view allows the designer to focus on the functional requirements of the system from the

user's point of view. The static structural view and dynamic behavior view are also

provided by the UML which help the designer to emphasize the static structure of the

software and dynamic behavior of the software [13]. The language that will be used to

develop the application is java, which has capabilities to develop a graphical application.

It also has capabilities to integrate with other applications that are written in other

languages in cooperation with specific middleware tools [14].

3.1.2 Developing Prototypes

There two types of prototypes that are needed to test the final product. First, the new

SIM chip designs will be converted to actual chips in many different sizes and shapes,

in order to find the appropriate final design before starting production of the new SIM

chips.

The second type of the prototypes needed for this project is to develop an application

that simulates the primary functions of the final application in order to test the

application functions on different PMD models to find the possible obstacles. Moreover

a dummy interface will be developed to take feedback from different customer

categories in order to finalize the application interface.

3.2 Implementation Phase

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At this stage the physical design of the system starts. The prototypes that are

developed during the design phase will be used as a base to develop the final product.

After developing different SIM chips during the previous phase the final design will be

selected to move to the production stage. The actual application code will be developed

based on the feedback received from the software prototype and the final interface will

be developed and it will be integrated with the application code to form the application

software that will installed in the DMPs.

However, before actually starting the production several issues should be studied during

these phase, which were not considered during the previous phase. First, security

issues about the communication during the transactions should be studied and suitable

security solutions added or developed to solve such situations. Additionally, the system

architecture must be studied. The application developed for this project is based on

mobile communication; Internet-based architecture will be the most suitable architecture

for this project. Internet-based architecture is recently used in m-commerce [15]. The

model is similar to the client/server model; however, the interface responsibility is

shifted from the client to the server (mostly by providing HTML or XML documents).This

allows for flexibility of connecting any type of client to the system [16].

3.3 Testing Phase

To ensure the quality of the final product, the device should be tested. Testing will be

conducted on both hardware and software. And from the view of different procedures,

the testing comprises R&D Testing, Factory Testing and Certificate Testing. Moreover a

test environment will be built and used to verify and evaluate the new system and make

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necessary modifications to the system which contain copies of all programs, procedures

and documentations [17].

3.3.1 R & D Testing

R & D testing is one of the important testing phases for mobile devices, since the new

product will have many features related to mobile technologies. The testing happens

during the development phase for the mobile devices. It includes testing and software

testing [18].

3.3.2 Hardware Testing

In this step the SIM chip will be tested after it’s embedded into more that one PDM

model. This step is important because different devices may have different components.

The testing will be performed alongside the GMS service that is provided by a real

communication company.

3.3.3 Software Testing

In this the step the compiling and debugging the code of the application should be

performed using that function in Eclipse, in order to rectify the errors before moving to

commercial production. Software testing will be viewed as an important part of the

software quality assurance (SQA) process, where here the specialists and auditors take

a broader view on software and its development. The specialists will be allowed to

examine and change the software engineering process itself to reduce the incidence of

faults that may affect the defect rate [17]. Moreover in the step the project manager

should be provided with information about the quality of the software application,

including what the application is limited to, the process of executing a program or

application with the intent of finding software bugs.

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3.4 Factory Testing

Factory Testing will be performed in the commercial production phase to check on the

new PMD. It's conducted automatically to verify that there are no defects brought about

by the manufacturing process [18].

3.5 Certificate Testing

This kind of testing is performed by many institutes and is also performed by the

government. This testing is important to conform with business specifications and

protocols. It’s also important to make sure the device will be not harmful to users' health.

After this kind of testing finishes, a certificate will be issued to it [18].

3.6 Maintenance

The maintenance phase begins the moment the devices are released. As feedback and

bug reports are received, updates to the code are planned, and the required changes

reflected in the documentation and test documents. The process then flows back into

the Implementation phase followed by the testing phase before the new version of the

code is released. In this phase a website will be developed in order to receive any

feedbacks and problems, and this website provides an updated version of the software

application, which will be freely available to all users. The updated version will patch the

problems received from the users. Moreover a guarantee document will be inside the

packaging. The customer will use that document in case the device doesn’t perform one

or more of the functions. When the user employs that document the device will be sent

back to the company to solve the problem and if the problem can‘t be solved, the device

will be replaced with a new device.

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4. Potential for Practical Application

4.1 Benefits

The potential benefits of this project will be divided into two main categories, primary

and secondary benefits, which may both divided to tangible and intangible benefits:

4.1.1 Primary Benefits

4.1.1.1 Intangible Benefits

The main benefits of improving the DMP by adding the GMS connection capability is the

user will able to access the Internet to download digital files directly to his devices,

whenever and wherever the service is available, which means that the user doesn’t

need to carry a the USB cable with him to add files.

4.1.1.2 Tangible Benefits

In addition, the user doesn’t need a host PC from which files could be copied to the

devices; which means that the user may save the money of buying a PC.

4.1.2 Secondary Benefits

4.1.2.1 Tangible Benefits

Other benefits that will be gained from implementing this project that are important to

other business parties may include the systematic enforcement of the legality of the files

added to the device. Therefore, the record labels will reduce losses incurred by

downloading illegal files. Furthermore, the communication company that requires a

specific fee for providing the GMS service will gain a higher income.

4.2 Market

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Nowadays, the electronics market and media market both are considered some of the

biggest sectors of the international market. Apple Inc. and Sony are international

companies which may be considered as potential business parties, because they could

be interested in adapting this project. In addition the record labels, broadcast market,

and television market also might be interested in this project and might provide

financing to start up the project. Since, these electronics companies are international

companies that distribute their products all around the world in the physical and visual

marketplace, and the GMS service is international service could be provided by any

communication company, therefore the potential market of this project will be

international, which means that any user from any part of the world could benefit for

applying the idea of this project.

4.3 Potential Users

The users to welcome the idea of the project are mostly those ranging in age from 16 –

25 years old, since young people most frequently accept online shopping [19],[20].

Moreover, the same age range usually is interested in buying new media devices. The

users of the project will need basic computer skills to be able to undertake online

shopping and using the DMP. The company that will use the idea of the project will

provide an instruction manual detailing the use of the device and the process of the

online shopping as a part of the business agreement.

4.4 Things necessary to use the product

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The user needs to have a GMS account that can be acquired from the communication

company which will provide the user with a SIM chip that is suited to his device. In

addition, the communication company must provide the service with high bandwidth in

which the files will be downloaded at a reasonable transfer rate between 100 Mbit/s and

1 Gbit/s, which may motivate the communication companies to adopt the newest

communication technology and perhaps they may need to upgrade the connection to a

newer generation of connection, for example using connections G3.5 or G4 [21].

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5. Schedule, Facilities & Equipment, and Budget

5.1 Schedule

The project schedule is a calendar that links the tasks to be done with the resources

that will do them. Before a project schedule can be created, the project manager must

have a work breakdown structure, an effort estimate for each task, and a resource list

with availability for each resource.

Since it is assumed that the writing of this proposal completes the analysis phase, the

project itself begins with the design phase. This requires an understanding of how the

product will operate and the means to achieve this end. This stage also includes

modeling the software, and the hardware necessary to build the whole system, and the

needed prototypes will be built in this phase. Accordingly, we will assign 6 weeks to

complete this phase. The Gantt chart (see Figure 10) shows that the start of the

implementation overlaps with the end of the design phase, demonstrating that, as in any

project, the work is iterative, allowing the developer in the same phase to both progress

and, if necessary, revisit what has been done. The implementation phase consists of

the programming and assembling of parts, and it also includes building the actual SIM

chips. Testing will be conducted alongside the software programming and that is why a

lengthy 8 weeks has been assigned to the implementation phase. In the later stage of

testing, we will monitor how the product works when integrating all parts and see

whether it meets the design requirements. It is expected to take 5 weeks to complete

the overall testing, which also overlaps with the maintenance phase. In this, we will

focus on repairing any errors in the coding, design or implementation, and it is expected

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to last 2 weeks. Consequently, the estimated duration to complete the project is 21

weeks.

Figure 10: Gannt chart showing the projected schedule

5.2 Facilities & Equipment Requirements

To start developing the product, we will need a fully equipped development environment

and testing environment, available from company resources. Each of the computers

available has to have a programming application installed such as Eclipse and Win32

assembler. The software can be downloaded for free from the Internet. In addition, the

computers in the development environment lab must be connected together through a

local network to ease communication between the development team members. Other

hardware requirements include an HTTP server alongside the GMS service that is

provided by a real communication company.

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There will be three teams involved. However, there will be the project manager; who is

also the system analyst of the system. She will have a clear understanding of the

project objectives and will be responsible for achieving its goals on schedule; she

contributes to the construction of the project, as well as supervising issues of budget,

scheduling, and quality-control. She will continuously monitor the progress of the other

members to make sure that they are on track with their deliverables. Moreover, the

project manager also will be reasonable for assigning the tasks to each team as well as

assigning the resources for each task. The Design team includes a hardware specialist

who is also the design team leader, two software engineers, two prototype developers,

two drafters. The Development team includes the software developer; he is also the

development team leader, a graphic designer and three technicians. The third team will

be the Quality Assurance Team (QAT) which includes a senior consultant and two

support consultants who are reasonable to implement a consistent and repeatable

approach for quality assurance review of technology projects within budget. The Quality

Assurance Team’s main goal is to deliver a quality solution based on the schedule,

budget, and scope commitments as stated by the leadership (see Figure 11).

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 Figure 11: The Organizational Chart

5.3 Budget

Duratio
Cost per Total
n
week (AED) (AED)
(weeks)
Facilities
Co. developmental lab 21 2,000 42,000
Subtotal 42,000
Personnel
Project Manager 21 10,000 210,000
Hardware Specialist 21 6,500 136,500
Software Engineers 21 2x5,000 210,000
Prototype Developers 8 2x5,000 80,000
Drafters 8 2x3000 48,000
Software Developer 15 6,500 97500
Technician 13 3x1500 58500
Graphic Designer 4 3000 12,000
Senior Consultant 21 6,500 136,500
Support Consultants 21 2x4000 168,000
Subtotal 1,157,000

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 Applications
Eclipse 0
Win32 assembler 0
Others
Tools 7,000
Materials 20,500
Contingency budget 100,000
Subtotal 127,500
Total 1,326,500

Table 1: The projected budget

Table 1 above outlines the projected costs. Since the project will use the company

developmental lab, no rental is necessary except for the fee that will be paid to Etisalat

for providing the GSM service in the development environment. The applications will not

cost anything as the programs can be installed for free. As for the personnel, the

project manager will earn AED 10,000 a week, which means AED 210000 in total. The

hardware specialist will be needed throughout and will earn AED 136500 in total. There

are two software engineers will be needed throughout and will earn AED 20,000 in total.

Moreover, the two prototype developers will each earn AED 5,000 a week for the eight

weeks required. The drafters will each earn AED 3000 a week for the eight weeks

required. The software developer will earn AED 6,500 a week for the fifteen weeks

required. The technicians or ‘gofers’ will each earn AED 1,500 a week for the thirteen

weeks required. The graphic designer will earn AED 3,000 a week for the four weeks

required. In addition, the senior consultant will be needed throughout and will earn AED

136,500 in total, while the Support Consultants who are also needed throughout will

each earn AED 16,000 in total. Tools such as the SIM chip designing equipment will

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require AED 7,000 and materials including the HTTP server will cost AED 20,500.

Finally, a contingency fund is included to cover any unforeseen expenses that may

occur during the project and represents approximately 10% of the total budget. If the

money is not needed, it will be returned. The estimated total for the whole project is thus

AED 1,326,500.

6. Conclusion

The next generation of DMP is coming sooner or later, and this project paper might help

give birth to that new generation. The new generation of DMP will fix the limitations that

occur in current models, so that the users no longer need other tools to add file to their

devices. The DMP is designed to be portable and with the technology of GMS all the

services that are related to the DMP will be available online in the wireless connection.

This paper presents how the idea can be implemented by using existing technology

which already supports mobile devices, and applying some modifications and adding

other services. The idea is easily implemented and offers guaranteed success. The

DMP market is relatively new and all DMP manufacturers are sure to compete to have

the biggest share of the market, and this project is the winning card to triumph in this

competition.

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7. References

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_player October 17, 2008.
[2] T. Smith. (2008, March). Ten years old: the world's first MP3 player. Available:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/10/ft_first_mp3_player/ October 17, 2008.
[3] Eiger labs mpman f10. (No date). Available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiger_Labs_MPMan_F10 October 17, 2008.
[4] E. Buskirk. (January 21, 2005). Introducing the world's first MP3 player.
Available: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5622055-1.html October 17,
2008.
[5] R. Menta. Collecting MP3 Portables (September 2004). Available:
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[6] iPod. (No date). Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod October 19, 2008.

[7] iPod history: iPod First Generation. (No date). Available:

http://www.ipodhistory.com/ipod-first-generation/ October 19, 2008.

[8] iPod Touch. (No date). Available: http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/ October 17,

2008.
[9] Record labels count cost of music piracy (20 April 2005). Available:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/apr/20/digitalmedia.citynews October 22,
2008.
[10] S. Guthery, R. Kehr & J. Posegga, “How to Turn a GSM SIM into a Web Server’’,
19 May 1999.
[11] UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. (No date). Available:
http://www.networkdictionary.com/wireless/umts.php November 10, 2008.
[12] V. Beiu. ITBP 300. Class lecture “MIPS Assembly Making Decisions." College of
Information Technology, University of United Arab Emirates, Al Ain, September
16, 2008.
[13] D. Budgen, Software Design. New York: Pearson Addison Wesley, 2002.

[14] J. Al-Jaroodi, ECBP325. “Distributed Objects.’’College of Information

Technology, University of United Arab Emirates, Al Ain, February 16, 2008.

[15] N. M. Sadeh,” An Introduction to Mobile, Wireless and Pervasive Services and

Applications‘’. Carnegie Mellon University & Vrije University, Amsterdam, The

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 Netherlands, April 21-22 2004. [Online]. Available:
http://www.siks.nl/txt/mobile5.txt December 21, 2008.

[16] J. Al-Jaroodi, (personal communication), April 24, 2008.

[17] J. Al-Jaroodi, ECBP 420. Class lecture “Systems Implementation." College of

Information Technology, University of United Arab Emirates, Al Ain, May 3, 2008.
[18] Mobile Device Testing. (No date). Available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Device_Testing November 10, 2008.
[19] 29% of iPod owners have downloaded a Podcast. (April 3, 2005). Available:
http://www.podcastalley.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-121340.html November
29, 2008.
[20] T. Wilson IT Security's Next Big Threat: Young People. (November 19, 2008).
Available:http://www.darkreading.com/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?
articleID=212100952 November 29, 2008.
[21] GMS. (No date). Available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3.5G#Wireless_System_Evolution November 25,
2008.

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