Building and Using an Access Grid Node

Terry Disz

The Futures Lab

Argonne National Laboratory

The Access Grid

• Access Grid does for people what the computational Grid does for machines

• The Access Grid project focus is to enable groups of people to interact with Grid resources and to use the Grid technology to support group to group collaboration at a distance

– Distributed Lectures and seminars

– Remote participation in panel discussions

– Virtual site visits meetings

– Complex distributed grid based demonstrations

Access Grid Project Goals • Enable Group-to-Group Interaction and Collaboration

– Connecting People and Teams via the Grid

• Improve the User Experience: Go Beyond Teleconferencing– Provide a Sense of Presence– Support Natural Interaction Modalities

• Use Quality but Affordable Digital IP Based Audio/video– Leverage IP Open Source Tools

• Enable Complex Multisite Visual and Collaborative Experiences– Integrate With High-end Visualization Environments– ActiveMural, Powerwall, CAVE Family, Workbenches

• Build on Integrated Grid Services Architecture– Develop New Tools Specifically Support Group Collaboration

Access Grid is Beyond Desktop Teleconferencing• Physical Groupwork spaces

– lighting, audio, video, screens

• Virtual collaborative spaces– strong metaphors for resource organization

– interaction scope management

• Agenda driven scenarios and work sessions – lectures, brainstorming, demos, meetings, planning

• Integration with GRID services – resource management, security, services, brokering

• Debut at Chautauqua ‘99 in August and Sept.– Boston U, U Kentucky, and UNM– ACCESS, Argonne, NCSA, EVL, Utah (supporting sites)

Some AG Definitions

The Access Grid: The infrastructure and software technologies enabling linking together distributed Active(Work)Spaces to support highly distributed collaborations in science, engineering and education, integrated with and providing seamless access to the resources of the National Technology Grid.

Access Grid Node: The ensemble of systems and services managed and scheduled as a coherent unit (i.e. basic component of a virtual venue).

Access Grid Site: A physical site (admin domain, networking POP, etc.) that supports one or more Access Grid Nodes. Access Grid Sites need to be Grid services enabled (authentication, QoS, security, resource management, etc.)

AG Functional Requirements

• Natural Interactions– Full Duplex, hands-free audio– Active Echo Cancellation– Better than telephone quality audio

• Presence– Multiple Video Streams– Multiple perspectives– Large Scale display

• 3072x768• 18’x4.5’

• Space– Suitable for small groups– Comfortable Working environment

Ambient mic(tabletop)

Presentermic

Presentercamera

Audience camera

Access Grid Basics

• Designed spaces for group interactions

• Hands free audio

• Multiple Video and Audio streams

• Wide field of view

Access Grid Concepts • AG prototype Demonstration at UKY Chautauqua

• Shared PowerPoint• Large-format displays• Multiple audio and video streams• Supporting distributed meetings

Access Grid Concepts

• Distributed PowerPoint

• Co-presence with remote groups

• Highest quality but affordable audio and video

• Multi-mode operation

AG at the Chautauquas – A Panel Session

Physical Spaces to Support Groupwork

• Overall room layout– large enough to support groups and workplace tools

– configured so that both local and remote interactions work

• Lighting and camera geometry – studio type environment with specified placement, levels

– well tested and calibrated for good image quality

• Audio geometry– multiple microphones and speakers

– tested to provide good coverage

– designed to support audio clarity and some spatialization

Access Grid Capabilities today

• Display 3 commodity Projectors

• Video QCIF (½ NTSC) x up to 40 streams

• Audio 16 bit mono/stereo multichannel

• Computing 4 PCs (partitioned by function)

• Software OS Video/Audio/Collaboration

• Network multicast enabled ~ 20 Mbit/s

• Production > 100 events in last year

Components of an AG Node

DisplayComputer

Video CaptureComputer

Audio CaptureComputer Echo

Canceller/Mixer

Network

RGB Video

NTSC Video

Analog Audio

Digital Video

Digital Video

Digital Audio

Shared App,Control

ControlComputer

RS232 Serial

• Software, Production Issues

Equipment – PC’s

• 4 PC’s, minimum Pentium 2, 550MHz– Display Machine

• 1 - Matrox G200-quad multiple display card

• 1 – Matrox G400 dual head display card

• Windows 2000

– Audio Capture Machine• Linux

• 2 or more - Soundblaster PCI 128 card

– Video Capture Machine• Dual CPU

• Linux

• 4 – Hauppage WinTV PCI capture cards

– Control machine• Win 98

Equipment - Sound

• Gentner AP400 or AP800 Echo Cancel box

• Genelec speakers (2)

• Microphones – 4 Maximum on the Gentner– For table top use, Crown pcc 160

– Wireless, Vega R22/T25

– Room use – Crown PZM-30D

Equipment - Cameras

Sony PC-Cam http://www.picturephone.com/fp_sony1.htm

Videolabs FlexCam http://www.picturephone.com/fp_vlab1.htm

Canon VC-C3 pan/tilt camera http://www.picturephone.com/fp_cnon1.htm

Sony EVI-D30 pan/tilt camera http://www.picturephone.com/fp_sony3.htm

Devserv http://www-itg.lbl.gov/mbone/devserv/homepage.html

Projection Technology - Projectors

• Features to look for– LCD – small, light, bright (1000+ lumens)– Uniformity– Low cost - $ 3,500 - $5000– focus from 3.5’ to 38’– screen size from 24” to 300”– Quiet – fans can be noisy

• Some we use– Proxima 9250, 9250+– Epson 710c, 7500c

• Projector Mounts– Allow easy alignment– Sturdy

Software

• Windows 2000 Software– AG Virtual Venue Software

Installation

– Microsoft Office 2000

• Windows 98– Gentner Control Software

• Linux– Redhat 6.2

– AG Software install script• Installs Video, audio capture,

resource managers, etc

• Mbone Tools as modified by Argonne

– Vic, Rat (UCL 2.8)

• Virtual Venue Software– Implements persistent “spaces”

– Controls the 4 pc’s

• Multicast Beacon– AG uses multicast protocol

– Beacon Viewer

• AG MUD

• Voyager Multimedia recording and playback engine

• Distributed Powerpoint

• VNC

Virtual Collaboration Spaces

• Structure and organization supports intended use– activity dependent

• secure channels for “private sessions”

• broadcast channels for public meetings

• Supports multiple interaction types (modalities)– text, audio, video, graphics, animation, VR

• Can exploit strong spatial metaphor– interaction scoping

– resource organization

– navigation and discovery

• Needed to escape the tyranny of the desktop

Backchannel Communication

• An often-overlooked aspect of meetings is side-band communications(People whisper to each other)

• How can we enable separate channels of communications between meeting attendees at different sites?

• Text chat room as part of the virtual meeting room

• Persistent

• Capable of storing objects

• Searchable

• Recordable

• Client-server based

AG Deployment Today

Argonne National Laboratory Boston University Brazil Caltech Clark Atlanta University ERDC Florida International University Florida State University Georgia Tech Insors Integrated Communications, Inc. Internet 2 Jackson State University Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College LANL LBNL Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC) Montana State University Motorola NCAR NCSA North Dakota State University Ohio Supercomputing Center Princeton University San Diego Supercomputing Center Sandia National Laboratory Sheridan College TITECH University of Alaska, Fairbanks University of Arkansas at Little Rock University of Chicago University of Hawaii at Manoa University of Heidelburg University of Illinois University of Illinois at Chicago University of Kansas University of Kentucky University of Manchester University of Michigan University of Montana University of New Mexico University of South Carolina University of Utah University of Washington West Virginia University Beijing Aeronautical Institute Korean Gaming Society Arctic Region Supercomputer Center Australia Amsterdam Italy

•EPSCOR Grant – Closing the digital divide–Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, West Virginia

Collaborative Data Visualization and Exploration

vic

Network

vtkVisualizationApplication

vtkNetwork Interactor

vic

vic

vic

vic

Mars Exploration

Meteorite

Heart Simulation

Fluid Flow

Globus Tutorial

Extending the Access Grid

• Distributed PowerPoint

• Co-presence with remote groups

• Highest quality but affordable audio and video

• Multi-mode operation

AG at the Chautauquas – A Panel Session

Education

The Utah Engineering Experiment Station (UEES) at the University of Utah would like to have a reminder notice regarding the upcoming virtual workshop “Writing Winning Proposals” to be sent to all Access Grid members. The workshop is scheduled for May 10-11 in the Windmer virtual room. The workshop is co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and is open to all individuals interested in improving overall grant writing abilities. I would appreciate, if your organization could send a reminder notice to all Access

Grid members regarding the workshop.

 

Grant Writing Workshop

Globus Tutorial

Steps in building your node

• Start a beacon

• Select and design a space

• Order equipment

• Assemble

• Install Software

Argonne Ag Web Pages

• http://www-fp.mcs.anl.gov/fl/Accessgrid/