Changes

This project does not aim to recreate Skype or similar central-server small-scale conferencing software. This project's local-peer-discovery and mass-broadcasting architecture would be of use in a classroom setting for the following reasons:

This project does not aim to recreate Skype or similar central-server small-scale conferencing software. This project's local-peer-discovery and mass-broadcasting architecture would be of use in a classroom setting for the following reasons:

As we have seen in classroom settings such as MIT's TEAL project (for teaching introductory Physics), in the context of displaying live information from a  to a large group of students for an experiment, lecture, or the like, a video feed must be established and broadcast, ideally via several video displays. In TEAL, many projectors placed throughout the classroom are used for this purpose; however for an elementary school this would be prohibitively expensive. Assuming said elementary school is running a pilot program of Sugar-equipped laptops, they can instead have each student's laptop "listen" to incoming audio and video broadcasts, and display it when received. This also has the advantage of  

As we have seen in classroom settings such as MIT's TEAL project (for teaching introductory Physics), in the context of displaying live information from a  to a large group of students for an experiment, lecture, or the like, a video feed must be established and broadcast, ideally via several video displays. In TEAL, many projectors placed throughout the classroom are used for this purpose; however for an elementary school this would be prohibitively expensive. Assuming said elementary school is running a pilot program of Sugar-equipped laptops, they can instead have each student's laptop "listen" to incoming audio and video broadcasts, and display it when received.

 

To summarize, this is essentially more of an attempt to replicate what projectors, presentations, and laser pointers are used for today (broadcasting info to the students and soliciting their feedback), rather than an activity-specific rich-immersion one-on-one student

collaboration attempt. The advantage is merely convenience; if the student is receiving the stream from the teacher, he can view it from

the convenience of his laptop, or he can for example pause, rewind, or record the stream if it's being cached, which he would be unable to do

'''Architecture'''

'''Architecture'''

Since students may be interested in viewing multiple streams at once (for example, one stream showing the overall demonstration of the experiment and one showing a magnified view of a particular bacteria culture), then the interface should be able to automatically resize and tile individual streams to display them all at once while best utilizing screen space.

Since students may be interested in viewing multiple streams at once (for example, one stream showing the overall demonstration of the experiment and one showing a magnified view of a particular bacteria culture), then the interface should be able to automatically resize and tile individual streams to display them all at once while best utilizing screen space.

The interface will also include options to save streams to the journal, from which they could later be viewed.

The interface will also include options to save streams to the journal, from which they could later be viewed. If the stream is being cached to the disk, the student will also have an option to pause and rewind the video stream.

 

 

'''Audio and Video Sources'''

'''Audio and Video Sources'''

'''Video Interaction'''

'''Video Interaction'''

There should be some equivalent of a "pointer" on the video broadcasting-side, for highlighting important information. There might also be a "pointer" for pointing out comments on the receiver's side, though this would probably cause more trouble and distraction in the classroom rather than promote useful feedback to the presenter, thus this probably won't be implemented. For the sake of cpu usage efficiency on less powerful machines like XOs, annotations will not be encoded as part of the video strema; they will instead be transmitted seperately from the video file, much like external subtitles, in a format using a simple coordinate system (time, x, y, color) and would be overlayed on top of the video via following decoding.

There should be some equivalent of a "pointer" on the video broadcasting-side, for highlighting important information. There might also be a "pointer" for pointing out comments on the receiver's side, though this would probably cause more trouble and distraction in the classroom rather than promote useful feedback to the presenter, thus this probably won't be implemented. For the sake of cpu usage efficiency on less powerful machines like XOs, annotations will not be encoded as part of the video stream; they will instead be transmitted seperately from the video file, much like external subtitles, in a format using a simple coordinate system (time, x, y, color) and would be overlayed on top of the video following decoding.

'''Programming Languages and Libraries'''

'''Programming Languages and Libraries'''

====You and the community====

====You and the community====

# If your project is successfully completed, what will its impact be on the Sugar Labs community? Give 3 answers, each 1-3 paragraphs in length. The first one should be yours. The other two should be answers from members of the Sugar Labs community, at least one of whom should be a Sugar Labs GSoC mentor. Provide email contact information for non-GSoC mentors.

'''If your project is successfully completed, what will its impact be on the Sugar Labs community? Give 3 answers, each 1-3 paragraphs in length. The first one should be yours. The other two should be answers from members of the Sugar Labs community, at least one of whom should be a Sugar Labs GSoC mentor. Provide email contact information for non-GSoC mentors.'''

# Sugar Labs will be working to set up a small (5-30 unit) Sugar pilot near each student project that is accepted to GSoC so that you can immediately see how your work affects children in a deployment. We will make arrangements to either supply or find all the equipment needed. Do you have any ideas on where you would like your deployment to be, who you would like to be involved, and how we can help you and the community in your area begin it?

 

# What will you do if you get stuck on your project and your mentor isn't around?

# How do you propose you will be keeping the community informed of your progress and any problems or questions you might have over the course of the project?  

 

 

'''Sugar Labs will be working to set up a small (5-30 unit) Sugar pilot near each student project that is accepted to GSoC so that you can immediately see how your work affects children in a deployment. We will make arrangements to either supply or find all the equipment needed. Do you have any ideas on where you would like your deployment to be, who you would like to be involved, and how we can help you and the community in your area begin it?'''

 

 

'''What will you do if you get stuck on your project and your mentor isn't around?'''

 

 

'''How do you propose you will be keeping the community informed of your progress and any problems or questions you might have over the course of the project?'''

 

====Miscellaneous====

====Miscellaneous====

[[Image:New-developer-challenge.png|thumb|right|An example of the kind of screenshot of your first modification to your development environment which you should include in your application. Note that the drop-down menu text has Mel's email address in place of the word "Restart" - your screenshot should contain your email instead.]]

[[Image:New-developer-challenge.png|thumb|right|An example of the kind of screenshot of your first modification to your development environment which you should include in your application. Note that the drop-down menu text has Mel's email address in place of the word "Restart" - your screenshot should contain your email instead.]]

# We want to make sure that you can set up a [[DevelopmentTeam#Development_systems|development environment]] before the summer starts. Please send us a link to a screenshot of your Sugar development environment with the following modification: when you hover over the XO-person icon in the middle of Home view, the drop-down text should have your email in place of "Restart." See the image on the right for an example. It's normal to need assistance with this, so please visit our IRC channel, #sugar on irc.freenode.net, and ask for help.

# We want to make sure that you can set up a [[DevelopmentTeam#Development_systems|development environment]] before the summer starts. Please send us a link to a screenshot of your Sugar development environment with the following modification: when you hover over the XO-person icon in the middle of Home view, the drop-down text should have your email in place of "Restart." See the image on the right for an example. It's normal to need assistance with this, so please visit our IRC channel, #sugar on irc.freenode.net, and ask for help.

# What is your t-shirt size? (Yes, we know Google asks for this already; humor us.)

'''What is your t-shirt size? (Yes, we know Google asks for this already; humor us.)'''

# Describe a great learning experience you had as a child.

 

# Is there anything else we should have asked you or anything else that we should know that might make us like you or your project more?

 

'''Describe a great learning experience you had as a child.'''

 

 

'''Is there anything else we should have asked you or anything else that we should know that might make us like you or your project more?'''

<!-- Delete this paragraph and the following one when preparing your application. -->Note: you will post this application on the wiki in the category [[:Category:2009 GSoC applications]]. We encourage you to browse this category and comment on the talk page of other applications. Also, others' comments and your responses on the talk page of your own application are viewed favorably, and, while we don't like repetitive spam, we welcome honest questions and discussion of your project idea on the mailing list(s) (primarily [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel sugar-devel] for technical issues and [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep It's An Education Project] for educational issues) and/or [[IRC]].

<!-- Delete this paragraph and the following one when preparing your application. -->Note: you will post this application on the wiki in the category [[:Category:2009 GSoC applications]]. We encourage you to browse this category and comment on the talk page of other applications. Also, others' comments and your responses on the talk page of your own application are viewed favorably, and, while we don't like repetitive spam, we welcome honest questions and discussion of your project idea on the mailing list(s) (primarily [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel sugar-devel] for technical issues and [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep It's An Education Project] for educational issues) and/or [[IRC]].