| 2003 |
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YEAR BOOK |
St Finian's College, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
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The graphical, technological and user-friendly advancement of the internet browser: XWEBS
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In looking at the graphical side of things, I created a completely new introduction menu, featuring an AI (Artificial Intelligence) animated speech character named Phoebe who, besides remembering users names, favourite websites and reminder-notes, interacted with them during their time online.
Other Internet Browsers seemed to lack many features which the common user would find essential, which is why I wrote these features into the program. These included language translation tools, download time calculators, internet phones, advanced web page saving features, as well as a fast search feature which allowed users to access over 120 categorised search engines at the same time.
Looking at the technological aspects of the Web Browser, I sought to increase the speed of internet access on the user's computer to provide them with a faster internet service. I succeeded in doing so, using a combination of new data management techniques and multiple-data-request features, raising the speed of the modem line by up to 500% faster than normal speeds. Other new features introduced in XWEBS were a web page preview facility, which allowed users to get previews of websites before exploring them.
In looking at the 'user friendly' aspect of the Browser, I wanted to introduce features that would make surfing the net more enjoyable. This is why I added sidebars featuring the most widely used media players (allowing users to watch or listen to any type of web media whilst still browsing), built in e-mail features (allowing users to send e-mails without needing to log-in to an account), SMS features, as well as a completely skinable software interface (meaning users could change what the software looked like to whatever they wished). I also included a unique feature which allowed Phoebe to read out web pages and e-mail messages as well as custom text (I found this would be beneficial for the blind). Last, but not least, I saw that other Web Browsers didn't cater for popular new technologies such as DVD, which is why I added the World's first ever, fully featured DVD playing sidebar in XWEBS. This meant that users could watch and control full DVD movies, and surf at the same time in the same window.
XWEBS succeeded in being recognized as a program that both the public and the corporate world would find extremely beneficial.
Adnan Osmani entered his project in the Senior Individual Section in the Technology Category at the Esat BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in January 2003. He won the top prize - Young Scientist of the Year.
His teacher was Ms Enda Feeney.
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