The Physical Markup Language A Universal Language for Physical Objects

The Physical Markup Language (PML) is intended to be a common “language” for describing physical objects, processes and environments. Much as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) has standardized the way in which information is presented on the Internet, PML is designed to standardize descriptions of physical objects for use by both humans and machines. The primary objective of PML is to serve as a common base for software applications, data storage and analytic tools for industry and commerce. This paper presents some fundamental issues in the design of the language, as well as assumptions underlying its development and implementation.