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CUSEEME.TXT
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1995-06-22
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This is general CU-SeeMe information. It is "Macintosh oriented" but
contains general information about CU-SeeMe
**********************************************************************
-------------BASIC CU-SeeMe INFO--------------------
CU-SeeMe, a desktop videoconferencing program, for Macintosh and PC,
is available free from Cornell University under copyright of Cornell
and its collaborators. CU-SeeMe provides a one-to-one conference, or
by use of a reflector, a one-to-many, a several-to-several, or a
several-to-many conference depending on user needs and hardware
capabilities. It displays 4-bit grayscale video windows at 160x120
pixels or at double that diameter, and now includes audio on the Mac.
So far as we know, CU-SeeMe was the first software available for the
Macintosh to support real-time multi-party videoconferencing on the
Internet.
CU-SeeMe is intended to provide useful conferencing at minimal cost.
Receiving requires only a Mac with a screen capable of displaying 16 grays
and a connection to the Internet. Sending requires the same plus a camera
and digitizer (see specs below) which can cost as little as $100 to
add on.
At this time CU-SeeMe runs on the Macintosh (with audio) and the PC
(without audio) using an IP network connection. With CU-SeeMe each
participant can decide to be a sender, a receiver, or both. WARNING:
Although being improved with each version, CU-SeeMe is not mature
production software--USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. And also, PLEASE TREAT THE
INTERNET KINDLY--keep b/w limits set down under 100kbps, or less if
you share limited bandwidth with others. Many, many folks connected
to the Internet can use CU-SeeMe with default settings and cause no
problem to anyone else; but unfortunately, not everyone. If you don't
know whether using CU-SeeMe will mess up the network for someone else,
CHECK IT OUT first, please.
CU-SeeMe was initially written for the Macintosh by Tim Dorcey with design
assistance and sponsorship by Richard Cogger of the Advanced Technology
group in the Network Resources division of Cornell University's Information
Technology department (CIT). Important early contributions came from:
Cornell University Medical Colleges (CUMC), Scott Brim, and John Lynn.
Since Oct. 1, 1993, the CU-SeeMe Project receives funding from the
National Science Foundation. A very significant collaborative effort at
Cornell University Medical Colleges (CUMC) is contributing substantial
expertise and code.
Development contributers to Macintosh CU-SeeMe0.80: Cornell: Richard
Cogger (Project Director/PI), Tim Dorcey, Scott Brim (Co-PI), John
Lynn, Larry Chace; CUMC: Steve Erde, Aaron Freimark, Aaron Giles,
Erik Dahl; UIUC: Charley Kline (audio).
This material is partially based on work sponsored by the National
Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement No. NCR-9318337. The
Government has certain rights in this material.
Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, Cornell University
See Copyright notices at the end of this document.
*************************************************************
HOW TO OPERATE CU-SeeMe
BEFORE LAUNCH Be sure the screen is switched to a resolution that
includes 16 grays (with the Monitors control panel). Settings that
will work are: 16 grays, 256 grays, 256 colors, thousands of colors,
millions of colors. On AV Macintoshes, you may need to reduce
resolution to be able to digitize and send video. You may need to
turn off GeoPort devices, speech recognition, etc. and set sound
parameters to lower sampling rates to be able to use CU-SeeMe audio.
YOUR NAME Launch CU-SeeMe0.80. If it's the first time, a
"Preferences" dialog box will appear. Type in your name (to appear on
the window where your video is displayed, both locally and remotely).
Check other preferences. These settings are stored in a document in
your Preferences Folder (in the System Folder). Subsequently, you may
access these settings with the Preferences... item on the Edit menu.
AT STARTUP When the program appears: (a) If you see a video window
on the top left of the screen, the program believes you have a
digitizer installed with the Quicktime extension and the needed VDIG
component--or that you have an AV-Mac. (b) If you see yourself in the
video window, you have a camera plugged in and operating. You will
see *WAITING* below your local window. (c) If you see no video window
but get only a menu-bar, you are in receive-only mode as the program
does not believe you have a digitizer and camera.
BUTTON BAR By default, a button bar appears below each video window
and a rates bar below the button bar shows statistics on framerate and
bandwidth used. You can get rid of all button bars with a checkbox in
the Preferences... dialog.
LOCAL VIDEO If you have a send-equipped Mac running the program,
waiting for a request to send, the bar under the local window will
show *WAITING* until someone connects to you or you connect to
someone. The framerate indicator shows the speed of framegrabbing,
which depends on the resolution you choose and the cpu power
available, and possibly on the screendepth set with the Monitors
control panel. It will be highest on a fast machine, running in the
foreground, capturing the small size ("Standard" resolution) with the
screen set to 16 grays. If you choose to mirror the image, have part
of it off the screen or covered by another window, the rate will be
slower. With buttons in the local window button bar, you can mirror
the image (makes it easier to position), "pause" sending, or bring up
sets of controls to adjust transmission, compression, brightness and
contrast, audio parameters, and choose a digitizer if you have more
than one.
TO CONNECT For a two-party conference, choose Connect from the
Connection menu. Type in an IP address of a digitizer equipped Mac
running CU-SeeMe 0.80, 0.70 or 0.60 (Earlier versions are NOT
compatible) or a current Windows version on a PC. For a multiparty
conference, enter the IP address of a reflector. (See "How to Test
CU-SeeMe following this section.) If all is well, and no one else is
already connected to the Mac you designated, it will start sending an
image to you. If you are calling a reflector, you may be the only one
connected, in which case you will see no windows until someone else
connects. If the reflector does not respond immediately, the rates
bar will show *CONNECTING*. If there is no answer, you'll get a "no
response" message. Note that when you disconnect, the program will
ignore any packets received from the same address for 60 seconds.
This should not present any problems with reflector connections, but
if you are taking turns connecting and disconnecting point-point,
there would be some possibility of confusion. However, the 60
second delay applys only one way-- that is, if you disconnect, you
can reconnect to the same address right away, but that address can't
connect to you for 60 seconds.
MOTD With the newer versions of the reflector, the reflector operator
can set up a Message Of The Day which will be displayed to folks as
they connect. (If they use 0.70 or later.) If you operate a
reflector, you might want to use this facility to explain policies,
etc. that apply to use of your reflector.
NICKNAMES As an alternative to repeatedly typing in IP addresses, you
may use Edit Nicknames from the Edit menu to set up Nicknames for IP
addresses. Then use Connect To > from the Connection menu to make
connections. DNS names are now supported in the connect dialog, but
not yet in the Nickname file. A further release will have support for
url format nicknames and saving bookmark files containing a url which
will launch CU-SeeMe and connect to the site pointed to by the url.
Apple events will also work for launching/connecting, so it should be
possible to set up web brousers to establish CU-SeeMe sessions. But
we havn't had time to wring this stuff out for this release.