Collaborative Multimedia Applications

John R. Nicol, Yechezkal S. Gutfreund, Jim Paschetto, Kimberly S. Rush, and Christopher Martin

Communications of the ACM

Vol. 42, No. 1 (January 1999), Pages 79-85

Reviewer: E. Udoh

The software technologies needed to construct distributed or networked multimedia applications were until recently wholly and painstakingly custom-built by programmers. This situation improved with the advent of new Internet technologies such as Java applets, CORBA and advanced browsers. As opined in this paper, all that is now required is for the programmer to assemble these richly available software components from the Internet and integrate them by component programming.

To demonstrate and harness these new Internet technologies the authors developed an interactive multimedia application called TourGuide. The TourGuide has one or more users that control a number of tourists through certain Web sites, with the users capable of discussing with one another and viewing the same Web pages concurrently. This was achieved by integrating real-time audio streams from the Real Network Server, telephony component from the OnLive! Technologies Server, video streams from the VDOnet Corporation Server and playback supporting stream objects from the Microsoft Corporation Server. In the course of integrating these different components, the authors found what they described as “ functional holes” or missing components that could be resolved only by custom technology. In this vein, a component named Orchestrator was developed for the Tourguide to coordinate events and actions between applets across the network.

This insightful paper will undoubtedly appeal to many audiences in the emerging multimedia and communication business, that need a cost-effective and timely production of high-quality software. Without question, this paper discourages the reinvention of the wheel by emphasizing software reusability, a basic tenet in software engineering.

A Contribution To The Design Process

KLAUS B. BAERENTSEN AND HENNING SLAVENSKY

Communications of the ACM

Vol. 42, No. 5 (May 1999), Pages 73-77

Reviewer: E. Udoh

System design, driven by creativity and technological advancement, plays a central role in a competitive economy as discussed here. The authors present a case study of how a home electronics company – BANG & OLUFSEN (B &O), renowned for design, sound, picture, user integration and system integration, employs the design process to successfully market its products. B&O strives to make its products “easy, enjoyable and inspiring” to use by excelling in user interface. But the growing importance of cyberspace – currently prevalent in human-computer interaction (HCI) at work place – in home electronics, poses a technological challenge in the construction of advanced interface suitable for nonprofessionals or novice users.

B&O approached this usability problem by involving in the system development a blend of specialists, viz. team leader, user interface designer, psychologist, coordinator, software developer, narrator and integrator. These professionals are expected to contribute their quotas in the final product that will be beneficial to the users. This approach builds on the concept of user interaction in contrast to the traditional method of merely fixing user problems. By such mix of theory and practice, B&O tries to offer the users both the emotional and cognitive experience.

In a nutshell, I found the paper enjoyable reading, a source of useful information and ideas on system design, and more pointedly on interface. Furthermore, the lucid discussion on the synergistic approach to the usability problem is a plus to the ongoing evolution of software engineering.