Outline...

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Outline...

• Recap What is my project about?
• The purpose of this project
• What I set out to do.
• What I actually did.
• Summary
• Questions

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What is my project about?

• Well the extended title says it all, really..
• Remote, web-based, real time control of
  scattered media stations
• Remote controlling something from a different
  physical location
• Web-based control over a network (www or LAN,
  MAN, WAN etc)
• Real-time the effects of your actions can be
  seen instantaneously
• Control directing the behavior of
• Scattered located in amany different areas
• Media Station a device used for the
  dissemination of visual or audio media

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What is my project about? ...

• More about media stations
• The media station being controlled in this
  project is essentially a compact PC with a large
  plasma TV for its display.
• Dom's project was all about how to control the
  screen layout of such a device

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The purpose of this project.

• A need exists for real time control of scattered
  media delivery stations, especially in the
  advertising industry, where up to the minute
  information and fresh content is very important.
• Our hypothesis is that a system can be developed
  that will provide real time control of one or
  more media delivery stations, using inexpensive
  and freely available tools.

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What I set out to do.

• Investigate some of the issues surrounding
• a)the control of media stations
• b)the development of a system for their control
• Develop a working system as a proof of concept
• a)using freely available and inexpensive tools
• b)in as short a time as possible
• c)with a focus on later adaption of the system to
  other uses (in other industries)

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What I actually did )

• Investigation
• General remote control of media stations
• Should have very strong security restrictions in
  place due to the public nature of such a system.
• Control should be done by as few authorised
  people as possible.
• All control should be directed through a central
  authority.
• Changes should be logged and should include a
  reference to the user.
• Changes should be easily reversable

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What I actually did ) ...

• Investigation
• General remote control of media stations...
• All changes should be atomic and should obey good
  RDBMS behavior...
• Any node is a distributed system can go down at
  any time, even halfway through a change
• Changes must therefore happen atomically, or be
  reversed.
• The entire system state should be a reflection of
  a single data source.
• A database of all system information should be
  maintained.
• Changes to any part of the system should only
  occur in response to a change in the content of
  this database
• This way, one can be guaranteed that the
  information in the database reflects the true
  state of the system.

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What I actually did ) ...

• Investigation
• Developing a system for control
• Use good OO design principles!
• Separate presentation and logic
• Keep it as modular and generalised as possible
• Facilitates later modification, easy
  understanding and easy expansion
• Use widely available technologies
• Control should not involve complex software
  installation
• Be as hardware and OS 'agnostic' as possible.
• Control should be quick, easy and available to
  any authorised user on any platform.

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What I actually did ) ...

• Investigation
• Developing a system for control...
• Use a '3 tier' model
• 1. Control interface
• 2. Server/Databse combination
• 3. One or more media systems
• The control interface should do little on its
  own, apart from talk to the Server.

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What I actually did ) ...

• Investigation
• Developing a system for control...
• The Server should be the 'brain' and 'braun' of
  the system
• It should listen to the control interface
• It should change the database according to the
  control's communications
• It should send control data to the affected media
  stations if the database changes sate.
• Use a common communication protocol between tiers
  and a common language for data storage

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What I actually did ) ...

• Developed a 'semi' working system
• Tried to stick as closely to my design
  suggestions as possible.
• Used a 3 tier approach, but only managed to
  implement the control interface.

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The control interface

• Decided to use an ebbedded application in a web
  browser
• Chose to use a Java Applet.
• Why Java?
• Large set of functionality through the standard
  libraries
• Widespread technology many people have the Java
  Plugin installed already.
• No installation required navigate to the page
  and go.
• Strong networking support

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The control Interface

• Follows the structure of the data as closely as
  possible (heirarchical)
• Reads and writes XML, using the fairly new Java
  API for XML Binding (JAXB)
• How JAXB works

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ltxsdschema xmlnsxsd"http//www.w3.org/2001/XMLS
chema"gt ltxsdannotationgt
ltxsddocumentation xmllang"en"gt Media
System Schema for the project 'Remote
Control of Scattered Media Stations'
Created 22-10-2003 by Roger Gordon
lt/xsddocumentationgt lt/xsdannotationgt
ltxsdelement name"mediaSystem"
type"MediaSystemType"/gt ltxsdcomplexType
name"MediaSystemType"gt ltxsdsequencegt
ltxsdelement name"owner" type"xsdstring"/gt
ltxsdelement name"contactNumber"
type"xsdstring"/gt ltxsdelement
name"contactEmail" type"xsdstring"/gt
ltxsdelement name"localSystem"
type"LocalSystem" minOccurs"0"
maxOccurs"unbounded"/gt lt/xsdsequencegt
ltxsdattribute name"name" type"xsdstring"
use"required"/gt lt/xsdcomplexTypegt
ltxsdcomplexType name"LocalSystem"gt
ltxsdsequencegt ltxsdelement
name"location" type"xsdstring"/gt
ltxsdelement name"iPAddress" type"xsdstring"/gt
ltxsdelement name"lANBandwidth"
type"xsdint"/gt ltxsdelement name"contact"
type"xsdstring"/gt ltxsdelement
name"contactNumber" type"xsdstring"/gt
ltxsdelement name"mediaSource"
type"MediaSource" minOccurs"0"
maxOccurs"unbounded"/gt ltxsdelement
name"mediaStation" type"MediaStation"
minOccurs"0" maxOccurs"unbounded"/gt
lt/xsdsequencegt ltxsdattribute name"name"
type"xsdstring" use"required"/gt
lt/xsdcomplexTypegt ltxsdcomplexType
name"MediaSource"gt ltxsdsequencegt
ltxsdelement name"mediaURL" type"xsdanyURI"/gt
ltxsdelement name"mediaType" type"xsdstring"/gt
ltxsdelement name"stream" type"xsdboolean"/gt
lt/xsdsequencegt ltxsdattribute
name"name" type"xsdstring" use"required"/gt
lt/xsdcomplexTypegt ltxsdcomplexType
name"MediaStation"gt ltxsdsequencegt
ltxsdelement name"location" type"xsdstring"/gt
ltxsdelement name"screenHeight"
type"xsdint"/gt ltxsdelement
name"screenWidth" type"xsdint"/gt
ltxsdelement name"contact" type"xsdstring"/gt
ltxsdelement name"contactNumber"
type"xsdstring"/gt ltxsdelement
name"partition" type"Partition" minOccurs"1"
maxOccurs"unbounded"/gt lt/xsdsequencegt
ltxsdattribute name"name" type"xsdstring"
use"required"/gt lt/xsdcomplexTypegt
ltxsdcomplexType name"Partition"gt
ltxsdsequencegt ltxsdchoicegt ltxsdgroup
ref"SplitGroup"/gt ltxsdelement
name"mediaSpace" type"MediaSpace"/gt
lt/xsdchoicegt lt/xsdsequencegt
lt/xsdcomplexTypegt ltxsdgroup
name"SplitGroup"gt ltxsdsequencegt
ltxsdelement name"isVertical" type"xsdboolean"/
gt ltxsdelement name"splitPosition"
type"xsdint"/gt ltxsdelement
name"leftOrTop" type"LeftOrTop"/gt
ltxsdelement name"rightOrBottom"
type"RightOrBottom"/gt lt/xsdsequencegt
lt/xsdgroupgt ltxsdcomplexType
name"MediaSpace"gt ltxsdsequencegt
ltxsdelement name"width" type"xsdint"/gt
ltxsdelement name"relativeWidth"
type"xsdboolean"/gt ltxsdelement name"height"
type"xsdint"/gt ltxsdelement
name"relativeHeight" type"xsdboolean"/gt
ltxsdelement name"x" type"xsdint"/gt
ltxsdelement name"relativeX" type"xsdboolean"/gt
ltxsdelement name"y" type"xsdint"/gt
ltxsdelement name"relativeY" type"xsdboolean"/gt
ltxsdelement name"content" type"Content"
minOccurs"1" maxOccurs"unbounded"/gt
lt/xsdsequencegt ltxsdattribute
name"number" type"xsdint" use"required"/gt
lt/xsdcomplexTypegt ltxsdcomplexType
name"Content"gt ltxsdsequencegt
ltxsdelement name"repeat" type"xsdint"/gt
ltxsdelement name"start" type"xsdstring"/gt
ltxsdelement name"stop"
type"xsdstring"/gt lt/xsdsequencegt
ltxsdattribute name"mediaName" type"xsdint"
use"required"/gt lt/xsdcomplexTypegt
ltxsdcomplexType name"LeftOrTop"gt
ltxsdsequencegt ltxsdelement
name"partition" type"Partition"/gt
lt/xsdsequencegt lt/xsdcomplexTypegt
ltxsdcomplexType name"RightOrBottom"gt
ltxsdsequencegt ltxsdelement
name"partition" type"Partition"/gt
lt/xsdsequencegt lt/xsdcomplexTypegt lt/xsdsche
magt
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Summary

• Freely available tools can be used to develop a
  system for the real time control of scattered
  media stations
• I developed a partly working implementation of
  such a system

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• Questions?