Host Janet Eastman discusses the peer-to-peer networking, 3D visuals and sensors and human factors with John Stewart, CRC's Team Leader: Networked Virtual Reality
Date: January 2007
Duration: 3 minutes 34 seconds

Eastman - John you're working in three different areas here at CRC, explain to me what they are.
Stewart - Okay the three different areas are, the first area is peer-to-peer networking. The second area is 3D visuals and sensors and the last area is human factors.

E - Okay, so let's break them down. What is the peer-to-peer all about?
S - Peer-to-peer is a way of computer networking where by computers communicate with each other. Now people usually think of networks if you go onto a website that is client server based. There is a lot of interaction that happens between your computer and the server which could be somewhere quite remote. That takes a lot of time for information to go from your computer to a server and maybe to another computer somewhere else. Peer-to-peer networking is you bypass that server stage. So if you want information to go from your computer to another computer, it basically goes directly to that other computer, so that things happen almost in real time.

E - And the benefits of that? Speed?
S - Speed, it's real time. The problem with servers is they get overloaded which means that the interaction can really slow down. Companies like the servers because it allows control. The problem is if you go to a peer-to-peer network, you lose that control, keeping things all in sync becomes much more difficult.

E - Okay, let's talk about 3D visuals and sensors. What are you doing there?
S - Okay, that's actually to me that's one of the most interesting parts of things is that 3D graphics are becoming almost pervasive. Everybody has 3D graphics at home. Your cell phone has 3D graphics. The computing systems you buy off the shelf all have 3D graphics co-processors. The problem is how to actually use the 3D graphics to the best ability. The sensor aspect is the ability to have your computer sense what you're doing, if you're getting close to the computer, if you're gesturing to the computer. So what we're trying to do is have the computer show you and interact without you having to push buttons and move mice.

E - Okay, and finally the human factors.
S - Yeah, engineers are very good at producing things that work technically but maybe don't work in terms of society or in terms of how humans interact with them. For instance, at your house, I'm sure you've got a volume control on a stereo which goes one way, your taps in your kitchen or bathroom maybe go the other way and things like that get confusing so human factors, human factors people sit back and try and make it so what engineers do actually makes sense for the average person.

E - So John, based on the three areas that you're working on, what does the future of computing look like in say five to ten years?
S - I think what we'll find happening is that the mice and keyboard interaction ends up disappearing and the computers, the beige boxes that you see beside desks end up disappearing and computers become pervasive. They become part of your environment, where you walk into an area and you interact with a computer. Maybe you talk to the computer, maybe it senses that you're there, that the computer almost disappears into the background.

E - Thank you John.