aBe PaZoS SoLaTie

Conference recording hardware

Thu Jun 4, 2009

This post is for geeks :)   Today we tested a device that will be used to record lectures at the university. The device is a computer with a built in touch screen. This computer has two video inputs, one for a video camera that records the person giving the speech, and another video input for the laptop of the presenter. The device records sound, the presenter, and his slides. The system automatically does OCR in the slides, and it indexes the text, so it can be searched afterwards. Then it sends the presentation to the Internet, either in real time or later when a connection is available. The conference is then available for students to be seen online, including an automatically generated time line that includes texts and slides. If the presentation is real time, people watching the conference can interact with the presenter, for example sending questions. It’s also possible to upload a presentation to the server from the presenters laptop, using it’s own microphone and webcam. The streaming then happens using a RED5 Flash server (open source).   Yesterday by accident the power supply blew up (don’t ask), but an indian technician had it back working today in just an hour. Miquel was very happy about the fast reparation. So for the test we connected everything up, showing Miquel’s two Ugandan helpers how it all works. I spoke a few words to the camera while clicking through a power point presentation, and then it was all uploaded to the server almost automatically, where it could be seen in a web catalogue of presentations.   The system will offer a lot of educational content online to students and professionals in the continent. Soon a fat optic fiber will give Africa fast access from one university to another, and to the rest of the online world ( see http://www.seacom.mu/intro.html ) making online education a reality.   Going back to my cube :)   By the way: I haven’t seen a single mosquito here… and maybe… a total of one fly? (I guess in the country side it’s something different)

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Categories: photo text work Tags: mosquito net Places: uganda