Components
Core Collaborative Tool: After studying several collaborative technologies, the team selected AccessGrid, an open-source videoconferencing system, to enable multiple groups to connect simulatneously from multiple locations worldwide. In addition we set up our Collab Room, the lab for our testbeds.
Core Application: Remote Stereo Viewer (RSV) was selected as the high-bandwidth medical education application. Sakti Srivastava, the Clinical Anatomy Lead, had developed content for this application and Steve Senger, the developer of the application, was committed to developing new features for the testbed events:
- Teacher should be able to add labels and then turn them on or off.
- Labels should be write protected when not in edit mode
- Video and audio status of students should be easily visible to teacher and students can hear and see instructor's actions
Use of Internet2: The commercial Internet does not support the high bandwidth needed for the Remote Stereo Viewer (RSV) application. Interactive retrieval of a sequence of images results in the transmission of bursts of large quantities of data. In addition the application requires multicast, a feature that allows two or more people to simultaneously view the same image set and collaborate. RSV clients are able to form collaborative groups so that one user can assume the role of leader for the group. When active, group clients follow the leader through the image set. In addition, the leader controls a "pointer" which can be used to mark locations in the image.