October 05, 2008 –
Ramesh Jain envisions E2E supporting telemedicine, elder care, education and event participation.
When Alexander Graham Bell uttered the famous directive “Mr. Watson, come here,” into his new invention in 1876, he couldn’t have fathomed the technology explosion he was unleashing.
Telecommunications would evolve from wall phones to portables, from cellular to VoIP, from conference calls to teleconferencing. And now, there’s Environment-to-Environment (E2E).
The next-generation telepresence system is under development by CALIT2 academic affiliate Ramesh Jain, Donald Bren Professor of Information and Computer Sciences, and his research team. E2E uses sensors and complex data analysis to allow people in far-flung locations to interact with each other in new and unprecedented ways.
Free to Move About
Current teleconferencing equipment requires participants to face a camera and stay within range of a microphone. Jain’s system will free people to move around their environments without losing audio or video connection with colleagues in remote locations.
“We’re trying to get [people] away from dependency on their devices. Phones, computers, cameras – all of our current communication actions depend on being connected to these,” he says.
E2E employs a variety of built-in sensors – video cameras, microphones, RFID tags and heat sensors, among others – that track movement in an environment. The sensor data is analyzed, interpreted and converted into a virtual rendering that serves as a user interface.
Meanwhile, in the connected environment(s), participants see the activity from the first environment in two formats. On their computer monitors, they see the actual video feed, and in a smaller window that can be enlarged if necessary, the corresponding real-time virtual version. By clicking on a specific avatar in the virtual depiction, the user instructs the system’s sensors to zero in on the matching subjects in the actual environment. “The software switches automatically to the camera [and/or microphone] that gives the best view of what you want to see or hear,” Jain explains.
Unlimited Interactions
The system has numerous real-world applications. Doctors in remote locations can visit a patient’s home or hospital room from hundreds of miles away, conferring and making recommendations. Family or caregivers can communicate with and monitor the elderly. Students can participate in lab experiments even if their schools don’t have the necessary equipment. And long-distance colleagues can collaborate on product design.
The system enables users to gain additional information about the people or objects in the room by clicking on their avatars, which will launch a text box or video. Click on an object in a laboratory: the text box offers an explanation of its function. Click on a patient’s head as he sits in the emergency room: his MRI appears.
Another feature allows users to view objects from different angles, as though they’re walking through the environment.
“The devices and the underlying design architecture should play a supporting role,” Jain says. “Users should be able to interact in their natural settings and let the system find the most appropriate input and output devices to support communication.”
Jain plans to have a prototype ready sometime next winter. Later phases will incorporate additional features, like projectors that can beam images anywhere in the room, eliminating the need for cumbersome computer monitors.
Partnership Plans
Jain’s proof-of-concept is being built and tested in the UCI Experiential Systems Laboratory in the CALIT2 Building. He and three students spent the summer in Singapore, working with National University of Singapore and a government office to outfit a sister lab there that will connect to the UCI lab. The partners have submitted a request for funding that will allow them to conduct joint research using the connected labs as a beta model.
He concedes there will be “enormous” privacy issues inherent in the finished product, but says society will find a way to accept them. “Privacy issues keep arising as society progresses,” he shrugs, listing credit card transactions and online purchasing as examples. “If you start worrying about that too early, you’re never going to build anything. I believe in first building things and then relying on society to decide the best ways to use them.”
Ultimately, Jain would like to see E2E available for consumer use, connecting families with each other, and with a variety of cultural and educational institutions. Future plans include advancing E2E towards what Jain calls “event-ware,” a system that will make it easy for interested parties to participate in a variety of events, regardless of location.
“In a few years, we want to have a system where it will not matter where this event is going on; you’ll just know that there is something (occurring) on a particular topic and it’s an open meeting. You should be able to search the Internet, find out what the meeting is, connect to it and participate in it,” he says.
— Anna Lynn Spitzer
