ITR: Wireless Client-server Technologies for Ubiquitous Multimedia Computing

The Computer Science and Engineering, and Telecommunication Departments at Michigan State University (MSU) requested support to conduct research involving the categories: Human-Computer Interface, Information Management, and Scalable Information Infrastructure. Three existing research laboratories will be connected and used as a testbed to facilitate this collaborative interdisciplinary research: High-Speed Networking & Performance Lab (HSNP), Media and Entertainment Technologies Lab (MET), and Media Interface and Network Design Lab (MIND). A primary objective of the proposed research is to further advance the client-server technologies for a ubiquitous multimedia computing environment. Since ubiquitous computing capability may take the form of advanced personal digitized assistants (PDAs), wearable computer systems featuring heads up displays, or argumented reality systems, this proposal addresses key issues which include: (1) personal environment data capture, (2) environmental data salience, (3) transport of multimedia data over wireless and heterogeneous network systems in a client-server environment, (4) media access and retrieval, and (5) human-computer-interface (HCI) design and analysis. Some of the significant questions that are addressed in the project are: (a) given continuous audio and video capture, what is the best choice of content to archive in a personal multimedia database? (b) how can audio and video capture of unconstrained content be used as an effective query mechanism for a multimedia database? (c) how can perceived latency and communications performance be optimized in a wireless environment where bandwidth, error rates, and latency are continuously variable and dependent upon many environmental conditions?, (d) how can the quality-of-service for the transport of real-time multimedia traffic be guaranteed using heterogeneous networks and wireless network systems?, and (e) what should be the design principles to support a fully mobile user engaged in hand-free high-bandwidth, collaborative work and communication? New algorithms and techniques will be developed and tested to address these questions either via simulation, emulation, or experimentation. It is anticipated that the existing facilities will be significantly enhanced via a pending NSF research equipment proposal. This proposed equipment (e.g., VoD servers, multimedia lap tops, WaveLan products, wearable argumented reality interfaces) will be the defining infrastructure to support a sophisticated testbed, connecting three research laboratories (HSNP, MET, MIND) via wireless links. The multi-lab testbed will be used for the experimental phase of the project. As an effort to broaden the participation in our research, the PIs will invite interested faculty (via two-week summer workshops) and students (via ten-week summer research experience) from HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) to work with them during the three summers. Additionally, the PIs will invite a few interested professionals from industry to participate in the research initiatives.