Showing papers by "Ronald M. Baecker published in 2004"

Participatory design with individuals who have amnesia

Abstract: We present experiences and insights into participatory design with individuals who have anterograde amnesia and therefore have extreme difficulty storing new memories. We discuss our design of the design process, and present a set of techniques used to support memory during and between design sessions. From this experience, we identify cognitive assumptions of participatory design that break down when working with amnestics. We generalize these ideas into an analytical framework for researchers and practitioners who intend to use participatory design with persons having various kinds of cognitive impairments. We illustrate the framework by analyzing a cognitive deficit unrelated to memory that we encountered, and an unanticipated benefit from what at first appeared to be a liability in working with this design team.

The ePresence Interactive Webcasting and Archiving System: Technology Overview and Current Research Issues

Abstract: In contrast to video conferencing, webcasting supports scaleable Internet visual communications, yet it is typically viewed as an ephemeral one-way broadcast medium. We have developed a system design to support interactive webcasts that are accessible in real-time by remote viewers and retrospectively by archive viewers who can browse and search for what they want to see. ePresence is an open source system implemented using .NET technology that currently works with Windows and Linux servers and supports a wide variety of machines, operating systems, browsers, media engines, and bandwidths. We discuss current features of ePresence, its architecture and implementation, research intended to provide new capabilities, and the motivation for an open source release. Further details about the system’s functionality, interface, and applications may be found in the companion paper “ePresence: An Open Source Interactive Webcasting and Archiving System for eLearning” by Rankin, Baecker, and Wolf. The ePresence System ePresence is an integrated hardware and software webcasting and event archiving system. To facilitate scaleable communications and knowledge sharing at a distance, we are engaged in research to make Internet visual communications: • engaging, delivering rich media • interactive • accessible in real-time and via archives • useful for knowledge building and sharing. The result has been a viable and innovative webcasting infrastructure called ePresence (Baecker, 2002; Baecker, 2003; Baecker, et al., 2003). ePresence currently includes support for: • video, audio, slide, and live computer desktop demos • slide review • moderated chat, private messages, and the submission of questions; and • the automated creation of structured, navigable, searchable event archives. ePresence also allows configurable live and archive interfaces through tailorable “skins”. Video, audio, slides, and computer desktops are automatically synchronized by the system. The “remote desktop” capability supports transmission of live 600X800 screen capture streams of live software demos and “Web tours” from the presenter’s computer. Web links can also be sent by the speaker and synchronized with the video. Slide controls allow a remote viewer to review any slide already presented by the speaker. The chat system supports public chat, private messages, and questions to the speaker. The archives interface allows retrospective navigation and browsing through a webcast using an outline of the logical structure of the talk and its slides and live demo sessions. Two levels of structure information are supported — chapters (sections of a talk) and slides. Slide titles are picked up automatically from Powerpoint in case it is used; chapter titles are input by the moderator during the talk and can if need be updated afterwards. Archive viewers can also navigate using a timeline. Additionally, we allow searching based on key words that appear in Powerpoint slides. ePresence has been developed with full attention to valuable prior research described in Brotherton and Abowd (2004), Cadiz, et al. (2000), Hurst, et al. (2001), Isaacs, Mooris, and Rodriguez (1994), Jancke, Grudin, and Gupta (2000), Rowe, et al. (2001), Scott and Eisenstadt (1998), and Wactlar, et al. (1999). A more complete literature review appears in Baecker (2003). More detail about the system capabilities, interface, style of usage, and applications may be found in the companion paper Rankin, Baecker, and Wolf (2004). System Architecture and Implementation The system is implemented using .NET. The server software runs under Windows or Linux. Webcast can be viewed on client personal computers running the Linux, Windows 98/2000/2003/XP, and Mac 9.x or OS/X operating systems, and the Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla, Opera and Safari 1.2 browsers, and using either Real Media or Windows Media live streaming. Archives may be produced in Real Media, Windows Media, and MPEG4 formats. The architecture of our highly modular system may be portrayed as in Figures 1 and 2. The reader may find the following explanation of what all the modules do and how they fit together more understandable if she also refers to the discussion of features and interfaces that appears in the companion paper Rankin, Baecker, and Wolf (2004). Figure 1: Current ePresence system architecture for live webcast Interactive Webcasting (Live) An ePresence live webcast is created by a speaker, an operator, and a moderator. These can be different individuals or the same person depending upon the scale of the event. The ePresence Mobile Station (4) includes several live media encoding and capturing software applications (e.g., Windows or Real Media) controlled by the operator (3) or speaker (7) via a single unified remote control interface. The remote control interface has been developed for different internet-connected devices (Laptops, tablet Pcs, and PDAs). The transport protocol used for remote control is an XML Remote Procedure Call mechanism called SOAP (Simple Object Accessing Protocol, http://www.w3.org/TR/soap/) (12). The operator can perform the following operations remotely: initiate live broadcast, start or stop archiving session, control slides transmission, submit URLs, and initiate multiple live software demo sessions. The speaker may give a talk to a local audience or remotely via a video telephone or videoconferencing (1). This allows us to webcast a meeting that is being held via videoconference. Web-based slide controlling and projecting (7) software allows having multiple distributed audiences listening and following the slide presentation in real time. The moderator interface (10) supports a local moderator who is watching the webcast, sending public announcements to a web audience, and submitting notes (chapter titles) to the archiving application. The moderator works as a communication “bridge” between the speaker and web audience transferring questions and comments on behalf of remote participants. An ePresence webcast is typically viewed by both a local audience (2) and a live web audience (6). The web audience receives video and audio (13) of the speaker(s) from the streaming servers (5), a synchronized slide presentation stream (18) or a screen capture stream (14) from the presenter’s computer, and web URLs (15). Remote viewers can also submit questions to the speaker (directly or via the moderator), have public or private text based dialogs (16), and review the slides that have been already presented. The presentation tier (9) is implemented as a set of web-based applications running on the .NET framework and several database engines (11). The server application has been recently ported from Windows to the Linux platform, and now supports Apache and MySQL software as a backend. The live interface (9) has been developed as a set of templates (“UI skins”) that support different layouts, media formats, video resolutions and other features. The operator can choose the most suitable template depending on the content of the talk. Adopters of the ePresence system can easily develop their own skins using XML, HTML, and several scripting technologies. Figure 2: Producing an archive of an ePresence webcast Archiving and Publishing a Webcast The webcast data (4) such as video (1), slides (3) and event streams (2) is automatically captured during the live webcast. The events stream data includes time stamp information of slides and chapters submitted during the live webcast. Event streams can be updated (5) after the webcast using the ePresence Producer application (12). The operator can add additional keywords to enhance search, update slide synchronization data, edit chapter and slide titles, and replay the event with all synchronized materials before publishing the archive. The ePresence Producer software also allows encoding the captured video in different popular streaming formats (6), automatic uploading to a streaming server (7), automatic creation and publishing of web archives (8), and production of multimedia CDs (9). The software provides a selection of archive templates. The templates mechanism is based on XML/XSLT technology (http://www.w3.org/XML/, http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt). The published archive becomes automatically available on the ePresence website (10). It includes video player, slide frame, interactive timeline component, search tool, interactive table of contents, and threaded discussion board. Every archive exposes its keywords through the XML web services. This makes it easy to integrate the archives into different document repositories, “learning object” banks, and other searchable data storage systems.

ePresence: An Open Source Interactive Webcasting and Archiving System for eLearning

Abstract: ePresence is a system for interactive webcasts that are accessible in real-time by remote viewers and retrospectively by archive viewers who can browse and search for what they want to see. It is an open source system implemented using .NET technology that currently works with Windows and Linux servers and supports a wide variety of machines, operating systems, browsers, media engines, and bandwidths. We discuss current system features and projects for eLearning, eHealth, and corporate communications and training. Emphasis is placed on demonstrating the interface and capabilities, on presenting and explaining selected client work, and on discussing the advantages of open source for eLearning. Further details about the system architecture and implementation, and about research intended to develop new capabilities, appears in the companion paper “The ePresence Interactive Webcasting and Archiving System: Technology Overview and Current Research Issues” by Baecker, Wolf and Rankin. The ePresence System ePresence is an integrated hardware and software webcasting and event archiving system. To facilitate scaleable communications and knowledge sharing at a distance, we are engaged in research to make Internet visual communications: • engaging, delivering rich media • interactive • accessible in real-time and via archives • useful for knowledge building and sharing. The result has been a viable and innovative webcasting infrastructure called ePresence (Baecker, 2002; Baecker, 2003; Baecker, et al., 2003). ePresence currently includes support for: • video, audio, slide, and live desktop demos; • slide review; • moderated chat, private messages, and the submission of questions; and • the automated creation of structured, navigable, searchable event archives. ePresence also allows configurable live and archive interfaces through tailorable “skins”. The media capturing and streaming engines run under Windows or Linux; client viewers exist for the IBM PC, the Macintosh, and Linux workstations. Media may be transmitted using Windows Media, Real Media, and MPEG4. The software is highly modular, and is soon to be released open source. More detail about the system architecture and implementation and current research directions may be found in the companion paper Baecker, Wolf, and Rankin (2004). User Interface – Live Webcasts ePresence allows remote viewers to watch live video streamed over the Internet, synchronized with presentation media or live demos. The current live webcast interface is illustrated in Figure 1. The video window and its controls are in the upper left; the slide window and its controls are on the right; the chat system is at the bottom. Slide controls allow a remote viewer to review slides previously presented by the speaker. The chat system supports public chat, private messages, and questions to the speaker. Requirements for remote viewers are kept to a minimum. Internet access can be at speed as lows as 56K, although higher-speed is preferable. Viewers may have a PC or a Macintosh; QuickTime, Real Media or Windows media players; and any browser. For first time users there is a registration and system check procedure to ensure technology compatibility in advance. Figure 1. A screen shot from a live webcast User Interface – Archives Archiving is an essential component of the ePresence system. It provides viewers with the opportunity to revisit an event previously attended, or view an event they may have missed. Viewers can watch an entire archive or just review a segment using the search and navigation features. The archive interface includes a structured table of contents of the event (Figure 2a, left side and close up Figure 2b). The table of contents is a navigable, two-level hierarchical list and includes slides, desktop demos and other media presented by the speaker. Archive viewers can also navigate by a timeline (Figure 2, bottom). The top level of the structure is represented as a “Chapter,” and the second level is represented as a “Slide.” In the table of contents “Chapters” appear as the darker coloured font and “Slides” appear as the lighter coloured font. The two colour hierarchical structure is also represented in the timeline. When you cursor over the timeline the Chapter and Slide titles appear automatically. The marks along the timeline indicate where each occurs during the presentation. Chapter titles can be input by a moderator during the talk or afterwards using ePresence Producer (Figure 6). Slide titles are generated automatically from Powerpoint in cases where it is used; they too can be input or edited using ePresence Producer. Archive viewers can search within a particular archive or across a repository of archives based on key words in the slides when Powerpoint is used. For particular archive searches the results appear as long vertical blue lines along the timeline (Figure 3). Results for a global search of an archive repository appear as a list, indicating all of the archives where the search word appears. Figure 2b. Close-up of table of contents Figure 2a. A screen shot from the archive interface Figure 3. A screen shot of search results as they appear on the timeline Webcasting a Live Event Equipment required to webcast a live event is standard off-the-shelf computer hardware and audio/visual equipment (Figure 4 shows the equipment for a medium-scale webcast, with the video camera not shown). Live events can range from small-scale single camera, single microphone, single stream productions to large-scale multi-camera, multi-microphone, multiple stream events. ePresence supports multiple encoders (Figure 4, bottom) enabling one or many real-time streams to run in parallel with a set of web services that collects event stream information and saves it as an XML file. The live event software has many other features. It not only allows for remote audience participation, but also supports remote speaker participation. The remote speaker can deliver a presentation from her location using a webcam, videoconference unit or a telephone. She controls her presentation for both local and remote audiences through the Remote Slide control software (Figure 5). Another feature of the Live Webcasting software is the Live Demo module. Designed to enhance corporate training and customer service capabilities, the Live Demo software allows speakers to deliver live software demonstrations or Web tours over the Internet. It requires the module to be installed onto the presentation laptop. Figure 4. The ePresence production cart for medium-scale webcasts Figure 5. Screenshot of remote slide interface Producing the Archives After the event the XML file is used to produce the event archive using the innovative postproduction module, ePresence Producer (Figure 6). Designed to simplify postproduction, ePresence Producer allows you to: • Reproduce your event, and all associated materials, such as video, audio, slides and live demos • Resynchronize event slides • Make corrections to chapter and slide titles in the table of contents • Choose from a selection of archive templates • Encode captured video into multiple streaming formats • Export the archive to the web or to CD (Figure 7). Figure 6. A screen shot of the ePresence Producer interface Figure 7. A screen shot of the ePresence Exporter interface ePresence Client Projects ePresence has already been used for a wide variety of events, for example, the Knowledge Media Design Institute’s 3-day international conference entitled “Open Source and Free Software: Concepts, Controversies, and Solutions,” (see: http://opensourcelive.net) press conferences, political forums, continuing and distance education, and eHealth. However, it is in the latter two areas where we see ePresence having the greatest impact. The Telehomecare Project During the Fall of 2003 we were contracted by Centennial College to help produce multimedia training modules for their East York Telehomecare Project. The overall goal of the project was to use new technologies to assist with remote and in-home patient visits. Implementing telehomecare required both patients and nurses to learn new skills as they adopted these new technologies. One such example is the training module created for homecare nurses entitled, “The Patient Station” (see: http://thc.kmdi.utoronto.ca/ ). This module demonstrates the patient station to the nurses, explains how it works, and how and where to install the unit in the patient’s home. In addition to training modules like this one, the Telehomecare project also has in its archive repository multimedia records of meetings and seminars. Most of our work on this project was accomplished using ePresence Producer. However, when Centennial College and its partners were ready to launch the project to the public, ePresence delivered the press conference live over the Internet (see: “The East York Telehomecare Showcase” http://thc.kmdi.utoronto.ca/). The Educational Computing Division of the Faculty of Medicine, UofT Instead of contracting us to produce events and archives, the Faculty of Medicine decided to adopt an ePresence system of their own. After some initial support with the software installation and live production the Faculty of Medicine began using their system independently for the continuing education of healthcare professionals such as psychologists and physicians involved with geriatric care. The Faculty also produces live webcasts of publicity events (see: “June 16, 2003 Senator M. Kirby`s talk and awards ceremony” http://epresence.med.utoronto.ca/). The University of Trento, Italy The University of Trento was among the first organizations to adopt an ePresence system. Trento has successfully used ePresence to webcast a variety of courses, including C++ Programming, Software Engineering and Distributed Systems, for 2 years (see: http://ortles.dit.unitn.it/). Students enrolled in these courses can view lectures live or use the archives as a resource when