Session 5: Frontier of digital media technology

Coordinator: Jun Murai(Keio Univ.)
Jun Murai(Keio Univ.)
When I was a student, standardization work was considered very important in a research community. However, internet has changed the way of standardization. Good things propagate very quickly and becomes de-facto standard. Standardization procedure has changed.
Hiroaki Chiyokura (Keio Univ.)

3D graphics interactive textbook.

3D graphics will play an important role in future internet application. It suits well for educational purposes.
A textbook for high school students to teach about human body. In the demonstration, first the 2D illustrations of parts of human body is shown on the Netscape. When a student select a picture, its 3D representation is popped up in a different browser. You can change viewpoint or do some live simulation.
Dave Farber (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

Current status of high speed communication in home computing in the U.S.

ISDN has virtually failed in the US, because of high cost, and little promotion by telecommunication companies.
xDSL gives symmetric and asymmetric high speed data communication channel on existing copper line. Asymmetric xDSL is suitable for broadcast type data communication. xDSL can provide a transmission rate of 6 Mbps, enough to transmit HDTV quality motion picture data. High speed access to the internet with low cost. It is an important factor, and whether the providers can offer exciting offers to attract the customers is another.
There will be 2 satellite based service available by the end of this year. There are 2 DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) in the U.S. and they may change how we view multicast by Microsoft and Echostar.

Today's computer network is so unreliable. It must not be the toys for researchers anymore. To avoid panic, a plan with sutaineable computing is needed. There can be no more inconvenience. a little inconvenience can cost millions. We need to have a service criteria other than bandwidth.

Andy Hopper (Univ. of Cambridge)

Centralized and ubiquitous computing.

How would you feel about a personalized global communication service that followed you around the world.
Computer communication is almost unusable. It is too difficult to learn, to complicated to be used for majority of potential users. We are in a hopeless mess and how can we deal with it?
Out answer is to return to centralization and sustainability.
Using simple, stateless endpoint terminal which can be reset at any time. Information is stored in the server and you can download it from anywhere in the world.
Ted Nelson (Keio Univ.)

A correct architecture to handle information, Transcopyright

Present computer application has totally wrong architecture to handle information. Engineers have developed applications with incorrect notion of information structure. Writing is a simplicity of the true complication of information system.
When people say Web is chaotic and the want order, they are misunderstanding the structure of information. Information is supposed to be chaotic, and people are misunderstanding. It is important to be able to maintain a mass number of interconnection between information.