Design and implementation of a system for multimedial distributed teaching and scientific conferences

Computer-based telecommunication technology together with audio and video technology may help to improve the quality of teaching and scientific conferences. Examples are the use of PC- or notebook-based presentations in talks and courses, teleteaching via ISDN or ATM lines, and self-learning based on CD-ROM courseware. A more comprehensive scenario for the application of multimedia telecommunication to teaching and scientific conferences is presented. The scenario is illuminated from the view of application and technical implementation. As new aspects, it includes the possibilities of remote control of devices and signal processing, particularly image processing. Some of the ideas were implemented into a first prototype. The HS113 software outlined allows one to control the devices as well as the transmission of video, audio and whiteboard streams from any location in the network. This flexibility is achieved by combining the possibilities of the programming language Java and the MBone videoconferencing tools.