CoolCampus Demonstrators

Coolcampus plans to develop a number of demonstration facilities designed to provide vignettes of different aspects of university life in the technology rich environment of the future. Demonstrators will make use of technologies such as wireless LANS, PDAs, tablet computers, IP phones, location sensing infrastructure, etc. to demonstrate useful context aware information services. These demonstrators will provide a basis for exploring CoolCampus research themes and for demonstrating working research prototypes. It is expected that new demonstrators may be established in future to reflect the evolving interests of researchers. The demonstrators currently planned include:

CoolConference

This demonstrator will explore the information services that are useful to support meetings of Monash students and staff. It is expected that the conference room(s) will have wireless LAN access, together with a data projector, a conference IP phone, a printer, a fax and one or more wall mounted screens inside and outside the room to allow for a variety of functions. All devices inside the room will have a web presence allowing their services to be invoked by appropriately authorised users. It will be possible for PDAs located inside the conference room to access and view web-based documents such as meeting agendas and have wireless access to devices within the room such as the printer and/or data projector. The room will also be equipped with infrastructure that will allow the identity and profile of meeting attendees to be accessed though any attendee’s PDA Possible information services include the scheduling of meetings, enquiries regarding room availability, the display, printing and sharing of presentations and documents and attendee identification services.

CoolLectureTheatre

This demonstrator will explore the information services that are useful to support the effective preparation, presentation, recording and review of lectures. The first Cool Lecture theatre will be B213 at Caulfield, which accommodates approximately 160 students, although during the demonstration stage it is anticipated that only 20 students will be accessing the WLAN concurrently. The infrastructure required will be similar to the Cool Meeting Room although the information services will be different. The lecturer should be able to access their lecture slides via the web and control devices such as the data projector via their PDA. Students should be able to append notes to lecture materials using their own tablet computers or PDAs. The lecturer should be able to send documents to students located within the lecture theatre. It should also be possible for the lecturer to automatically record and transmit streaming video / audio of the lecture with synchronization of voice, video and slides.

CoolLibrary

This demonstrator explores the information services that are useful to support Monash students and staff while located in the library. It should be possible for students and staff using a WLAN connected PDA or tablet computer to search the library catalogue, physically locate a library item and determine their own location in relation to the item. Information services will include item locator, item checkout and a range of other PDA based services.

CoolOffice

This demonstrator explores the information services that are useful to support Monash staff located in their offices in their day to day activities. It is anticipated that at least three offices will form this demonstrator. These should have access to a WLAN, IP phone, standard phone, fax and Ethernet connection. The information services provided will include video conferencing via PC, location determination of other staff and objects etc.

CoolCafé

This demonstrator explores the information services that are useful to support Monash students and staff accessing information while located in the student café. Possible information services include instant messaging, web based notice boards, access to streaming media of lectures, etc.