Imagine a teaching lab of the near future when each laboratory instrument is Jini-enabled.

At the beginning of class, students file into class with their laptops and clip into the lab network. Within seconds the laptops identify the various instruments and install the necessary communication drivers.

Instrument Control

If the instruments support remote computer control, the Java control applets are installed automatically on the students' computers. At the end of class, the applet disappears automatically when the computers are disconnected from the laboratory network.

Data Collection

The laptops can then collect data from the instruments for subsequent analysis, the laptops can collect images from the microscopes for inclusion into the final lab report.

Report Submission

Students can submit their completed reports from the previous week's project through a simple file transfer command that moves the documents to the instructor's computer.