Electrical & Computer Engineering, ECE

Faculty Advisor

Wayne Burleson 

Team Members

Chinedu OkongwuAndrew Maxwell

Awais Kazi 

CollaboratorsW. Richards (Rick) Adrion, Professor of Computer Science

Paul Dickson, Computer Science PHD Student

Snapshot

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Have you ever wanted to have your own production of something happening right now in a compact, easy to share, portable way?

WE ALL HAVE!• Lecture• Special Guest speaker• Review session• Media event

There is a need to automatically put together any event in real time, and be able to share it quickly and easily right then and there if needed.

SNAPSHOT

BACKGROUND

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SNAPSHOT

Snapshot is...• Portable, easy to use device that automatically

• Captures• Authors• Playback a desired event• All done in real-time!

Delivers high resolution “SNAPSHOTS” of an event as the event is happening.

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Haven't I seen this before?

Yes• AnySteam Apreso Classroom

• Networked System Only• Audio, no video• Long time to load• Indexed based on arbitrary times

But not like SNAPSHOT• Networked or stand-alone (portable)• Audio & Video• Quick load all at once• Indexed based on what is happening

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DELIVERABLES

Design & Develop• Complete documentation and specifications

• User Guide• Two working prototypes

• Laptop driven• All-in-one system

• Validation• Real-world testing scenarios

• Lectures (Main testing scenario)• Review sessions• Guest speakers• Media events

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Principle of Operation

3-Step Process• Capture• Authoring• Playback

Capture

Playback

Authoring

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CAPTURE

Capture needed information• 3 Inputs

• Laptop• SNAPSHOTS are taken via VGA2USB framegrabber

• Video• Recorded, stored in memory

• Audio• Recorded from wireless microphone, stored in memory

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AUTHORING

Real-time processing of lecture materials• Computer Capture Software

• Generates SNAPSHOTS of lecture material• Timing data

Process Audio and Video• Break up video and audio into SNAPSHOTS of them from

timing data

Merge all 3 into JMANIC Presentation• JMANIC is Courseware developed by UMass CompSCI

department for distance learning• The audio and video are compressed before merge

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PLAYBACK

• Final Product– JMANIC Presentation

• Final files composed in one directory

• Slide window– SNAPSHOTS of lecture material

• Video window

• Clickable table of contents– Navigation through presentation

– Output• Saved to thumb drive via USB

• Playback by simply selecting one file

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Equipment

• Epiphan VGA 2 USB– Sends analog VGA signal through the USB 2.0 bus

after converting it into a digital image

• Camera– Take 640 x 480 resolution frames– AT 28 frames per sec

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Data Rates, Video & Audio

Digital Video Camera• At 640 x 480 to 800 x 600 resolution• Data Rate is about 96-150Mbits/sec.

The Data Rate for the USB 2.0 bus is up to 480Mbits/sec.

Audio• Wireless mic connected to camera• Wireless mic connected directly to computer

Output file size• About 200MBytes

• Depending on length of presentation

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Equipment cont. & costs

All-in-one System• Embedded Linux Boards (ongoing research)• Needs to have

• USB Ports (At least 2)• Audio in port• LCD Display/VGA out

Costs• Epiphan VGA2USB - $200• Board - $200-$300• Total about $500

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System Diagram

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What we will do