The Access Grid

1
The Access Grid

• An Introduction

Rick Stevens, Terry Disz, Lisa Childers, Bob
Olson Argonne National Laboratory www.mcs.anl.gov/
fl/accessgrid (fl-info_at_mcs.anl.gov)
2
Physical Node Design
Presenter mic
Presenter camera
Ambient mic (tabletop)
Audience camera

• Spaces for small groups
• Wide field of view
• Comfortable
• Persistent connection

3
Audio

• Hands free
• No click to talk
• No searching for microphones
• Never have to think about microphones
• Interactive
• Interrupt other speakers
• Multiple conversations at the same time
• Full duplex
• Clear
• No background noise
• Rich-sounding speech
• No feedback
• No echo

4
Video

• Scale of imagery life-sized
• Highest quality, but affordable
• Multiple video streams
• Presenter close-up
• Audience view
• Audience close-up
• Display wall

5
Data

• Shared
• Powerpoint
• VNC
• Visualization
• Archived
• Voyager

6
Network

• Hardening multicast infrastructure
• http//beaconserver.accessgrid.org9999/
• Large-scale networking testbed
• Higher bandwidth
• QoS
• Networking people active members of the AG
  community

7
The Muds

• Two muds are used in the AG community
• Access Grid Hangout Room
• Character generation is controlled
• Characters reside there permenantly
• Long-term social relationships have developed
• Access Grid Venue
• Character generation is automatic
• Characters come and go
• Usage is event-driven

8
Virtual Collaboration Spaces
Virtual Venue

• A persistent location on the grid
• Not a physical space
• A dimension in which several physical spaces can
  be co-located
• A place that can be entered and exited
• Supports multiple interaction modalities
• Text, audio, video graphics, animation, VR
• A scoping mechanism to support multiple
  concurrent meetings
• A resource that can be reserved