hd@mu.rice.edu (Hubert Daugherty) (11/17/89)
ANYONE who can provide information on how to accomplish a PC to ISDN to [CAMPUS(RICE)-UNIX-INTERNET and CAMPUS(RICE)-telphone] interconnection would make a personal dream come true. Let me explain. We (Rice University Electrical and Computer Engineering) have wired one of our classrooms for video production and transmission. Several times a week we roll out the monitors and the look down camera, hook up the microphones, and then we broadcast LIVE. We use the Instructional Television Frequencies to provide interactive course material to Houston Area engineering firms. The firms recieve live pictures and sound from our broadcast. Each firm telephones into our control room at the beginning of the class period. Each firm has a push to talk microphone at the remote site. When a student keys the microphone at the remote site the local telvision sound is muted to prevent feedback and the students voice gets mixed in with the sound broadcast to all sites. The instructor hears the students question through speakers in the classroom. The above EXISTS and has been in use for a year. Now for the IDEA! With ISDN we could impliment call-on-demand from each remote site. A PC outfitted with ISDN and a microphone could be used to establish the audio connection with almost no delay. The professor could be notified as to the identity of the caller since we get the calling phone number with ISDN. The students phone number could be matched to a data base in the PC and subsequently displayed on the bottom of the transmitted picture. WoW, I love it! Group III and IV images of the class notes would be made available via ftp via the data connection. If we get REALLY fancy we could SLAVE the students PC to our HOST. Then we could download the next assignment, upload a completed assignment, and/or monitor a test. There might even be enough bandwidth to provide an X-terminal interface to the student. I've been hunting arround for a really FUN millinium project. This may be it! If any of you ISDN guru types have implimented ANY PART of the described senario, PLEASE, PLEASE send me references! I need part numbers, phone numbers, books I should read, knees I should hug, etc. I have a very wide background, but I know next to nothing about ISDN to PC connectivity. Think of it; A student in his home, with a PC, a television, a cheap (less than $200) microwave dish and down-converter pointed at downtown, and an ISDN card would be able to participate as a full peer with students seated in the classroom.