SkyRoom, Moving to World Virtual Meeting Room

Jakarta - If  a company has many branches in the city or even another country, certainly one of the operational expenditures of the most bloated company is in trouble business travel expenses.

This is like a fruit simalakama. On the one hand, the activity is important because it is done to hold a meeting or in coordination with other company members. But on the other hand, became one of the largest expenses a company mouthpiece.

But do not worry, the negative effects of compulsory routines, now can be tricked. The trick to move just your company's meeting room into a virtual world. Easy really.

This is one of the benefits offered SkyRoom, the first desktop video conferencing solutions from Hewlett-Packard (HP).

Explained Cyhthia Defjan, Marketing Development Manager for HP Workstation Indonesia, SkyRoom a video conferencing solution that has the ability to facilitate a number of people who are in different locations to collaborate in a natural atmosphere in the virtual world. It's as if they share the same desktop.

Like video conferencing on Yahoo Messenger? Less is more like it, but that capability could be further than that.

Feeling at Home Eyes

In a demonstration conducted at the office of HP, detikINET testified that SkyRoom to facilitate users in the sharing of different types of applications, ranging from mild documents, images, until the application of three dimensional (3D). The test was carried out by Tandem HP employees in Malaysia.

Screen computer monitor into a conference room in this virtual world. On the right side of the screen, we can see who the meeting participants who participated. While the left side of the screen is used to place files that are shared into this virtual meeting.

Although 'only' facilitated the monitor screen, but the events in SkyRoom meeting could run like a meeting in the real world. Participants can interact with each other / talk to each other, seeing how their facial expressions and can send and even edit the file you want to be sharing the floor in realtime.

From the demo video conferencing is seen that the incoming voice sounded clear enough, while the videos are presented fairly smooth. No wonder, because this application can be set to display high-definition video (high definition / HD).

Amazingly, a shared application can be controlled by another user. But still, its access must have permission from a file. If permitted to do so other users can edit the file. But in this case, the file is sent, but that does not mean just shown. The original files still exist in the place of origin.

HP Remote Graphics Software technology brings in SkyRoom. Its function is to compress the 3D data and video are heavy so that only the pixel data are sent. Technology is what allows the show sharing 3D files so easily presented. Therefore, in principle, the files are not moved to another user's computer.

"Video meeting with eye contact and interaction between people who naturally can be done easily, as easy as connecting Instant Messaging," added Megawaty Khie, Managing Director of HP's Personal Systems Group of Indonesia.

Minimum Specifications

SkyRoom itself is now in pre-installed with the Z series and HP Workstation XW4600 since October 2009 and for free.

Even so, it does not mean this application can not run on devices made by vendors outside the United States. Because applications are also sold separately for U.S. $ 149 per license and is compatible with the output Workstation Dell, Lenovo and Sun. In addition, the future will also be presented to the ranks of the notebook.

But keep in mind the minimum specifications. That requires an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz or equivalent processor with 2 GB of RAM, and using Windows XP or Vista OS. SkyRoom also be run at a corporate VPN to connect to systems outside the local firewall.

While the minimum required network is a broadband network with a minimum transfer rate of 400 kbps. Well, for those who want to share 3D animation but have limited internet connection as above, it still could. Because there is a feature to configure the desired sharpness of the graphics.

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Video Conferencing

A Video conference  (also known as a videoteleconference) is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. It has also been called 'visual collaboration' and is a type of groupware.

Videoconferencing differs from videophone calls in that it's designed to serve a conference rather than individuals. It is an intermediate form of videotelephony, first deployed commercially by AT&T during the early 1970s using their Picturephone technology.

History

Videoconferencing uses telecommunications of audio and video to bring people at different sites together for a meeting. This can be as simple as a conversation between two people in private offices (point-to-point) or involve several sites (multi-point) with more than one person in large rooms at different sites. Besides the audio and visual transmission of meeting activities, videoconferencing can be used to share documents, computer-displayed information, and whiteboards.

Simple analog videoconferences could be established as early as the invention of the television. Such videoconferencing systems usually consisted of two closed-circuit television systems connected via coax cable or radio. An example of that was the German Reich Postzentralamt (Post Office) network set up in Berlin and several other cities from 1936 to 1940.

During the first manned space flights, NASA used two radiofrequency (UHF or VHF) links, one in each direction. TV channels routinely use this kind of videoconferencing when reporting from distant locations, for instance. Then mobile links to satellites using specially equipped trucks became rather common.

This technique was very expensive, though, and could not be used for applications such as telemedicine, distance education, and business meetings. Attempts at using normal telephony networks to transmit slow-scan video, such as the first systems developed by AT&T, failed mostly due to the poor picture quality and the lack of efficient video compression techniques. The greater 1 MHz bandwidth and 6 Mbit/s bit rate of Picturephone in the 1970s also did not cause the service to prosper.

It was only in the 1980s that digital telephony transmission networks became possible, such as ISDN, assuring a minimum bit rate (usually 128 kilobits/s) for compressed video and audio transmission. During his time, there was also research into other forms of digital video and audio communication. Many of these technologies, such as the Media space, are not as widely used today as videoconferencing but were still an important area of research. The first dedicated systems started to appear in the market as ISDN networks were expanding throughout the world. One of the first commercial Videoconferencing systems sold to companies came from PictureTel Corp. who had an Initial Public Offering in November, 1984. Videoconferencing systems throughout the 1990s rapidly evolved from very expensive proprietary equipment, software and network requirements to standards based technology that is readily available to the general public at a reasonable cost.

Finally, in the 1990s, IP (Internet Protocol) based videoconferencing became possible, and more efficient video compression technologies were developed, permitting desktop, or personal computer (PC)-based videoconferencing. In 1992 CU-SeeMe was developed at Cornell by Tim Dorcey et al. In 1995 the First public videoconference and peacecast between the continents of North America and Africa took place, linking a technofair in San Francisco with a techno-rave and cyberdeli in Cape Town. At the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Nagano, Japan, Seiji Ozawa conducted the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony simultaneously across five continents in near-real time.

In the 2000s, videotelephony was popularized via free Internet services such as Skype and iChat, web plugins and on-line telecommunication programs which promoted low cost, albeit low-quality, videoconferencing to virtually every location with an Internet connection.

In May 2005, the first high definition video conferencing systems, produced by LifeSize Communications, were displayed at the Interop trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, able to provide 30 frames per second at a 1280 by 720 display resolution. Polycom introduced its first high definition video conferencing system to the market in 2006. Currently, high definition resolution has now become a standard feature, with most major suppliers in the videoconferencing market offering it.

Technology

The core technology used in a videoconferencing system is digital compression of audio and video streams in real time. The hardware or software that performs compression is called a codec (coder/decoder). Compression rates of up to 1:500 can be achieved. The resulting digital stream of 1s and 0s is subdivided into labeled packets, which are then transmitted through a digital network of some kind (usually ISDN or IP). The use of audio modems in the transmission line allow for the use of POTS, or the Plain Old Telephone System, in some low-speed applications, such as videotelephony, because they convert the digital pulses to/from analog waves in the audio spectrum range.

The other components required for a videoconferencing system include :

•  Video input : Video camera or webcam

•   Video output : Computer monitr , television or projector

•  Audio input : Microphones, CD/DVD player, cassette player, or any other source of PreAmp   audio outlet.

•   Audio output : Usually loudspeakers associated with the display device or telephone

•   Data transfer : Analog or digital telephone network, LAN or Internet

•  Computer  : A data processing unit that ties together the other components, does the  compressing and decompressing, and initiates and maintains the data linkage via the network.

There are basically two kinds of videoconferencing systems:

1. Dedicated systems have all required components packaged into a single piece of equipment, usually a console with a high quality remote controlled video camera. These cameras can be controlled at a distance to pan left and right, tilt up and down, and zoom. They became known as PTZ cameras. The console contains all electrical interfaces, the control computer, and the software or hardware-based codec. Omnidirectional microphones are connected to the console, as well as a TV monitor with loudspeakers and/or a video projector. There are several types of dedicated videoconferencing devices:
• Large group videoconferencing are non-portable, large, more expensive devices used for large rooms and auditoriums.
• Small group videoconferencing are non-portable or portable, smaller, less expensive devices used for small meeting rooms.
• Individual videoconferencing are usually portable devices, meant for single users, have fixed cameras, microphones and loudspeakers integrated into the console.
2. Desktop systems are add-ons (hardware boards, usually) to normal PCs, transforming them into videoconferencing devices. A range of different cameras and microphones can be used with the board, which contains the necessary codec and transmission interfaces. Most of the desktops systems work with the H.323 standard. Videoconferences carried out via dispersed PCs are also known as e-meetings.

Conferencing layers

The components within a Conferencing System can be divided up into several different layers: User Interface, Conference Control, Control or Signal Plane and Media Plane.

Video Conferencing User Interfaces could either be graphical or voice responsive. Many of us have encountered both types of interfaces, normally we encounter graphical interfaces on the computer or television, and Voice Responsive we normally get on the phone, where we are told to select a number of choices by either saying it or pressing a number. User interfaces for conferencing have a number of different uses; it could be used for scheduling, setup, and making the call. Through the User Interface the administrator is able to control the other three layers of the system.

Conference Control performs resource allocation, management and routing. This layer along with the User Interface creates meetings (scheduled or unscheduled) or adds and removes participants from a conference.

Control (Signaling) Plane contains the stacks that signal different endpoints to create a call and/or a conference. Signals can be, but aren’t limited to, H.323 and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Protocols. These signals control incoming and outgoing connections as well as session parameters.

The Media Plane controls the audio and video mixing and streaming. This layer manages Real-Time Transport Protocols, User Datagram Packets (UDP) and Real-Time Transport Control Protocols (RTCP). The RTP and UDP normally carry information such the payload type which is the type of codec, frame rate, video size and many others. RTCP on the other hand acts as a quality control Protocol for detecting errors during streaming.

Multipoint videoconferencing

Simultaneous videoconferencing among three or more remote points is possible by means of a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU). This is a bridge that interconnects calls from several sources (in a similar way to the audio conference call). All parties call the MCU unit, or the MCU unit can also call the parties which are going to participate, in sequence. There are MCU bridges for IP and ISDN-based videoconferencing. There are MCUs which are pure software, and others which are a combination of hardware and software. An MCU is characterised according to the number of simultaneous calls it can handle, its ability to conduct transposing of data rates and protocols, and features such as Continuous Presence, in which multiple parties can be seen on-screen at once. MCUs can be stand-alone hardware devices, or they can be embedded into dedicated videoconferencing units.

The MCU consists of two logical components:

1. A single multipoint controller (MC), and
2. Multipoint Processors (MP), sometimes referred to as the mixer.

The MC controls the conferencing while it is active on the signaling plane, which is simply where the system manages conferencing creation, endpoint signaling and in-conferencing controls. This component negotiates parameters with every endpoint in the network and controls conferencing resources While the MC controls resources and signaling negotiations, the MP operates on the media plane and receives media from each endpoint. The MP generates output streams from each endpoint and redirects the information to other endpoints in the conference.

Some systems are capable of multipoint conferencing with no MCU, stand-alone, embedded or otherwise. These use a standards-based H.323 technique known as "decentralized multipoint", where each station in a multipoint call exchanges video and audio directly with the other stations with no central "manager" or other bottleneck. The advantages of this technique are that the video and audio will generally be of higher quality because they don't have to be relayed through a central point. Also, users can make ad-hoc multipoint calls without any concern for the availability or control of an MCU. This added convenience and quality comes at the expense of some increased network bandwidth, because every station must transmit to every other station directly.

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Awas, Robot 'Menginvasi' Toilet!

Jakarta - Sebuah pemandangan unik telihat di sebuah restoran bernama Dalu Rebot di wilayah timur laut Jinan, China. Tampak robot resepsionis menyambut ramah kedatangan pengunjung di pintu depan. Sementara itu di dalam restoran, beberapa robot lain tampak hilir mudik bersepeda menyajikan pesanan para tamu.

Mungkin sebagian orang akan menganggap Dalu Rebot adalah restoran unik karena sebagian pegawainya yang aneh. Bagaimana tidak, restoran yang menyediakan 100 kursi ini mempekerjakan enam robot pelayan yang bersepeda berkeliling ruangan restoran dan dua robot resepsionis.

Karena kehadiran para robot yang bersepeda itu, Dalu Rebot memiliki desain tempat duduk melingkar dengan track sepeda yang ditempatkan di sekeliling area tempat duduk. Track inilah yang kemudian dilalui robot-robot pelayan menggunakan sepeda saat menyajikan hidangan.

Dikutip detikINET dari Popular Science, Selasa (21/12/2010), untuk keamanan, robot pelayan ini dilengkapi sistem keamanan yang mencegahnya menabrak orang atau benda di hadapannya.

Track sepeda juga dirancang agar berfungsi sebagai 'jalan pintar' yang membuat robot ciptaan The Shandong Dalu Science and Technology Company ini bisa menghindar secara otomatis seandainya terjadi tabrakan. ( rns / ash )

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Komputer Kalahkan Otak Manusia

Jakarta - Watson, komputer super buatan IBM berhasil mengalahkan manusia dalam sebuah permainan yang menguji kecerdasan. Wow!

Dalam sebuah permainan kuis populer di Amerika Serikat (AS), Jeopardy, Watson unggul setelah berhasil menendang pemenang Jeopardy edisi sebelumnya, Ken Jennings dan Brad Rutter.

Dilansir Times of India, Minggu (16/01/2011), kemenangan Watson dinilai signifikan karena permainan kuis tersebut melibatkan pemikiran non-linear dan pertanyaan dalam bahasa alami dimana komputer jauh tertinggal dari manusia dalam

kemampuan tersebut.

"Setelah empat tahun lamanya, tim ilmiah kami percaya bahwa Watson sangat siap dengan tantangan seperti di kuis Jeopardy," kata David Ferrucci selaku ilmuwan yang memimpin tim riset IBM yang mengembangkan Watson.

Permainan berlangsung di laboratorium komputer IBM yang didekorasi sama seperti studio tempat kuis biasanya dilangsungkan. Berkat kepintarannya, Watson berhasil memboyong USD 4.400, sedangkan kompetitornya, Jennings dan Rutter yang menjadi

juara dua dan tiga masing-masing mendapat USD 3.400 dan USD 1.200.

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