The VITI program: Final Report

In this report we present our findings and results from the VITI program in 2000. The focus of the research work undertaken by VITI has been to provide electronic meeting environments that are easy to use and afford as natural a collaboration experience as possible. This final report is structured into three parts. Part one concerns the VITI infrastructure and consists of two sections. The first section describes the process of establishing the infrastructure, concentrating on how the work was done. The second section presents the actual infrastructure that is in place today, concentrating on what has been put in place. Part two examines the use the VITI infrastructure has been put to, giving examples of activities it has supported and discussing strengths and weaknesses that have emerged through this use. Finally part three considers the future of distributed electronic meeting environments. It is recommended that the report be read in the order in which it is presented. However, each section has been written as a standalone document and can be read independently of the others

University of Maine Connection to the vBNS

This award is made under the high performance connections portion of ANIR\u27s Connections to the Internet announcement, NSF 96-64. It provides partial support for two years for a DS-3 connection to the vBNS. Applications include projects in artificial intelligence and underwater vehicle research, wood science anf forest engineering, tribology, ceramic film characterization, insect population dynamics, digital libraries, conflict and violence, and oceanography. Collaborating institutions include the Naval Postgraduate School; Pennsylvania State University; University of New Hampshire; Brookhaven, Argonne and Oak Ridge National Labs; Naval Research Lab; University of Illinois; Naval Undersea Weapons Center; University of California - Santa Barbara; Woods Hole; Dartmouth; Bedford Institute of Oceanography; several European institutions; Oregon State University; University of Rhode Island; and Goddard Space Flight Center. For additional information: http://homeland.maine.edu

Commonwealth Times 1997-09-17

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/com/2035/thumbnail.jp

ACUTA Journal of Telecommunications in Higher Education

In This Issue Classroom Technology: Practical Approaches Synchronous Blended Learning Using Videoconferencing over lP Planning for Classroom Audiovisual Technologies Optimization Tools lmprove Bandwidth Bottom Line New Technologies Redefine the Classroom WiMax Facing the WMAN Challenge Mobility and the New Student lntegrating lnstructional and Network Technologies for Distance Education lnstitutional Excellence Award Honorable Mention Interview President\u27s Message From the Executive Director Here\u27s My Advic

ACUTA Journal of Telecommunications in Higher Education

In This Issue Discovering Hidden Revenue Sources in Ancillary Telecom Services How Videoconferencing Helps Universities Serve New Markets Show Me the Money- Entrepreneurs on Campus IT and Return on Investment Implementing IP Telephony Rate Development/Cost Modeling at UT Speech-Dialing the Right Campus Connection lnstitutional Excellence Award: College of St. Elizabeth President\u27s Message From the Executive Director Jake B. Schrum, PhD Internetworking Multimedi

A MODEL FOR PREDICTING THE PERFORMANCE OF IP VIDEOCONFERENCING

With the incorporation of free desktop videoconferencing (DVC) software on the majority of the world's PCs, over the recent years, there has, inevitably, been considerable interest in using DVC over the Internet. The growing popularity of DVC increases the need for multimedia quality assessment. However, the task of predicting the perceived multimedia quality over the Internet Protocol (IP) networks is complicated by the fact that the audio and video streams are susceptible to unique impairments due to the unpredictable nature of IP networks, different types of task scenarios, different levels of complexity, and other related factors. To date, a standard consensus to define the IP media Quality of Service (QoS) has yet to be implemented. The thesis addresses this problem by investigating a new approach to assess the quality of audio, video, and audiovisual overall as perceived in low cost DVC systems. The main aim of the thesis is to investigate current methods used to assess the perceived IP media quality, and then propose a model which will predict the quality of audiovisual experience from prevailing network parameters. This thesis investigates the effects of various traffic conditions, such as, packet loss, jitter, and delay and other factors that may influence end user acceptance, when low cost DVC is used over the Internet. It also investigates the interaction effects between the audio and video media, and the issues involving the lip sychronisation error. The thesis provides the empirical evidence that the subjective mean opinion score (MOS) of the perceived multimedia quality is unaffected by lip synchronisation error in low cost DVC systems. The data-gathering approach that is advocated in this thesis involves both field and laboratory trials to enable the comparisons of results between classroom-based experiments and real-world environments to be made, and to provide actual real-world confirmation of the bench tests. The subjective test method was employed since it has been proven to be more robust and suitable for the research studies, as compared to objective testing techniques. The MOS results, and the number of observations obtained, have enabled a set of criteria to be established that can be used to determine the acceptable QoS for given network conditions and task scenarios. Based upon these comprehensive findings, the final contribution of the thesis is the proposal of a new adaptive architecture method that is intended to enable the performance of IP based DVC of a particular session to be predicted for a given network condition

DEVELOPMENT OF VIDEO CONFERENCE USING JMF

Video Conferencing is well-planned to offer high quality ofreal time video and audio transmission. Video Conferencing has added extra flavors to students and lecturers interaction inUTP by having stable communication channel via real time video. Live feed from the media file and captured video can bebroadcasted through the thousand ofuniversity's population innetwork by concentrating in reserving the quality ofthe video while at the same time reducing the cost of bandwidth. It's always great compromise in maintaining the quality ofvideo with the cost bandwidth. Here it goes the need of good compression technique as compression will cause the data to lose some of the information and degrade the quality. The tolerable degradation is always at the author's spotlight. The student has undergone 3 significant phases of system development which are Analysis, Design, and Coding. The critical function ofJava Video Conferencing has been successfully implemented. Open the media file, capture the real time video, transmit the file, transmit the real time captured video, open the file in another computer, broadcast to the network attached computers and view the real time broadcasted video in the network attached computers. Communicating in text mode is an added feature in the Video Conferencing. This Video Conferencing has a room for improvement in achieving the best interaction mode in Information Communication Award. Video Conferencing is seen to have a bright future in realizing the need of Virtual Learning in UTP