Interactive
Telecommunications Program, NYU 1999
Project Description:
This is a computer conferencing system for watching movies. Many people may be watching or listening to
the same linear media but only the comments of other people viewing a frame
close in time to the frame you are viewing will be displayed prominently. Other
comments blur in the periphery. Each
person has normal control over the movie (pause, fast forward, rewind) or they
can slave themselves to another user's control.
This
software associates a person's comments with the given moment in the linear
media that they were viewing when they made the comment and sends the comment
out over the network. The software then
filters comments coming in over the network according to how close they are
chronologically or thematically to the frame in the linear media that the user
is watching. The association works both
ways. People who are experiencing the
same moment of a clip would naturally be more interested in each other's comments.
Conversely people who like talking about a particular topic might want
to be represented by a particular moment of the clip.
This
is an improvement over techniques like chat rooms, channels, or threads in conventional
conferencing software because: 1. the users form groups without much conscious
effort by merely showing a preference for one part of the media to watch and;
2. because associations are along a continuum without the discreet boundaries
of chat rooms, channels and threads.
Technical Notes:
I wrote this in Macromedia Director/Lingo exported to Shockwave and networked
it using the Macromedia’s Multi-user server.
NYU is pursuing a patent on this idea.