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331 lines
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331 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
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(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2)
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Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
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Sponsored by Vangard Sciences
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PO BOX 1031
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Mesquite, TX 75150
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There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS
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on duplicating, publishing or distributing the
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files on KeelyNet except where noted!
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April 20, 1992
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BADGES.ASC
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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For those of us who are fascinated by some of the REALIZABLE
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technologies as shown on Star Trek, the following two items are
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paraphrased from COMPUTERWORLD, April 20, 1992.
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The first and most interesting is entitled "THE WALK-AND-WEAR
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OFFICE, Using a multimedia system and devices that track and
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identify people, Olivetti Research is working on the intelligent
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office of the future." by Andy Hopper. PP 99-101.
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The second is from TECH TALK, Page 25 of the same issue. The
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article is entitled "PICTURE THIS" and relates to a video
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recognition system for graphic images. It also ties in well with
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the Olivetti ACTIVE BADGE system.
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ComputerWorld is primarily for IS (information systems managers) but
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covers a wide range of subjects relating to computer technology.
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Current Subscription rates are $38.95 per year for a weekly paper.
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If you wish to subscribe, their address is COMPUTERWORLD, PO Box
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2044, Marion, Ohio 43306-4144.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Pandora and the Active Badge System
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The Olivetti Research Laboratory is located in Cambridge, England.
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They are currently developing a most interesting multimedia system
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called PANDORA in conjunction with devices known as ACTIVE BADGES.
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ACTIVE BADGES identify and track people within a building. The
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basic system monitors the movement of people and, to a lesser
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extent, objects in the building. The badge is currently the size of
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a typical office security identification badge. An ACTIVE BADGE
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contains an infrared transmitter that every 15 seconds transmits a
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48-bit word, which is the wearer's unique ID.
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The ID information is held on a central database residing on a
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server (controller for a network of connected workstations) and
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includes items such as security clearance, preferred computer
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interface and applications, right or left-handedness and even how
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the user takes his coffee.
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Rooms, passageways and workstations are equipped with sensors with
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infrared receivers that monitor the presence of a badge. These
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Page 1
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sensors are tied together into a low-frequency network, which is
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connected to the server on the main PANDORA network.
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A central monitoring program on the server constantly updates a list
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of where badge wearers are or where they last came in contact with a
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sensor. This information includes what telephone or workstations
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they are closest to. Users can call up this list on their
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workstation.
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Users can make an inquiry to locate a badge wearer in order to
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transfer a phone call or send a video message. Olivetti Research is
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experimenting with reconfiguring offices on the fly using the
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badges.
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For example, receivers in the PANDORA system find out from the
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database what a user was last working on, enabling a researcher's
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work to follow him from computer to computer. Walking away from a
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terminal is the equivalent of logging off; approaching another
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screen "wakes up" the machine, which configures itself to whatever
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the user has specified. The computer even alerts a user to the fact
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that there is a video mail message waiting for him.
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Sensors can also transmit to badges, and the Olivetti Research
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Laboratory ACTIVE BADGE system incorporates paging functions, with
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which a user can page a colleague from a terminal.
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ACTIVE BADGES have been useful in determining security access. For
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example, sensors enable a security door to generate a small magnetic
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field. When an authorized badge wearer enters the field, his badge
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emits an instant pulse that can be checked for the appropriate entry
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permission and trigger the door to open. Or the sensor can
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differentiate among a number of badge wearers in the same room,
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preventing unnecessary interruptions of meetings.
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No one is forced to wear these badges at Olivetti Research
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Laboratory or Cambridge University, but the 130 people on the system
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do because IT MAKES LIFE EASIER.
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There is less time wasted tracking someone down and fewer meeting
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interruptions. And with a built-in photosensitive resistor, it is
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always possible for a user to turn the badge over and effectively
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log off. Furthermore, all users have access to informaton on WHO is
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monitoring their whereabouts because inquiry information is logged
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and recorded.
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An example of how the PANDORA system would work in conjuntion with
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the ACTIVE BADGE ;
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It is morning, and I walk into the building in which I work and
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into an office I know is unoccupied, I make sure I'm wearing my
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identification badge, and as I approach the door, he electronic
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lock opens, enabling me to enter the darkened room.
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The lights brighten, and a workstation on the desk flashes to
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life automatically, displaying a document I recognize as the one
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I had been working on yesterday. I click onto the screen and my
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video mail messages. There is a beep, and a colleague's face
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suddenly appears on the screen in another small window. I click
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onto that window, and we talk IN REAL TIME about the status of an
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upcoming project.
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Page 2
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After we're done, I record a video mail message for another staff
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member to brief him on my recent discussion. I then click on the
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screen to get a recorded version of the latest television news
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and finally find a minute to sip my coffee.
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Science fiction? After 3 weeks of work on and use of a multimedia
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system called PANDORA and devices known as ACTIVE BADGES that
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identify and track people, the lab has been piecing together the
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office of tomorrow.
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The idea is to create an intelligent, shared office in which a room
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can instantly adapt to a user's personal preferences (mouse buttons
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reconfigured for left or right handed use or phone buttons
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programmed with personal codes) and in which tracking and video
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capabilities keep staff in constant contact.
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The PANDORA multimedia system consists of a group of networked,
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Unix-based workstations that provide real-time and recorded digital
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audiovisual information for users. Primary applications for the 20
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Olivetti Research workstations included desktop videoconferencing
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and video mail.
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A PANDORA system contains a video camera, a microphone, a
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loudspeaker and the PANDORA processor box, which serves as the
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network interface. The current version of this box contains six
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processors, which work as embedded controllers with discrete
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functions.
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One processor handles video sampling from the camera alongside the
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computer. A second acts as a digital video mixer to combine
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workstation-generated video with video coming from other PANDORA
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boxes. The third processor deals with audio, which is handled at
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telephone-quality 8 KHZ and is picked up by a microphone. Data
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stream switching is performed by the fourth processor, with two
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final devices serving as the I/O processors to the network. In this
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way, users can run video applications (controlled by the processor
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box) as well as other applications, such as word processing, from
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windows on their desktops.
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The simplest use of PANDORA is just observation. The staff at
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Olivetti Research can view remote offices through video cameras
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mounted over each PANDORA station. Although it's perfectly
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permissible to peek at the scene surveyed by another PANDORA
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station, a user can't listen to that station until somebody at that
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end lets him - i.e., accepts the call.
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In addition, if a staff member surveys another office, the user in
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that office will always get an image of the surveryor on his screen.
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In this way, no one can observe without being observed.
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In a two-way videoconference, PANDORA handles four streams of
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digital video and audio; two incoming and two outgoing. Add one or
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two extra people to make a conference call, and the load increases
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exponentially. The system has no built-in limits, but as the
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processing demand increases, the visual quality drops.
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Sound is recorded separately from the video, but it is synchronized
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on playback. Because it's better to hear the conversation clearly
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than to see it, the video is always sacrificed in favor of audio
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Page 3
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when data traffic reaches its limits. Typically, any user can have
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a four-way videoconferencing displaying five windows and mixing five
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audio streams on his terminal without overloading the system.
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This load is one reason why PANDORA utilizes an asychronous transfer
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mode (ATM) network. ATM allows real-time performance to drop off
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gradually (we call this "graceful degradation") as the system
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becomes congested without losing the video or audio completely. ATM
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networks can chop up data streams very finely and preserve their
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real-time attribute.
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By far the most successful PANDORA application has been video mail.
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This involves recording short messages and sending them to other
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PANDORA users - a kind of video fax.
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Not only is it a lot faster to record a video message as opposed to
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composing and typing a written memo, but video mail is also a very
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personal form of communication that can convey expression and body
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language.
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A message from the boss to drop by his office at the end of the day
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may cause panic - but if you see that he has a smile on his face
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when he says it, you will probably be less worried.
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Video mail is quick and easy to record and play back. Videocassette
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recorder-style buttons are provided on the computer window, and the
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user can start, pause, stop, rewind and play back the recording at
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any time. A cursor or slider control lets him move immediately to a
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position in the recorded sequence by using the mouse, rather like
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scrolling text up and down in a word processor.
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There are cut-and-paste facilities for editing recordings and
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creating composite ones in which text and video is mixed. Video
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does not have to include only internal video. For instance, the
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laboratory has a directory of the latest recorded TV news that can
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be brought onto the screen at any time and viewed or recorded.
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This broadcast data resides on a server that we receives live TV
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relays and automatically records the news for users who want to view
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it later.
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Video mail digital recording is stored remotely on a bank of
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Winchester disk drives, which currently provide about 2.5 Gbytes, or
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6.4 hours, or recording.
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Because typing a file name and dialogue text detracts from the
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simplicity of video mail, Olivetti Research is starting to work on
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voice pattern recognition for filing and retrieving video mail. In
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this way, a user would simply state the name of the person whose
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video mail he'd like to see, and the system would search for and
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play back the messages sent by that person. As for filing, a
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powerful voice recognition system may eventually enable the system
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to produce an automatic transcript of a conversation as it takes
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place.
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The video mail application is being isolated to run on standard
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platforms with a minimum of additional hardware and software.
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Researchers can already send and receive videomail from an Intel
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Corp. 80386-based personal computer running Microsoft Corp.'s
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Page 4
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Windows across a standard network. They can also send video mail to
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colleagues at Ing. C. Olivetti & Co. in Italy and Digital Equipment
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Corp. in the U.S. over standard public networks.
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Future advances for PANDORA will include features such as high-
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definition color and faster networking.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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PICTURE THIS
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There has been plenty of work done on teaching computers to "see" in
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such areas as robotics and on storing photographic images
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electronically. Now, researchers hope to teach computers to see and
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understand digitized images so that users can search database of
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photos and other images based on the actual content of the image.
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MIT's Media Laboratories and UK-based BT (formerly British Telecom)
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have launched a five-year project to develop a method to search
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image databases using analysis tools that do not require textual
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descriptions of the images.
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Alex Pentland, co-director of MIT's Vision and Modeling Group, said
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of the project's goal. "For example, a user could show a computer a
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person's picture and ask it to find all the images with this person
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in them. The computer would then retrieve all the pictures, images
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and video files which contain this same face."
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Vangard Notes...
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SHADES of 1984!! No doubt such technology offers up tremendous
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potential for the invasion of privacy. However, note that one
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can step away from the network by removing the badge or covering
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up the emitter so that it will not respond.
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Ron and I discussed this article and both agree that it would
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greatly ease communications in our respective work environments.
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Paging over a system wide intercom would be eliminated since the
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user would be directly targeted. We have long marvelled at some
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of the technologies as shown in daily use on Star Trek with
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their personal communicators and long for the day a commercial
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system would be available. Well, it looks like it is getting
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close to becoming a reality in everyday life.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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If you have comments or other information relating to such topics
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as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the
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Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page.
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Thank you for your consideration, interest and support.
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Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
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Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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If we can be of service, you may contact
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Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Page 5
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