Mowser - A Web Browser for Mobile Platforms

In addition to network bandwidth limitations, mobile hosts also have relatively less resources than their static counterparts. These include smaller screen resolution and color capability, and limited or no sound capability. A smart Web browser that is aware of these limitations will be able to better use its limited bandwidth while browsing the World Wide Web.

Some features of Mowser which make it better suited for browsing from a mobile host:

Smart Image downloading

Awareness of the mobile host's color capabilities and screen resolution allows Mowser to download only small images, that can be viewed easily. It will also automatically crop, scale and dither arbitrary images to a form appropriate for the users platform. The transformed image is associated with a link which will allow the user to get the actual image if s/he so desires.

Smart Sound File downloading

Once the mobile host's sound capabilities are known, Mowser will only download sound files that can be played on the mobile host.

File size Limiting

Depending on the network connectivity available, the user can specify file size limits for the different types of files that may be downloaded. Mowser can then avoid lengthy file transfers to the mobile host. Assuming that the underlying network is capable of providing a Quality of Service measure of the available bandwidth, this specification can also be given in terms of the maximum amount of time that should be allocated for a download.

Initial work on Mowser was done as a research project by Greg Bernhardt, Sean McDermott, and Bun Tan, under the supervision of Prof. Anupam Joshi.