Diffusion and Mathematical Teaching

Speaker: Milton Chen, Stanford University
Date/hour: August 26, 2002 - 10am
Local: IMPA-Instituto de Matematica Pura e Aplicada, Auditorio Ricardo Mañe
Address: Estrada Dona Castorina, 110 - Jardim Botanico, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

Abstract:
A user's videoconferencing experience often parallels that of the videoconferencing history: the vision and expectation at first is invariably followed by frustrations and disappointments. A set of common assumptions has emerged from these collective experiences. By designing, implementing, and evaluating a multiparty videoconferencing system, we provide evidence to challenge four common assumptions about videoconferencing:

1. high-fidelity low-latency AV requires expensive hardware,
2. extensive training is required for installation and operation,
3. life-size displays of remote participants are ideal, and
4. eye contact is not possible.

Next, I will give a demo of the world´s first software-based TV-quality videoconferencing system. The software embeds as a web component, and transforms Internet Explorer into a videoconferencing portal; as a consequence, the software does not require installation and can be started as easily as clicking on a web page.

Milton Chen is a Ph.D. student in Human Computer Interaction at Stanford University. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with highest honors. He worked as a media researcher at Intels Microcomputer Research Lab for three years, where he built a large stereoscopic display, implemented a 3D graphics toolkit, and created an interactive digital television program about Michelangelo´s David. He has published in ACM Multimedia, IEEE Multimedia, Eurographics Workshop on Graphics Hardware, and CHI.