Abstract * Foil Index for this file
Given by Roman Markowski and Geoffrey Fox at HPDC95 Tutorial Pentagon City on August 1 1995. Foils prepared July 28,1995
Abstract * Foil Index for this file
| This module describes desktop collaboration with a comparison of some of the existing tools including |
| Communique! (Insoft) and the toolkit DVE (Digital Video Everywhere) |
| InPerson (SGI) |
| Proshare (Intel) |
| MBONE -- Internet standard |
| MOO environment |
| We also discuss standards (there are dozens of incompatible systems) and audio/video compression |
This table of Contents
Abstract
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| Roman Markowski |
| NPAC |
| 111 College Place |
| Syracuse |
| NY 13244-4100 |
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| This module describes desktop collaboration with a comparison of some of the existing tools including |
| Communique! (Insoft) and the toolkit DVE (Digital Video Everywhere) |
| InPerson (SGI) |
| Proshare (Intel) |
| MBONE -- Internet standard |
| MOO environment |
| We also discuss standards (there are dozens of incompatible systems) and audio/video compression |
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| Nowadays business is conducted on a long-distance basis |
| Telephone, fax and e-mail do not give a face-to-face contact |
| NY - San Francisco roundtrip travel -- $1500 |
| Intel ProShare setup -- $6000 |
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Each work situation has its own set of tools and social conventions. Collaborative environment must be adaptable for use in each of these situations
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| Create customized collaborative environment (user interface) with the appropriate access and membership polices |
| Add collaborative features to specialized applications |
| Incorporate distributed multimedia functions |
| Exploit the latest state-of-the-art audio, video and network technologies |
| Develop products to run over cross-platform and multiple network technologies |
| Enable open collaborative applications (sharing documents, images) |
| Set of separate modules (audio, video, whiteboard,...) |
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| Real-time audio and video and capture, display and synchronization |
| Audio and video compression and decompression |
| Audio and video network data stream management |
Tools Provided to User in Typical System
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| Audio Conferencing allows everyone in the conference to talk to each other |
| Hardware requirements: Microphone, speaker or headphones |
Control Panel Functionality
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Allows one to incorporate and distribute notes and text to the conference members
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Shared Write Board
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| Allow one to capture and send still images to other conference participants |
| The incoming graphics can be saved, windowed, deleted. |
| Useful for displaying charts, graphs and images |
| Snapshot from a given screen can be sent to other members of collaboratory |
| Previously stored images can be loaded and sent via Graphics Tool |
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| A virtual drawing board shared by all members of the conference |
| Allow users to simultaneously markup and edit a virtual whiteboard |
| Whiteboard is automatically shared with the other participants |
| The contents (entire or selected region) of the Whiteboard can be saved, printed and "cleaned". |
Functionality
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| Used to access video and create images from any source including analog or digital camera and VCR. |
| Usually requires a video capture board |
| (we use for TV Tool and Video to Image Tool (under Communique!) the Parallax board on SUN for video capture and JPEG compression) |
| Image size should be controllable |
| A single frame should be selectable from video and treated by Whiteboard or Graphics tools |
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| Video can be sent from any source (including camcorder monitoring participants at one site) to other conference participants |
| Requires video camera and/or VCR and video capture board |
Control Panel
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| Allow one to send files to selected conference participants |
| Allow one to receive files from the other participants |
| Files can be saved or deleted |
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| Allow conference members to share an application window and application acts as though it is running locally |
| All members can simultaneously participate in editing a CAD drawing or making changes to a spreadsheet |
| No limitation of significance in shared application type |
| Sharing applications that do not open their own window (e.g. C Compiler) requires a terminal application (xterm) |
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UNIX platform
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MBONE software
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IBM PC platform
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MacIntosh
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MPEG - Motion Picture Experts Group; lossy algorithm;
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H.261 - similar but not compatible with MPEG; videocodec for audiovisual services at px64 Kbps (p=1..30);
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CellB - lossy algorithm, intra-frame compression; very efficient to decode in software;
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Indeo - Intel lossy compression;
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| InSoft DVE 1- intraframe algorithm; InSoft's proprietary; very efficient to decode quickly in software; VideoPix or RasterOP cards |
Motion JPEG - higher quality than CellB;
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| Other: HDCC, H.221, H.242, QuickTime, Cinepak, TrueMotion-S |
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| PCM - Pulse Code Modulation |
| ADPCM - Adaptive Differential PCM |
| G.711 - PCM for voice frequencies; 64 Kbps, 8KHz PCM audio encoding |
| G.721 - 32 Kbps, ADPCM audio encoding |
| G.722 - 7 KHz audio encoding with 64 Kbps |
| Other: a-law, G.725 |
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| Today's videoconferencing systems are proprietary, requiring identical technology at each end of conference |
| Videoconferencing solutions are tied to one platform, special hardware or special network protocols |
Some multivendor standards exist
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| Open architecture |
| API and Toolkit - programming interface to create distributed multimedia and collaborative applications |
| Open DVE API (LibraryAPI) - ability to write a single application without concern to the underlying workstation or network technology |
| Open DVE Toolkit - common set of plug-ins: audio toolkit, video toolkit, TV toolkit, whiteboard, writeboard, share application tool |
| Conference Engine and plug-ins (clients) |
| Creation of modified and new collaborative applications |
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Multiplatform
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| Digital Video Everywhere (DVE) - open system platform |
| TCP/IP over ATM, ethernet, FDDI, FR, ISDN, SMDS, Switched 56 |
Functionality
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| multipoint |
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| SGI Indy/Indigo; IRIX 5.3, GIA 100 |
| Multicast routing and tunneling for multiway conferences |
| License required |
| Ethernet, ATM; ISDN/PPP, T1, HighSpeed LAN |
Functionality
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| NPAC implementation on Compaq Deskpro XL 566 (Pentium 66MHz, 16 MB RAM, 529 megabytes HDD, video resolution 800x600, EISA bus, CD ROM), MS Windows 3.1 |
| Transport ISDN 2B+D or LAN |
Functionality
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| Only point-to-point |
| Control panels (general, audio, video, dial list) |
| H.320 compliant (talks to Eclipse CLI, VTEL, etc) |
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| Virtual network - uses a network of special (up and coming) routers that support multicast |
| One-to-many and many-to-many network delivery services for applications such as videoconferencing and audio where several hosts need to communicate simultaneously |
| Teleconferencing can be done in the world of Internet (variable packet delivery delays, bandwidth limited) |
| IP multicast addressing (RFC 1112), IP Class D, 224.0.0.0-239.255.255.255 |
| Sun - multicast (modified kernel), SGI mrouted, dedicated routers |
| Audio -frequent dropouts |
| Video - 1-4 fps over Internet |
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Application tools (Sun, SGI, HP, DEC)
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| Bandwidth capacities lower than T1 are generally unsuitable for MBONE video |
| All Public Domain! |
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| ftp://venera.isi.edu/mbone/faq.txt |
| ftp://parcftp.xerox.com/pub/ |
| net-research/mbone-map-big.ps |
| http://www.research.att.com/ |
| mbone-faq.html |
| http://www.eit.com/techinfo/ |
| mbone/mbone.html |
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| MOO's stand for Object Oriented MUD's where |
| MUD stands for Multi-User Dungeons or if one is trying to be high class Multi-User Dimensions |
| These are "virtual-reality" or more precisely "virtual-community" systems |
The goal is to set up a computer environment which resembles more or less faithfully the real world.
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| MOO's are a modern object oriented implementation of the older MUD's and are developed at XEROX PARC in Palo Alto |
| These notes are from Lonnie Turbee (lmturbee@mailbox.syr.edu) |
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| A MOO "...is a network-accessible, multi-user, programmable, interactive system well-suited to the construction of text-based adventure games, conferencing systems, and other collaborative software. Its most common use, however, is as a multi-participant, low-bandwidth virtual reality..." - excerpted from the _LambdaMOO Programmer's Manual_, version 1.7.6, written by Pavel Curtis. |
| MOO's are like Dungeons and Dragons or Computer role playing games such as Zork series |
| Rather perversely, they use a fundamental spatial model but are entirely (but elegantly) text based |
Many -- such as Argonne -- are researching addition of visual material with animation of people and environment.
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| MOOs are composed of three types of elements: People, places, and things. Because one of the goals of a MOO is to resemble (within the limitations of the medium) reality, MOOs have many of the things that one would see in everyday life: cars and houses, people and refrigerators, pets and so forth. The people who inhabit MOOs attempt to add as much detail to the MOO as possible. This means adding details as simple as making a character able to smile or as complex as establishing a democratic system by which the MOO is governed (such as the one that exists at LambdaMOO). |
| FTP from parcftp.xerox.com as pub/MOO/contrib/TinyMUD will compare MUD's and MOO's |
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| Current Computer games are largely single-user and have reasonable graphics |
| MOO is Multi-User but no graphics |
SIMNET and its successor DSI(Distributed Simulation Internet) is an example where large scale multi-user simulation is linked to real hardware and real people making decisions
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This requires complex event driven simulations which are some of hardest parallel applications
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| This will become the commercial multi-user games where for instance all F16 game owners dial a central site and fight it out in the same simulated 3D world |