InPerson


Communication is the Key to Successful Teamwork
As Familiar as a Telephone
The Power of Mindshare
Great For Distributing Files
Capture Everyone's Attention with the Shared Whiteboard
Simple Tools to Make Your Point
Unlimited Whiteboard Pages
Saving the Whiteboard Contents
Silicon Graphics Provides the Ideal Platform for Collaborative Work
It's All in the Software
Cross-Platform Interoperability
Doesn't Exhaust Your CPU
Works on Existing Networks
Maximize Quality, Minimize Network Impact
InPerson Option Board for Indy Workstations
Compression Schemes for Optimized Network Usage
Technical Specifications

Communication is the Key to Successful Teamwork

Nothing can replace the dynamic exchange of ideas offered by a face-to- face encounter. And nothing is faster and more convenient than a computer network for sharing information. Imagine the power of combining the two. imagine how productive you'd be if you could interact and share information with your co-workers, live on your workstation monitor. lnPersonTM desktop conferencing software from Silicon Graphics makes a|I of this possible. lnPerson turns your workstation into a powerful communica tions center allowing you to "call" people and interact with live video and audio while you work together - in real time - on a selected file, a captured image, a 3D model, or a text document. Say you're part of a design team working on a product prototype and want to share your ideas with the rest of the group. Simply use InPerson to call all the members of the group, bring your work on screen, then collaborate interactively on the project. With InPerson you hear the group's comments and see theh reactions - a much more productive and creative way of working.

As Familiar as a Telephone

 InPerson is as convenient to use as a multiline telephone. The icon-based interface lets you quickly launch InPerson, look up people in the Phone Book or your personal directory, and place calls. You can make conference calls, put a call on hold, and both make and receive calls on another "line."

While telephones are just for talking, InPerson is for interacting as if you were face to face. Callers appear in an interactive video window if their workstations are equipped with video cameras; if not, static pictures of them appear. You can then interact with the callers, sharing and annotating information in real time.

The Power of Mindshare

 InPerson seamlessly integrates with the other components of the Mindshare collaborative environment. Tied together with the familiar, intuitive Indigo MagicTM interface, the Mindshare solutions make it easy to express and share ideas. If you try to call someone with InPerson and they are not available, you can use MediaMail or IRIS Annotator' to forward a digital media-rich message for later review. The message can include text, audio, video, 2D images, or 3D models. Distribute your Whiteboard using MediaMail or the Shared Shelf, or incorporate it into a Showcase presentation. Cut and paste 3D models among InPerson, Showcase, IRIS Annotator, and Inventor viewers. Since the Phone Book is integrated with MediaMail, InPerson simplifies communications to Windows and all UNIX platforms across local and wide-area networks.

Great For Distributing Files

 InPertson offers a fast and easy way do distribute files to conferencde participants. Simply drag a file from the desktop to the InPerson Shared Shelf and the file is automatically distributed to all participants in a call.

Capture Everyone's Attention with the Shared Whiteboard

 The InPerson Whiteboard, the central focus of the desktop conference, provides a multimedia forum for sharing your ideas. Conference participants can:

Simple Tools to Make Your Point

 Whiteboard mark-up tools allow participants in a conference call to show the others just what they have in mind. The mark-up tools include text, freehand drawing, circles, squares, and arrowheads. Selectable colors and line thicknesses for the mark-up tools allow a conference call group to annotate extensively without creating an incomprehensible thicket of lines. A menu provides Cut, Copy, and Paste commands for editing objects drawn on screen. 2D images and 3D Inventor models can be rotated or scaled to control the detail level or amount of Whiteboard surface you want to use.

Unlimited Whiteboard Pages

 For projects that require lots of room, you can add pages to the Whiteboard to expand your work area. A single mouse click adds a new page, and you can quickly jump from page to page by clicking on the page tab. Your personal cursor is displayed on the tab of the page you're viewing to indicate your page location to the other participants in the call. If you are presenting information to a group, you can double-click on the page you are viewing to automatically bring the participants in the conference to that page.

Saving the Whiteboard Contents

 When the call is completed, the entire Whiteboard can be saved to a file for future reference, or distributed to co-workers via MediaMail or the Shared Shelf. When viewing the file Iater, you can even see who authored what material in the saved Whiteboard. Your work stays in the computer during the entire process - the key to true collaborative computing.

Silicon Graphics Provides the Ideal Platform for Collaborative Work

 lnPerson runs on the entire family of Silicon Graphics workstations. Anyone with a Silicon Graphics system and InPerson software can receive video images and fully participate in a conference through the use of the Whiteboard. A workstation equipped with an audio system and microphone can also send and receive audio: a workstation equipped with a video camera can send and receive video. The Indigo family of workstations, with its integrated digital media hardware, provides the ideal platform for desktop conferencing and collaborative work.

It's All in the Software

 InPerson is software based. Just load the software and that's it. For Indy workstations, optional hardware can deliver accelerated performance.

Cross-Platform Interoperability

 Silicon Graphics is commited to interoperability through conformance to standards and relationships with other companies.

  • InPerson is avaiIable through NetManage. Inc., on PCs running the Windows operating system. Additional platform support, including UNIX, will be available in the future.

  • InPerson supports several audio and video compression standards, including those supported by the H.320 videoconferencing standard.

  • InPerson supports X-based application sharing on PCs and most UNIX platforms through the X/TeleScreenTM product, available from VisualTEK Solutions, Inc.

    Doesn't Exhaust Your CPU

     Video compression is by far the most CPU-intensive activity off any software-based video application. InPerson offers a video compression algorithm that can keep CPU overhead low by using an efficient difference- based algorithm for video compression. This algorithm compares successive images in the video stream and sends only the areas of the image that have changed. Unlike similar video conferencing packages, InPerson doesn't overwork your CPU. You can still run other applications and quickly bring information from these applications onto the Whiteboard.

    Works on Existing Networks

     InPerson can be used with existing network routers over any type of TCP/IP network: InPerson uses the very efficient and well-established 'multicast' network transmission protocol to transmit data. To assure that InPerson runs smoothly over any type of network, IRIX supports 'tunneling' which lets you bypass routers that don't support multicast routing.

    Maximize Quality, Minimize Network Impact

     lnPerson was designed to keep network traffic to an absolute minimum. The amount of network bandwidth required by InPerson is affected by the number of participants in a conference and the participants' desired video frame rate and resolution. InPerson automatically adjusts audio and video usage to alleviate network congestion.

    lnPerson gives you the choice of minimizing network traffic by manually fine-tuning InPerson controls or by letting InPerson do it for you. You do not have to become an expert on video and audio compression schemes to optimize performance. Simply specify the network on which you are running InPerson; audio and video compression schemes, video resolution, and frame rates are automatically and dynamically chosen to optimize bandwidth usage. The results are optimal audio and video quality for your conferences.

    InPerson Option Board for Indy Workstations

     The addition of an lnPerson option board to an lndy workstation can improve performance and quality of audio transmission over the network. Specifically, the InPerson option board provides acoustic echo cancelllation (AEC) and G.728 audio compression. AEC for outgoing audio results in echo-free audio for conference participants. The board, together with InPerson 2.0, provides enhanced performance for video-conferencing over low-bandwidth connections such as ISDN.

    Compression Schemes for Optimized Network Usage

     InPerson supports several audio and video compression schemes, including those supported by the H.320 conference standard. This allows you to communicate with interactive video over low-bandwidth connections such as ISDN. In addition, InPerson 2.0 lets you optimize use of high- bandwidth networks by supporting uncompressed video.

    Technical Specifications

    Open Shelf

    Opens and closes the Shared Shelf used for distributing files

    Open Whiteboard

    Opens and closes the Whiteboard

    Invite Others Into an Existing Call

    Drag and drop icons of invited guests onto view area
    Use invite dialog window

    Audio

    Reacts to network congestion
    Dynamic silence suppression can be turned on/off via UI
    Multiple audio compression schemes can be dynamically or automatically adjusted 
    				      SAMPLING
					RATE	BANDWIDTH
Intel/IMA DVI ADPCM			16kHz	64kbps (default)
Intel/IMA DVI ADPCM			8kHz	32kbps
CCITT/ITU-T G.711 u-law PCM		8kHz	64kbps
GSM 06.10 RTE/LTP			8kHz	13kbps
Uncompressed mono			44.1kHz	706kbps
G.728 (with optional board)		8kHz	16kbps

    Video Compression

    Shelf

    Visual distribution of files

    Whiteboard

    Selection tool
    Draw tools
    Snapshot (capture) Text Object ownership (all data is tagged with identifier of person who put it there)
    Multiple line colors (9), Line widths (4), Fonts (4)
    Multiple page Import data to Whiteboard Save Whiteboard Print Whiteboard
    Cut, copy, and paste text and objects; scale 3D Inventor models

    Phone Book

    Drag and drop icons from corporate Phone Book to place InPerson calls or to send e-mail
    Create a directory of frequently called numbers
    Publish information about yourself

    Outgoing Calls

    Create group aliases for group calling
    Create/edit groups
    Call listed groups
    Ring tone can be set via UI
    Number of rings can be set via UI

    Incoming Calls

    Phone icon rings and image of caller flashes
    Have multiple call conferences, all but one on hold
    Screen incoming calls and accept or deny via UI
    Switch between multiple calls via buttons on the phone

    Hold

    Put your call on hold

    Privacy

    Allows you to see and hear others while they can't see or hear you

    Freeze

    Your video becomes a static picture while you continue to receive interactive video from others.