Remote-access education based on image acquisition and processing through the Internet

This paper describes a new system for remote education through the Internet based on image processing. By means of an image acquisition system installed in the authors' laboratory, the user may interact with the remote environment and obtain visual information of the task being developed. The images acquired may be processed in order to obtain information concerning the training task. At the end of the exercise, students must answer questions related to key issues of the process and send the answers to a server. Finally, the system automatically evaluates the results. The aim of this system is to provide every element necessary for the students to self-train: theoretical background, lab equipment, and self-evaluation methods. The internet constitutes the ideal way to reach these objectives.