[AG-TECH] 2.0 Feature Suggestions

[Allan Spale]

Lisa,

I have a few suggestions of what I would like to see...


1) Software Graphics overlay capability for all video streams

It goes beyond just having some banner indicating who the speaker is, but
it could also be expanded to language translation and closed captioning.
Another option would be to use graphics overlays for debugging purposes
such as capturing the RAT Talk meter on a video stream to find out who is
producing echo.  Not having to rely on a separate video mixer would be
ideal.


2) Whiteboard integration into venues (and the ability to save drawing to
some server...almost like Voyager except for drawings only)

Since WBD is part of the software bunch that MICE produces, and I think
works on the same multicast/unicast system (that's probably not the right
word, maybe protocol) as VIC and RAT, this would probably be a good
addition.  It also has Postscript displaying capabilities which makes me
wonder that if PowerPoint can be converted to HTML and HTML can be
coverted to Postscript (or if PowerPoint could be converted to PDF could
be converted to Postscript), the WBD could serve as the new DPPT.  Plus
presenters could then draw on the slides to highlight things (just like in
regular PowerPoint).


3) Multicast data "conferencing"

This was inspired by the AG Retreat 2000 when you presented Voyager and
the discussion that followed. 

In addition to multicasting video and audio among sites, what about data?
This may be a moot point because sites that already do this have their own
software.  However, if the same (or a better) multicast model like VIC or
RAT was used and the data was wrapped into some format like XML or
something else, people could have a general program not tied to an
application that could transmit and receive data just like VIC is used to
transmit and receive video and RAT is used to transmit and receive audio.

Hopefully, using a framework to VIC and RAT would allow integration into
Voyager recordings which would achieve the goal of using Voyager for
synched data recording, video recording, and audio recording.  WBD could
possibly be added to this mix (see [2]).


4) Single-Computer and Dual-Computer Deployment of AGiB

In response to all of the activity on this topic, maybe some specialized
deployment of AGiB that runs on one or two computers could be released.

EVL is doing this with one Windows computer.  It is functional but the
solution provided is not seamless from a user-interface point-of-view, and
it is somewhat disconnected from the Virtual Venues integration (i.e. 
essentially just running batch files to start VIC and RAT with the correct
IP addresses).  It does the job for a one camera, one microphone setup for
a smaller AG room with people sitting around a table.  


I do not know if any of these things were even discussed so please excuse
duplication of items that are already planned.

Thanks for letting me share my opinions.


Allan
EVL at UIC
node-op


On Fri, 1 Feb 2002, Lisa Childers wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> If you have suggestions for features that should be included in AG release
> 2.0, please forward to me.  We are working on development plans and would
> like your input.  If you have suggestions for longer-term work, send that
> along as well.
> 
> Thanks,
> Lisa
> 
> 
> 
> 
>