Development of a GUI-based Mobile Control Console for Digital Conference Systems
Tsung-Hsing Lin , Chiao-Hsuan Chuang , Tung-Lin Lee , Liang-Bi Chen , Yung-Chang Tseng , Chih-Lin Hung , and Chao-Wen Wu
Department of Research and Development, BXB Electronics Co., Ltd., Kaohsiung, Taiwan Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
[email protected] Abstract—A GUI-based mobile control console for digital conference system, is introduced in this paper. Most mobile control consoles of digital conference systems require additional hardware implementation. However, this work uses an existing smart phone (iphone) without any additional hardware, which means the proposed mobile control console implemented in apple’s iphone with application software written on the iOS SDK platform. Therefore, this work aims to propose a convenient approach without the cost of additional hardware to achieve wireless remote control to a graphical control software platform for our developed digital conference systems. Keywords-apps; digital conference system; iPhone; iOS; mobile control;mobile devices; smart phone; remote control
I.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, since smart phones are widely used in the world, many mobile applications have been developed [1]. Follow such trend with the availability of mobile application development platforms such as Apple’s iPhone SDK [2], Google’s Android SDK [3], Microsoft’s Windows Phone SDK [4], etc., a huge shift in application developments trends toward providing user-centric services on communication mobile consoles. Recently, the remote mobile control methodologies by adopting smart phones have been attended, studied and discussed to many ongoing developments being done [5]-[9]. Panizzi and Vitulli [5] adopted an iPhone as an interface to wireless control a robot. The iPhone and the robot are connected over Wi-Fi. The interface of the iPhone can display full screen real-time images coming from the robot vision system.
Figure 1. An example of the digital conference system.
Calderwood et al. [9] discussed some comparisons of the control methods and strategies. The related techniques of mobile applications are also studied, designed, developed, and adopted in the conference systems, broadcasting systems, and public address (PA) systems [10]-[15].
Fernandes et al. [6] proposed a convenient approach, which the iPhone was used with written its software developed on the iOS SDK platform to wireless remote control a car mounted with the BlackWindow.
Dhara et al. [10] developed a framework, which can be enable new applications that interacted with communication sessions. This framework can develop user-centric services without the requirement of the complex calls modeling or application arbitrations.
Geltz et al. [7] used iPhone and iPod touch for providing remote data collection and control. In that work, a PIC-like microcontroller was also adopted as an interface to the sensors. Moreover, this microcontroller connected with iPhone or iPod touch via an integrated serial port. Pollock [8] and Elaluf-
Yuan et al. [11] modeled a common video communication framework (VCF) which was based on the D-bus [12] interprocess communication (IPC) system. This framework could be achieved real-time play for the HD videos. In this work, the video conference terminal was implemented on Microsoft
Windows 7, and its remote controller was implemented on Google Android v2.3. Li et al. [13] designed and implemented a Symbian-based mobile multimedia conference terminal, which used the 3G mobile phone system for providing some basic conference functionalities. Shogen et al. [14] and Hitachi High-Technologies Co. [15] separately planned and implemented the disaster information and emergency warning broadcasting system, which successfully integrated mobile devices (such as cell phones and mobile TV, etc.) as a one-segment terminal. In this paper, the related technique of mobile applications is adopted for developing GUI-based mobile control console for our existing digital conference system as can be seen in Figure 1 in this paper. This work uses an existing smart phone (iPhone4S) as a mobile control console without any additional hardware, which the proposed mobile control console is implemented in Apple’s iPhone4S with application software written on the Apple iOS SDK platform. II.
Figure 2. Monitor control keyboard.
A FRAMEWORK OF DIGITAL CONFERENCE SYSTEM
A. System Architecture One of our exiting digital conference systems [16] consists of a central control unit (CCU), delegate units (DUs), chairman units (CUs), a monitor control keyboard (MCK), high-speeddome type cameras, graphical control software (GCS) running on a PC-based platform, a multi-channels multiplexer, and TVs/projectors, is shown in Figure 1. The proposed work is to provide a GUI-based mobile control console, which can communicate with our existing PCbased graphical control software via Wi-Fi wireless network protocol for the purpose of remote control conference, as can be seen in Figure 1. 1) Central Control Unit (CCU): The CCU can control the maximum number of CUs and DUs, are 10 and 999, respectively. It can support multi-conference modes, balanced handheld microphone input, unbalanced AUX input/output, digital volume control, microphone auto-off, and system autodetect. The CCU is equipped with RS-232/485 communication interfaces. Moreover, the voting function is also built-in the CCU (FCS-6000 series products only). 2) Delegate Unit (DU): The DU is pure sound processing. It can support multi-conference modes and 5 voting/functional buttons. DU has a build-in loudspeaker and an earphone/Rec. jack. 3) Chairman Unit (CU): Comapared to DU, the CU is addition of express volume control, quick access to chairman mode, and the priority setup in advance during conference. 4) Monitor Control Keyboard (MCK): The MCK is shown in Figure 2. The MCK gives a joystick of P/T/Z, which provides the present position and pattern control. MCK also provides a friendly user inteface through a LCD displayer. Hence, the dome cameras, multiplexers, P/T/Z receivers, and all in one cameras can be controlled by the MCK.
Figure 3. Executing screen of graphical control software.
5) Graphical Control Software (GCS): The GCS is supported multi-languages (currently, maximum 13 languages provided). The execution screen is shown in Figure 3. The GCS is running on PC-based platform which is synchronized with the CCU. GCS also supports multi-monitors mode, which can be displayed information on other screens. The seat arrangement can reflect real environment in a conference room of seats. The voting system can support ballot and registered. The recording of MP3 format is supported. 6) High-Speed-Dome Type Camera: Our developed dedicated high-speed-dome type camera can support highspeed tile, 360 degrees endless rotation and auto flip function. It can allow this speed dome to be installed for the most demanding applications. This high-speed-dome type camera is communicated by the RS-485 protocol. With the compact lightweight design, it also achieves a maximum capacity that is up to 16 cameras and up to 2,048 present points.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 4. Operating screens of GUI-based mobile console on apple iOS. (a) Mobile digital conference system remote login for chairman/delegate; (b) Usage status of microphones; (c) Meeting mode selection.
B. The Concept of Digital Conference Systems In general, a conference in advance may fall into disorder and confusion without any control approach when the argument occurs between several participants. According to real conference experiences, four conference operation modes [17] are needed to provide for keeping the conference in order as follows. 1) Chairman Speech Mode: A chairman in conference who plays the main role of the organizer to control the conference topics and process. The other participants must keep quiet during the chairman’s speech. The proposed conference system needs to make sure that all the participants of the conference can clearly hear the chairperson only at this time. In the fact, the other participant must have a permission from chairman unit to speak. 2) First-In-First-Out (FIFO) Mode: In this mode, the speech is permitted what comes in the next waits until the first speaker is finished speech according to the maximum capacity of speeches. 3) Override Mode: In this mode, the next speaker can override previous speaker who exceeds the maximum capacity of speeches. 4) Free Discussion Mode (Normal Mode): All of the participants in the conference can freely discuss each other in this mode. As a result, the modes above mentioned are defined by graphical control software, and can be remote control by using
the proposed GUI-based mobile control console, which can be communicated with Wi-Fi wireless network. III.
DEVELOPMENT OF MOBILE CONTROL CONSOLE
The development of GUI-based mobile control console will be introduced in this section. Our GUI-based mobile console is developed by using Apple iOS SDK development platform [2] for the existing BXB’s FCS-6000 series [16] digital conference system. The operating screens of our developed GUI-based mobile console are shown in Figure 4. Following the benefits of Apple’s iPhone, the proposed mobile control console is very easy to use without any additional hardware that means the users can directly use existing iPhone for achieving mobile conference control. Therefore, the Apple iPhone4S smart phone and its iOS SDK platform are adopted for the current experiments and development in this paper. Figure 4 (a) shows executing screen of mobile digital conference system remote login for the chairman or delegate. As can be seen in Figure 4 (a), user can search the nearby server for remote control login. In addition, the login password is required to provide for meeting security consideration. Figure 4 (b) shows operating screen of usage status of microphones. The upper block of Figure 4 (b) shows the maximum quantity of speaking microphone in use simultaneously. As can be seen in Figure 4 (b), an example is given that the maximum quantity of microphones is “five”.
The under block of Figure 4 (b) is the request of a microphone in use for the other delegates who want to give the speeches. This function is very useful for managing limited audio signal transmission channels because too many audio channels could be caused interference between sounds. Therefore, the maximum speaking microphone in use should be determined according to the conference style for keeping a good quality of meeting. Figure 4 (c) shows executing screen for meeting mode of conferencing settings. As can be seen in Figure 4 (4), several modes are provided to maintain conference order. These modes have been described in Section II-B. In the under block of Figure 4 (c), the maximum quantity of open microphones can be setup. The exceeding the maximum quantity of microphone will be disabled for keeping a good meeting quality. For the power aware systems design consideration, the other setup is microphone auto-off, which can be determine the time. The time unit is the second. For example, as can be seen in Figure 4 (c), the setup of time is “20”. The control console will automatically detect microphone that is in use. If the microphone exceeds 20 seconds not in use, thus the control console will be turn-off microphone immediately. In general, the participants usually forget turn-off the microphone according to the real conference experiences. As a result, this setup can automatically shut the microphones by setting time for low-power digital conference systems design. IV.
contributed and suggested to this work. This work was partial supported by Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) of Taiwan, R.O.C. under contrast 1Z1010480 (E10100005298-204). REFERENCES [1]
[2] [3] [4] [5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have proposed a GUI-based mobile control console for our developed FCS-6000 series digital conference system. The proposed mobile control console is developed on the iPhone4S with application software written on the iOS SDK platform. The proposed mobile control console is very easy to use for the participants of conference. The participants can directly use their existing iPhone4S without the cost of additional hardware for achieving remote control conference via Wi-Fi wireless networks. Several setups of advanced meeting modes and its related functionalities are provided for keeping a good quality of meeting. An intelligent microphone automatic-off design is also developed in the proposed mobile control console for power-aware low-power embedded systems design. Moreover, this mobile control console design can be successfully integrated with previous conference system product, becoming a good solution in the professional digital conference systems. For the further future work, dynamic power management such as dynamic voltage frequency scaling (DVFS) [18] will be concerned, analyzed, and designed for low-power poweraware embedded systems design. In addition, the other versions of GUI-based mobile control consoles such as Google Android version will be developed. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank all colleagues of BXB electronics Co., Ltd., Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C., who
[10]
[11]
[12] [13]
[14]
[15]
[16] [17]
[18]
Hui-Yi Ho and Ling-Yin Syu, “Uses and gratifications of mobile application users,” Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Electronics and Information Engineering (ICEIE’10), vol. 1, pp. v1-315-v1-319, 2010. Apple iOS Dev Center. https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/index.action. Google’s Android SDK. http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html. Microsoft Windows Phone SDK. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13890. Emanuele Panizzi and Dario Vitulli, “iPhone interface for wireless control of a robot,” Proceedings of the 2012 ACM International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI’12), pp. 782783, 2012. Chandra Fernandes, Kok Yew Ng, and Boon How Khoo, “Development of a convenient wireless control of an autonomous vehicle using apple iOS SDK,” Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON’11), pp. 1025-1029, 2011. Brad R. Geltz, Jacob A. Berlier, and James M. McCollum, “Using the iPhone and iPod touch for remote sensor control and data acquisition,” Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2010 (SoutheastCon’10), pp. 912, 2010. Karen Pollock, “iControl: comparing control architectures in computing technology,” Proceedings of the ACM iConference 2011, pp. 252-259, 2011. S.M. Elaluf-Calderwood, B.D. Eaton, C. Sørensen, and Y. Yoo, “Control as a strategy for the development of generativity in business models for mobile platforms,” Proceedings of the 2011 15th IEEE International Conference on Intelligence in Next Generation Networks (ICIN’11), pp. 271-276, 2011. Krishna Kishore Dhara, Tim I. Ross, and Venkatesh Krishnaswamy, “A framework for developing user-centric services for communication endpoints,” Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Conference on Global Telecommunications (GLOBECOM'09), pp. 4167-4172, 2009. Hua Yuan, Zhenhua Sun, Ling Zhang, and Hong Yuan, “A scalable video communication framework based on D-bus,” Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Communications and Control (ICECC’11), pp. 1277-1280, 2011. D-Bus, Website. http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus. Shangmeng Li, Yanlei Shang, Jingjing Ha, and Junliang Chen, “The design and implementation of multimedia conference terminal system on 3G mobile phone,” Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Conference on E-Business and E-Government, pp. 141-144, 2010. Kazuyoshi Shogen, Yasuhiro Ito, Hiroyuki Hamazumi, and Makoto Taguchi, “Implementation of emergency warning broadcasting system in the asia pacific region,” ITU/ESCAP Disaster Communications Workshop, 2006. Fumiaki Haraga, “Emergency disaster information and one-segment broadcasting system,” Presentation Slides, ICT Disaster Symposium in Sendai, Japan, 2012. Introduction to Products, BXB Electronics Co., Ltd. Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C. http://www.bxb.tw/en/products/products.html. Bo Hang, Ruimin Hu, and Jianren Yang, “Distributed system for virtual conference synthesis,” Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Future BioMedical Information Engineering (FBIE’09), pp. 435-438, 2009. Liang-Bi Chen, Yen-Ling Chen, and Ing-Jer Huang, “A real-time power analysis platform for power-aware embedded system development,” Journal of Information Science and Engineering (JISE), vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 1165-1182, May 2011.
