Advances in virtual design and visual center concepts

Innovations in interactive audio, video, and data transfer have given rise to a multitude of new applications such as screen sharing, multimedia, and distributed processing. At Florida International University Electrical and Computer Engineering Laboratories, work has been in progress to define and develop the virtual design center (VDC), and virtual visual center (VVC) concepts with the help of network interactive audio, video, and data transfer mechanisms on the existing phone lines using the ISDN (integrated services digital network). The VDC would become the next generation design tool for engineering, software, hardware, and system design. The VVC would become the next generation remote monitoring and control operation. Day care centers where children of working parents usually spend their time can be easily networked together so that the working parents can talk and see their children from remote locations. The VVC would also help monitor elderly persons in nursing homes. The elderly people do not have to be isolated, but be active members in the interactive audio and video based VVC. The authors present the hardware and software requirements of the VDC and WC realizations. The operational models of the VDC and WC are also discussed with the associated results. Additional applications, such as teletraining centers (TTC) using the VDC concepts and telesecurity centers (TSC) using the VVC concepts, are examined.