FINAL REPORT

Group: James & Boitumelo

INTRODUCTION

New technologies do not appear from nowhere as a mystical spark of inspiration from the mind of one individual. Nor are they inevitably accepted for their self-evident benefits. A technology emerges through a process involving broader cultural, linguistic, institutional and technological contexts

Videoconferencing, a fast and efficient method of bringing together 2 or more parties for a meeting - without flying, driving or catching trains. Used extensively for recruitment interviews, depositions and global business meetings, it is a truly 21st Century, eco-friendly and cost effective way to do business.

Videoconferencing technology, we are looking at incorporating a computer-simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact with via avatars. This habitation usually would be represented in the form of two or three-dimensional graphical representations of humanoids (or other graphical or text-based avatars) creating a virtual world. Virtual World (VR) is shared and objectively present like the physical world, composable like a work of art, and as unlimited and harmless as a dream.

Also rich video-based menus that allow smooth transition between navigation and the interaction with representatives, as well as interact with rich multimedia content offering a self-help functions or the option to interact with the appropriate representative. For example, one is provided with a four main menu options: Restaurants (a selection of prerecorded advertisements and video clips of selected restaurants).

VR is gradually taking over a lot of communication medium and becoming widely available, around the turn of the century, it will not be seen as a medium used within physical reality, but rather as an additional reality.

VR originated within marginal subcultures: from science fiction, cyberpunk, and computer hacker culture, and from institutions including NASA, computer companies, and the military. Perceiving much wider applications than flight simulation and remote control, researchers coined the term "virtual reality," and promoted it as a paradigm shift for computers, and even for the whole society. The shift, though, was not into empty terrain: it was into such existing fields as entertainment, art, architecture, design and medicine.


TARGET AUDIENCE GROUP

Name: Peter Adjetey
Age: 30 years
Gender: Male
Culture: English Speaking (Christian)
Education: Degree/ Phd
Ways of Collecting Information: PDA
Experience: Yes (all over the world)

Family Status: Married
Occupation: Business Tycoon (Oil Import/ Exportation)

Peter Adjetey was born and raised in Accra/Ghana – West Africa, went to the United States at the age of 18 with his whole family his early education took place at St. Paul’s School La, Accra Bishop Boys' School and Accra Academy and in the state attended University of New Orleans (UNO) majored in Computer Science. After graduation he went back home, applied for job at SSB (social security bank) as a computer analyst, but rather was giving the position of Head of Computer Department.

Peter moved around a lot therefore finding it hard to stay at a particular place for a long time. So got himself into the oil business (importation and exportation) made a lot of money and was invited to join the leading party in his mid 20’s. Since Adjetey is Generation X person therefore technology has no effect on him, his ways of collecting information is through his pda most of the time, also using the internet almost everyday for personal tasks like e-mailing, organizing his finances (banking), reading the news etc.

Still a business tycoon and a politician Adjetey is a lively person who likes to engage in social activities like meeting up with friends catching up on old times and keeping himself updated as to what is going on, be it the latest innovation etc. Adjetey also enjoys there following during his spare time:

1 Entertainment (listening to a good folktale music)
2 Sports (but mainly Tennis)
3 Polities Discussions
4 Spending Quality time with family

With his busy and tight schedules he makes time for all these. So with video conferencing Adjetey’s style could be made much more manageable since he can’t be every place at the same time he can use video conferencing when he can’t make it to some meetings, therefore cutting done the amount of time spend in flying, driving or catching trains for him to be more productive in his work.

DESCRIPTION OF CONCEPT

One2many Distribution:

This type of service allows a worldwide video conferencing/ data transfer right from your cell phone where a caller can perform more than one function. Regular conference calling, in real time with one person at different location via video, by using video and audio signals to link participant at locations for a specific purpose. Multi conferencing allowing users to simultaneously talk with several people at different locations via video and Data Transfer, In other words, no need any more to hand out files around the meeting table or fly halfway around the world for a couple of hours in a meeting room.
So this service is to rack up the travel expense and the days of jet-setting for high-flying businessmen.

Interactive Video Response:

This type of service help callers to navigate through rich video-based menus that allow smooth transition between navigation and the interaction with representatives, as well as interact with rich multimedia content.
Auto-Attendant; where a multimedia-greeting clip is presented to the caller. After the greeting, the caller is offered self-help functions or the option to interact with the appropriate representative. For example, in this IVR design, the main service has four main menu options: Restaurants (a selection of prerecorded advertisements and video clips of selected restaurants), Traffic (real-time traffic camera feeds for up-to-date information), Live TV (live TV feeds) and live Customer Service Representative (CSR).
This service is to keep the businessmen updated on what’s going on where ever they are.

Video Banking:

3G video banking; this service offers the opportunity to provide a more personal service by providing the capability for virtual meetings with customers wherever they are,
a complete video interaction center solution; inbound and/or outbound video calls can be performed by a dedicated representative. During the call session, the representative can choose to display video clips and other multimedia files. From viewing the account information to actually performing banking transactions. This service is focus on self-service banking.


S.W.O.T (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.) ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS (advantages)

There has been increasing interest in the potential social impact of new technologies, such as virtual reality (as may be seen in utopian literature, within the social sciences, and in popular culture). Mychilo S. Cline, in his book, Power, Madness, and Immortality: The Future of Virtual Reality], argues that virtual reality will lead to a number of important changes in human life and activity. He argues that:
· Virtual reality will be integrated into daily life and activity and will be used in variou human ways.
· Techniques will be developed to influence human behavior, interpersonal communication, and cognition (i.e., virtual genetics).
· As we spend more and more time in virtual space, there will be a gradual “migration to virtual space,” resulting in important changes in economics, worldview, and culture.
· The design of virtual environments may be used to extend basic human rights into virtual space, to promote human freedom and well being, and to promote social stability as we move from one stage in socio-political development to the next.

WEAKNESSES

Virtual reality has been heavily criticized for being an inefficient method for navigating non-geographical information. At present, the idea of ubiquitous computing is very popular in user interface design, and this may be seen as a reaction against VR and its problems. In reality, these two kinds of interfaces have totally different goals and are complementary. The goal of ubiquitous computing is to bring the computer into the user's world, rather than force the user to go inside the computer. The current trend in VR is actually to merge the two user interfaces to create a fully immersive and integrated experience. See simulated reality for a discussion of what might have to be considered if a flawless virtual reality technology was possible. Another obstacle is the headaches due to eyestrain, caused by VR headsets.

OPPORTUNITIES

It is unclear exactly where the future of virtual reality is headed. In the short run, the graphics displayed in the HMD will soon reach a point of near realism. The aural aspect will move into a new realm of three-dimensional sound. This refers to the addition of sound channels both above and below the individual. The virtual reality application of this future technology will most likely be in the form of over ear headphones.

THREATS

Virtual reality is a very sophisticated and very unfamiliar technology, which means most
people know nothing about it. With that heavy marketing has to be done in order to bring in face, which of course require too much experience. Virtual products are too expensive. Due to technology developments the market for vitality products is not stable because of the introduction of new technology everyday which make the on market products loss value so quickly.


ESTIMATE FOR PROJECT

Advertisements in the following media’s

Daily Newspaper (Front page Full color): Price: ¢ 5,850,000.00 ($ 650)

Magazine: (Ebony) Price: ¢ 7,650,000.00 ($ 850)
Billboards: (4) Price: ¢ 28,800,000.00 ($ 3,200)

TV (Prime Time): First Week Price: ¢ 10,800,000.00 ($ 1,200)

Internet: (Pop up’s): Free because the company website would be responsible for the pop up’s.

How advertisement would be run….
Daily Newspaper, Front page for one month and the rest of the 2-month page 4 size 5*7 color
Price: ¢ 5,850,000.00 * 23
= ¢ 134,550,000.00 ($ 14,950)

Two months (4th page) Price: ¢ 1,350,000.00 ($150)

Magazine: (Ebony) Two Issues, same price as indicated earlier

TV the rest of month normal showing Price: ¢ 18,900,000.00 ($2,100)

Making Total Estimate of:…

¢ 5,850,000.00
¢ 134,550,000.00
¢ 7,650,000.00
¢ 28,800,000.00
¢ 10,800,000.00
¢ 18,900,000.00
¢ 206,550,000.00 ($ 22,950) (Over all Total)


WHY CONCEPT WILL SUCCEED


1 Shared Space: the world allows many users to participate at once.

2 Graphical User Interface: the world depicts space visually, ranging in style from 2D "cartoon" imagery to more immersive 3D environments.

3 Immediacy: interaction takes place in real time.

4 Interactivity: the world allows users to alter, develop, build, or submit customized content.

5 Persistence: the world's existence continues regardless of whether individual users are logged in.

6 Socialization/Community: the world allows and encourages the formation of in-world social groups like teams, guilds, clubs, cliques, housemates, neighborhoods, etc.


WHY CONCEPT WON’T SUCCEED


1 Digital and Computer Visualization techniques:

i) Do not convey the true three-dimensional nature of objects
ii) Do not convey the non-visual and aural feelings of touch, smell, etc.
iii) Less beneficial than really being in the field
iv) Lack the serendipitous nature of discovery

2 Based on the Personal Computer and Internet:

i) Having limited interaction with a computer
ii) Not interacting with people in a flexible manner

3 Multiple styles of access e.g. CDROM and Websites:

i) CD-ROMs can only provide a finite limited amount of information
ii) Visiting a website can be difficult and depends on many factors, such as availability of computers, load on the network, number of connections, reliability of service provision, etc.

4 Wide Variety available on the Internet:

i) Easy for students to get lost among lots of websites
ii) Many websites are ephemeral rather than permanent


5 Variable quality:

i) Often difficult to find a suitable one for teaching and learning
ii) The abundant websites are not quality controlled

6 Designed to be interactive like computer games:

i) It is easy for students to wallow, or obsess over particular sites, which raises the problem of time management


IMAGES

References:


http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/info/whatis.shtml
http://science.uniserve.edu.au/pubs/china/vol1/weili.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality (s.w.o.t)

Expert Report on Video Conferencing

Group: james & boitumelo

One page Summary and the real Report.

WHAT IS IT AND WHAT DOES THE AREA ENTAIL:

Videoconferencing is a fast and efficient method of bringing together 2 or more parties for a meeting - without flying, driving or catching trains.
Used extensively for recruitment interviews, depositions and global business meetings, it is a truly 21st Century, eco-friendly and cost effective way to do business.

LEADING INDUSTRIES IN VIDEO CONFERENCING:

• Wiredred. Com (e/pop), Videré Conferencing (USA), Radvision (RVSN)
• LifeSize channel, Direct Visual (UK), Face-to-Face Communications (Aus)
• Focus 21 (UK), Genedis Group (France), IDSolutions (USA)
• Microsoft, Ivci, llc., Raindance Communications, Inc.

WHAT’S HAPPING NOW IN VIDEO CONFERENCING:

• Real-Time PowerPoint Sharing:
No Pre-Meeting Uploads Required.
•
Best Multiparty Audio Quality
•
Real-Time Presenter Controls
•
Video Conferencing With PowerPoint Presentations
•
Document/ Application Sharing


PEOPLE’S IDEAS ABOUT USING VIDEO CONFERENCING:

To provide a better avenue of communication between you and another person somewhere else.
E.g. I chat with my colleagues in the USA without leaving the UK.
I couldn't justify flying ($$$$ or ££££ depending on where you are).

Our "body language" experts I am sure could give some stats about the amount of communication conveyed visually.

WHAT WIDER SOCIAL ISSUES AFFECT THIS AREA AND HOW DO THESE ISSUES AFFECT DEVELOPMENT:

· Direct accessibility of hardware and software.
· Accessibility of content presentation and use.
· Education of those who use technology.


HOW TO IMPROVE VIDEO CONFERENCING:

VIRTUAL WORLD

Which would be a computer-simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact with via avatars. This habitation usually would be represented in the form of two or three-dimensional graphical representations of humanoids (or other graphical or text-based avatars).

Main Report:

1. What Does the Area Entail?

Videoconferencing is a fast and efficient method of bringing together 2 or more parties for a meeting - without flying, driving or catching trains. Used extensively for recruitment interviews, depositions and global business meetings, it is a truly 21st Century, eco-friendly and cost effective way to do business.


2. Leading industries in video conferencing?

Wiredred. Com (e/pop): Founded in 1998, WiredRed Software is a technology leader in real-time communications. The Company's secure, multipoint routing technology powers its e/pop® product line, which includes multiparty video conferencing, web conferencing and secure IM software. All e/pop products are designed to provide busy, security-conscious IT staff with fast and easy to maintain solutions compatible with their existing networks.

RADVISION (RVSN) is the industry’s leading provider of products and technologies for unified visual communications over IP, 3G and emerging next generation networks - enabling high definition video - conferencing, converged video telephony services, and scalable desktop–based visual communications.

LifeSize channel: (LifeSize, the high definition video communications company, has a joint partnership with 15 video communications to market, sell and support LifeSize products worldwide. Some of these leading industries are:

Direct Visual (UK): (Direct Visual is the UK's leading independent supplier of visual applications.
Face-to-Face Communications (Australia): (Face To Face Communications is a Distributor of high-end videoconferencing products. It has a network of specialist videoconferencing resellers throughout Australia and New Zealand. Focus 21 (UK): (A leading edge systems integrator and service provider, Focus 21 Visual Communications Limited has been delivering video conferencing solutions in the United Kingdom for seven years.
Genedis Group (France): (Genedis Group is one of the leading companies in the telecom, security and rich media communications European product and services market. Genedis Group's portfolio is centred around converged voice, video and data communication, and is made available around three business lines:
IDSolutions (USA), NIAD (UK): (IDSolutions, LLC is an Applications Service Provider, which provides comprehensive interactive communications solutions over traditional and next generation networks.
Videré Conferencing (USA): (Videré Conferencing, Inc. of Quincy, MA specializes in video, audio and Web conferencing and collaboration solutions for the commercial, education, health care and state government markets. Videré's expertise includes consultation, design, sales, implementation and support of the leading remote meeting and distance learning technologies.

Eyenetwork Global Videoconference Service:
Microsoft:
Ivci, llc.: (a leading integrator of enterprise collaboration solutions, including video conferencing, audio/visual systems, streaming, Web conferencing and managed conference services, announced today that a distance learning application
Raindance Communications, Inc.:
Toshiba’s (Toshiba and Winnov Inc. (a Silicon Valley startup), have been working on a portable videoconferencing systems into the mobile industry. Both of these companies are building their systems around Type 2 PC cards, but have different software approaches for their respective systems).
Lucent Worldwide Services (LWS):


3. What’s happing now in video conferencing?

The Best Multiparty Audio QualityLike its video counterpart above, e/pop includes multiparty audio (VoIP) conferencing as a standard feature. The host can enable/disable audio conferencing and easily switch from low-bandwidth, cell phone-like sound to studio quality audio all at the click of a mouse. This is full-duplex, multiparty audio, so any number of users can talk at the same time.

Real-Time PowerPoint Sharing: No Pre-Meeting Uploads Required!You don’t need to pre-process or stage your PowerPoint presentations before your meetings. e/pop lets you share any PowerPoint anytime. Your presentation is processed on-the-fly. Most importantly, since the file is cached at each participant.

Multipoint Video Conference
State-of-the-art software allows the meeting host to change video settings during the conference. Unlike many competing Internet video conferencing products, e/pop does not use peer-to-peer or broadcasting technology, which often fail in corporate and government networks due to firewall, proxy and private routing limitations.

The entire video conferencing session sends all traffic via the e/pop server. Since this server is at a fixed IP address, and uses port 80 and http, it achieves high levels of proxy and firewall compatibility, plus provides the foundation for multiparty desktop video conferencing!Real-Time Presenter ControlsAs the presenter, you have fully interactive web conferencing controls at your disposal. You can easily allow/disable participant look-ahead (PowerPoint and documents), promote a participant to presenter, demote presenters, and expel users, all at the click of a mouse.

The user interface behaves as you would expect any office application. Just right-click on any user to get a short list of properties and settings you can easily change.
Video Conferencing With PowerPoint Presentations e/pop goes far beyond traditional boardroom video conferencing equipment and provides complete multiparty PowerPoint presentation sharing as a standard feature. There is no need to pre-process your presentations, just select Share PowerPoint. Attendees see beautiful presentations (with vector and image
graphics rendered just like PowerPoint itself).

Document Sharing
Share virtually any document on a Windows PC, even large documents with graphics and tables. The virtual document is sent only once, making very efficient use of bandwidth.
Application Sharing
Easily share applications in real-time, you can even share more than one and take advantage of e/pop remote control features.


4. People’s ideas about using video conferencing?

Why do we need videoconferencing?

To provide a better avenue of communication between you and another person somewhere else.

E.g. I chat with my colleagues in the USA without leaving the UK. I couldn't justify flying ($$$$ or ££££ depending on where you are). But a phone call does not let you see what your colleague looks like.
Our "body language" experts I am sure could give some stats about the amount of communication conveyed visually. So VC enhances communication.
VC "enhances" communication. It does NOT replace real life meetings, telephone calls perhaps.


What would CNN's news service be like without live, high quality video communications? Can you remember the days when reports from far-flung countries were provided as audio-only, with just a photo of the intrepid reporter? Or when remote interviews with pundits were conducted by audio? How rare is that now?


The news networks do not NEED live talking heads, but all TV news networks use them as a matter of course, because seeing someone say what they have to say is far more impactful and natural than just hearing it.

I believe VC is an enormous benefit in saving resources, reducing travel stress, saving congestion, improving the environment. Equally the industry has not delivered enough noise to get this message across nor lobbied enough other intelligent people to demand government action in making it happen.

What is the energy benefit of VC? How much petrol/jet fuel can be saved per plane trip, per person? how many productive hours sitting in traffic can be saved? Has anyone done a 'green' analysis like this.

A picture says a thousand words. Bet you have herd that before.


5. What wider social issues affect this area and how do these issues affect development?

1. Direct accessibility of hardware and software. It is true that natively accessible distance technologies are few and far between. But what are the central issues that lead to this result? What is the relationship between laws, procurement policies, industry standards, and technology development? Is it possible to expect that market forces will improve technology access over time? Do we need more regulation? How can we improve standards harmonization and use? Do we need additional resources? What do we do in the meantime?

2. Accessibility of content presentation and use. Given a technology that enables direct access, the design, layout, and delivery of a course will impact its true accessibility to the learner. We know that accessible does not mean useable. What needs to be done to insure that students with disabilities can benefit from these educational opportunities? Who shoulders this responsibility? Is this a faculty and staff training issue, a student issue, an accommodation issue?
3. Education of those who use technology. Many individuals who use technology in distance education need training and support to maximize accessibility of the course itself. The list of these in need of education is long and includes course designers and developers, technical assistants, instructors, and the end-user (i.e., the consumer with a disability). Who is teaching these individuals what they need to learn? Where do they go for additional training or support? Who funds this important effort? How are these complex interactions improved over time?



6. How to improve video conferencing?

A virtual world
Is a computer-simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact with via avatars. This habitation usually is represented in the form of two or three-dimensional graphical representations of humanoids (or other graphical or text-based avatars).

Tele-immersion is ultra-realistic, full-scale 3D video-conferencing in which people feel like they are actually together. Will bring a new level of robustness and versatility to videoconferencing and related applications, in a variety of working environments. To meet the needs of a globally expanding user-base,

The Internet implementation side of it is really hard, because it requires an extreme level of performance. it's not easy to sense the world in this sort of three-dimensional way, and it's hard to recreate it realistically.


7. How we researched this area?

Information about video conferencing was collected from this search engines google and google scholar

Links:

http://www.videoconference-bureau.com/?gclid=CP3H_LSD84cCFQjqYAodBBqXig
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1997/apr97/nm2finpr.mspx
http://www.ivci.com/international_videoconferencing_news_press_release_021406.html
http://www.wiredred.com/video-conferencing/future-of-video-conferencing.html
http://www.raindance.com/rndc/index.jsp
http://www.lucent.com/gov/mscsc.html
http://www.lifesize.com/pr.php?prid=26
http://www.radvision.com/
http://www.vcinsight.com/?menuID=188
http://www.wainhouse.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000020.html
http://staff.washington.edu/sherylb/summit.html
http://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&q=define+virtual+world&btnG=Search&meta=
http://java.sun.com/features/2003/02/lanier_qa2.html
http://www.vrvs.org/?id=81210