WebELS: Multimedia e-Meeting System to Support International Cooperation for Sustainable Development

WebELS: Multimedia e-Meeting system to support international cooperation for

sustainable development

1National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo 101-8430 JAPAN 2The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Tokyo 101-8430 JAPAN

e-mail: [email protected]

A.J. BERENA1, S.Chunwijitra1, M.Osamnia2, H.Okada1, H.Ueno1

What it takes to support international cooperation for sustainable development?

Money?

Time?

People?

Communication Channel?

Technology transfer?

How about in the case of Sahara Solar Breeder (SSB) Project?

Let’s look and see!

SSB Project’s Education and Training Program to uphold international cooperation

Researcher Exchange Program

Adapting WebELS for Distance Education

Annual Sustainable Energy Forum and Workshop

Role of WebELS in the SSB Project

To provide a communication channel between researchers in Japan and Algeria for technology transfer and to keep an active collaboration. Specifically, WebELS is to support: Self-Learning – where professors, lecturers and experts in the field of energy engineering can create course contents to be archived on the web for online self-learning to achieve knowledge transfer; and Distance Meeting – where stakeholders can hold Internet-based distance meeting domestically and internationally, instead of the conventional face-to-face meeting, thereby minimizing the cost incurred in the later.

WebELS in the first 3 Years of SSB Project

Case 1. Online Conference Distribution using WebELS V6 - Example: 1st AASEF in Nagoya in 2011 - with participants from adjacent room and remote campuses


- presentations were created as self-learning contents after the conference

Course Authoring


- presentations were created as self-learning contents after the conference

Learning contents are available for viewing on the WebELS SSB Server and other WebELS Servers.


Problems Encountered on online conference distribution:

• remote users had a hard time determining the current presentation

• Remote users are informed by chat messaging of the change in presenter – but it is not a guaranteed method


Case 2. Distance Meetings using WebELS V6 - used for domestic distance meeting in Japan - used for energy engineering lecture in Algeria - candidate researcher/trainee’s interview between Japan and Algeria

e-Meetings Trials using WebELS V6 since 2011:

Participants from UK, Algeria, Japan Participants from USTO, Algeria and NII, Japan


Problems Encountered in the e-Meeting: • Influence of unstable and low speed bandwidth

USTO, ALGERIA

NII, TOKYO, JAPAN

U K

Downstream is very slow.

WebELS Server

USTO, ALGERIA

NII, TOKYO, JAPAN

U K

Downstream is very slow.

WebELS Server

Participants: Khiat (USTO, DZ), Matsuura (Home, UK, 8Mbps), Sila (NII, JP), John (NII, JP)

Network Scenario



Results on the e-Meeting Trial conducted on October 13, 2011 Participants: Khiat (USTO, DZ), Matsuura (Home, UK, 8Mbps), Sila (NII, JP), John (NII, JP)

At the start of the meeting at 8:30 CET (16:30 JST), video streaming was clear and smooth in both ways.

Few minutes later at NII, reception of Ms Khiat video and audio was still smooth and clear. But at USTO, video from UK and NII were frozen and audio was delayed for about 5-10 seconds.

Chat messages received by Ms Khiat have delay about 5-10 seconds.



Video Meeting Very Good

Video Meeting Unavailable

T ime of Day

7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 AM Algeria Standard Time

3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 PM Japan Standard Time (JST)

T ime of Day

7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 AM Algeria Standard Time

3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 PM Japan Standard Time (JST)

USTO Network Traffic

?

?

?



Traffic

Audio/Video Required BW Traffic

Audio/Video Required BWTraffic

Low Traffic Medium Traffic High Traffic

Available BW

Line Speed

Traffic




Available BW

Line Speed

Effect of Network Traffic on Delivery of Video Data

Δt1 Δt1 Δt2

Audio/video data incurred longer delay due to buffering at network devices

Traffic




Available BW

Line Speed

Traffic




Available BW

Line Speed

Where: Δt1 = length of time to deliver the video data with sufficient available bandwidth Δt2 = length of time to deliver the video data with insufficient available bandwidth line speed = allocated bandwidth for the link; in aggregate links, it could be the bottleneck link. traffic = network traffic by other users Audio/Video Required BW = the minimum bandwidth required to deliver the video data without buffering.

WebELS Meeting Ver. 7 – Released September 2013

Required Server Components

Linux OS (CentOS)

Apache Tomcat

Red5

Java JDK

MySQL

LibreOffice, etc

Required Client Components

Software:

OS (Windows, Mac OS, Linux)

Browser (IE, Chrome, Firefox)

Adobe Flash Player Plugin

Hardware:

Web Camera

Microphone

System Infrastructure

Notable Improvements on WebELS Ver.7

User Interface – video meeting and slide presentation in one panel


User Roles – admin, presenter and chairman functions

Synchronization by remote shared object technique.

Admin’s Function

Select Admin Cam & Mic Control

Shared Display

Layout Control

Presenter’s Functions

Select Presenter

Text Mode

Cursor Mode Zoom & Move

Annotation Content Management On-the-fly

Slide Navigator ( Mouse Click or Arrow Key )

Chairman’s Function

Sort content by last update

Sort content by title

Select and Change content

Select Chairman


Optimized video stream data – low, medium and high quality

At normal quality, at least 100kbps bandwidth is required for 4 users with web camera and microphone turned-on.


Slide Prediction Technique – to minimize slide synchronization delay

With slide prediction, the next slide is downloaded onto the local machine before slide changing, thus download delay is reduced.


Multimedia support – text, image, vector graphics, video


Multimedia support – text, image, vector graphics, video

Multimedia Slide Presentation Video Conferencing

Video

WebELS Meeting Ver. 7 Practical Usage

Online Conference Distribution

Meeting Server Conference Presentation

User2

(Chairman)

Individual Listener

User4

User1

(Presenter)

Group Listeners

User5

User3

(Admin)

Internet

E-Meeting Between NII and USTO

» Video Meeting before 9:00 AM at USTO is working well, but deteriorates after this time and becomes unavailable.

» Recommended to install a special line (ADSL) for e-Meeting purposes using WebELS.

» Hopefully, this ADSL will be available within our visit here in Oran.

Conclusion

» The improvements on the WebELS Meeting System Ver7 provides:

» Easier management of online meeting » Easier management of online conference

distribution » Video meeting usage in a least 100kbps Internet

bandwidth for 4 users with camera and microphone turned on

» Minimized slide changing delay in low-speed Internet environment

Future Work

» Automatic Meeting Recording Function • A function to allow the presenter/admin to record

the online meeting and be able to export this content and be imported onto the learning module. This proposal can solve the lack of online learning materials.

» Mobile Support • Migrate the system to allow usage in mobile

devices such as tablets and smart phones.

Screen Shots

Multimedia Slide Presentation

Video Conferencing

Video

Screen Shots

Meeting Panel Layout

Standard (Video and Slide) Small Video

Screen Shots

Meeting Panel Layout

Presentation (Available in full-screen)

Wide Video (Available in full-screen)

Screen Shots

File Uploader

Screen Shots

Content Editor

Thank you for your attention.