1) First, a personal thanks from me (Ron) to all the people who worked so hard during the flurry of conferences and demos we have been involved with these last 3 weeks. The three back-to-back events (CSCW'92, Int'l TP Project meeting, CAS/CON) required near super-human effort to pull off in the style we did. Our staff, students, industry and academics did a remarkable job in coordinating and executing these complex events. In the process, we have literally showed the world that this project is made up of not only the foremost scientific experts in the area but is staffed and run by broadly talented, dedicated people with unmatched professionalism and class. Congratulations and thank you to you all.
2) This monday, Nov 23rd, we will be involved in a nice little PR event to mark Bell Canada's official partnership in the project. Bill, Ron and John Chattoe (in the UofT Demo room) will videoconference with the Honorable Ed Phillip (Minister of Industry, Trade and Technology), Stew Verge (VP Network Services, Bell Canada), Wes Scott (Pres. Bell Ontario) Ken Schuyler and Dave Cox (Bell Canada) and Peter Leach (TRIO) who will be at a downtown Toronto Bell Canada site. Photos will be taken, hands will be shaken and quotable quotes spoken ;-).
3> A reminder that the TP general meeting will be held on Nov 23rd at 12-1:00. Ken Schuyler (Bell) is trying to book the PICTEL multi-point unit up in Ottawa for our meeting. Thus far, these are the sites that will participate:
- TP UofT, Tor - TP OEG, Ott - BNR Nuns Island, QU - HP Palo Alto, CA - PICTEL, Danvers, MA
Please contact Ken Schuyler to give him your CODEC phone numbers: ph. (416) 353-4446, e-mail:
/DD.ID=KA.SCHUYLER/S=SCHUYLER/DD.SITE=TELECOM.CANADA/@NASAmail.nasa.gov
4) Our little video-conferencing network continues to expand:
- Peter Leach and our friends at TRIO now have video conferencing capability through a PICTEL CODEC. TRIO's numbers are (613) 599-7702 and (613) 599-7703 (PICTEL 2*56k). Contact person is Peter Leach (613) 592-9211
- The Telepresence Ottawa Engineering Group (Queensview site) CODEC numbers are (613) 820-3505 and (613) 820-2882 (PICTEL 2*56k). Contact person is Maciek Kozlowski (613) 820-0764.
- The Telepresence Univ. of Toronto CODEC numbers are (416) 971-2095 and (416) 971-2096 (PICTEL 2*56k). Contact person is Garry Beirne (416) 978-0705.
-We haven't got the IIIF server configured to auto-route a call to a specific workstation yet so, before you call, speak to the contact person.
5) The PARIS Project (IBM/Rogers partnership) people who visited us a few weeks ago will be revisiting us again on Monday the 23rd at 1:30 pm (yes, the same Monday as the Bell PR thing and the General Meeting). They are working on installing and developing services for a 6-MB/sec, ATM-based fibre ring around Toronto. They are here to explore possible synergies between our research and their project. All Telepresence academic and industry people are welcome to attend.
6) The six "Specification Documents" groups should be in full swing now. If you have not committed to a document format style yet, I'd like to propose that the template WORD file I sent each of you NOT be used. Instead, we use the style that Tom Milligan is using in his IIIF document since it would be difficult for him to change styles at this point. Please contact Tom to get a copy of his document to use as a template for yours. Coordinators: be prepared to talk about progress at Monday's meeting.
7) ITRC and TORCHI are sponsoring a downlink of "User Interface Strategies '93 - A live Satellite TV Broadcast". This years speakers are Ben Shneiderman, Marilyn Mantei, Thomas Furness and James Martin. The downlink site will be Hart House at the UofT. If you want to attend, Telepresence affiliated people can get in for $50 a head (includes lunch). Send your name, organization, address, phone #, e-mail and fax# to Rosanna Reid, ITRC, rosanna@itrchq.itrc.on.ca. You can arrange with her how to pay your money.
8) The Ontario Telepresence Project is please to present a talk by Peter Cochrane of British Telecom who will speak on Wednesday, November 25th from 11am - 12pm at the D.L. Pratt Building, University of Toronto, 6 King's College Road, rm 266. Local people are encouraged to contact Barbara to arrange individual meetings and demos with Prof. Cochrane the afternoon of Nov. 25th. Please contact Barbara Whitment, 416-978-0778 (ph), 416-978-4765 (fax) or email: silverbear@dgp.totonto.edu. Abstract and Bio below:
New forms of display technology will allow effective human interaction at a distance, telepresence and the visualization of complex systems. The 3D FAX, automatic text translation and compression, sparse input data retrieval and storage, new forms of software, networks and intelligence, are additional advances that we might confidently expect. All of these will contribute to a new world of work and play far removed, and greatly enhanced beyond what we enjoy today.
Peter Cochrane, Professor Divisional Manager Systems Research British Telecom Laboratories
Peter Cochrane is a graduate of Trent Polytechnic and Essex Universities. He is both a Fellow of the IEE and IEEE. He is currently a visiting professor at Essex, Southampton and Kent Universities in the UK. He joined BT Laboratories in 1973 and has worked on both analogue and digital switching and transmission studies at a national and international level.
From 1988 he managed the Long Lines Division where he was involved in the development of intensity modulated and coherent optical systems, photonic amplifiers and wavelength routed networks.
He has published widely in all areas of transmission system studies and has been a consultant to a wide range of international companies.
Back to Telepresence News
Back to tp Home page