Advanced Reality Makes Microsoft PowerPoint Collaborative.Business/Technology Editors HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 17, 2002 Presence-AR Adapter Provides Interactive Capabilities that Enable Users to Conduct/Participate in Real Time Presentations from within PowerPoint Advanced Reality(TM), Inc., the company that makes applications collaborative, today announced the availability of the Presence-AR(TM) Adapter for Microsoft (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : MSFT MSFT Microsoft (stock symbol) MSFT Movimento Sociale Fiamma Tricolore (Italy) MSFT Multi-Stage Fitness Test MSFT Master of Science in Family Therapy MSFT Macalester Students for Fair Trade ) PowerPoint, which adds secure, real-time interactive presentation capabilities to any copy of PowerPoint. The Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint enables businesses to increase efficiency by allowing an unlimited number of users to collaborate in interactive presentations over Local Area Network (LAN (Local Area Network) A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. The "clients" are the user's workstations typically running Windows, although Mac and Linux clients are also used. ) and Wide Area Network (WAN) links using standard versions of the software. "Collaboration support is moving beyond messaging. Building collaboration into applications is becoming increasingly important," said Simon Hayward, Research Director, Gartner. "Technologies which enable this without major rewrites of existing applications have great attraction." From within the familiar PowerPoint application, the Presence-AR Adapter allows end-users to launch a secure peer-to-peer collaboration session where users can control their own uniquely identifiable pointers, chat with other participants, and roam off the slide being covered by the presentation leader. The Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint uses a new technology called mutability mu·ta·ble adj. 1. a. Capable of or subject to change or alteration. b. Prone to frequent change; inconstant: mutable weather patterns. 2. that enables PowerPoint to transparently fail-over to another computer, allowing a session to persist even if the host signs-off or is disconnected. This failover capability is unique in the industry and addresses a productivity-killing shortcoming short·com·ing n. A deficiency; a flaw. shortcoming Noun a fault or weakness Noun 1. of traditional screen sharing screen sharing - Audiographic Teleconferencing technologies. In addition, the Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint uses new wavelet compression A lossy compression method used for color images and video. Instead of compressing small blocks of 8x8 pixels (64 bits) as in JPEG and MPEG, the wavelet algorithms compress the entire image with ratios of up to 300:1 for color and 50:1 for gray scale. technology and file sharing protocols that eliminate the large file limitations, slow refresh, and partial screen display problems that plague most interactive presentation systems. Interactive Capabilities inside PowerPoint To enable multiple users to participate in collaborative PowerPoint sessions, the Presence-AR Adapter adds a comprehensive set of interactive capabilities to any copy of Microsoft's presentation application, including: -- TelePointers: assigns all participants in a collaborative PowerPoint session a pointer identified with their name that they control for interacting with the presentation content -- Chat: allows participants to send each other text messages, which are logged in chronological order identifying which slide was being viewed when the message was sent -- Whisper Chat: enables a user to send a confidential text message to a specific participant or group of participants during a session -- Roam: allows participants to view slides other than the one being discussed by the presenter -- Add new content: enables any participant to bring new presentations into the session Blazing Performance with New Compression/File Transfer Protocols Unlike traditional screen sharing technologies that provide sluggish performance, the Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint instantaneously updates screen views to provide a real-time experience for all participants as the presenter moves from slide to slide. This is accomplished using a combination of the new JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. 2000 specification which can compress images 300:1 using wavelet (mathematics) wavelet - A waveform that is bounded in both frequency and duration. Wavelet tranforms provide an alternative to more traditional Fourier transforms used for analysing waveforms, e.g. sound. algorithms, and a fully distributed Fully distributed A new stock issue that has been completely resold to the investing public and is no longer held by dealers. fully distributed Of or relating to a new issue of securities that has been sold out. file sharing Copying files from one computer to another. See peer-to-peer network, file sharing protocol and file and printer sharing. system based on the Gnutella protocol. The Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint also harnesses distributed resources by identifying and maximizing the use of devices with the most processing power and bandwidth in a collaborative session. As a result, the Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint eliminates single points of failure and optimizes performance to enable collaboration on graphically intensive presentations that frequently cause standard screen sharing technologies to crash. Centralized Deployment and Control For fast and easy deployment in distributed networks, the Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint can be centrally installed by IT staff without any end-user intervention. Once installed, the Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint adds "Begin Collaboration" and "End Collaboration" buttons to the Microsoft PowerPoint toolbar A row or column of on-screen buttons used to activate functions in the application. Many toolbars are customizable, letting you add and delete buttons as required. Toolbars may be fixed in position or may float, which means they can be dragged to a more convenient location in the . These buttons enable end-users to create, join, leave, and end a collaborative session. During collaboration, the peer-to-peer based Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint provides "mutability" that allows a collaborative presentation to persist even when the host signs-off or is inadvertently disconnected. Mutability is a technology unique to Presence-AR which allows hosting responsibilities for a collaboration session to be dynamically reassigned to a different computer. The Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint also provides load balancing The fine tuning of a computer system, network or disk subsystem in order to more evenly distribute the data and/or processing across available resources. For example, in clustering, load balancing might distribute the incoming transactions evenly to all servers, or it might redirect them and supports client/server configurations so that a collaboration session can be hosted by a server to allow participants to join and leave at their convenience. "Enterprises are increasingly relying on teleconferences and Web-based technologies to increase productivity and wring efficiencies from business processes, yet the current generation of collaborative presentation technologies lacks the ability to efficiently support real-time interaction," said Derek Ruths, Chief Technical Officer, Advanced Reality. "The Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint provides a real-time collaboration environment complete with flexible tools that allow participants to interact with each other and the data -- all without having to leave the familiar confines of the PowerPoint application." Built-In Security and Auditing To ensure secure collaboration in both LAN and WAN environments, the Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) The leading security protocol on the Internet. Developed by Netscape, SSL is widely used to do two things: to validate the identity of a Web site and to create an encrypted connection for sending credit card and other personal data. to encrypt data as it moves among participants. The Presence-AR Adapter can be configured to use multiple authentication technologies, including passwords, digital certificates, and token cards, to confirm users' identity before they are allowed to join a session. To meet stringent auditing requirements for vertical markets such as financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. , the Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint captures and maintains a detailed log of each collaboration session. Logs include start and end date/time of each session; participants names and the date/time they join and leave a session; names of files introduced into each session; the time stamped order in which slides were navigated by the host; and a time stamped record of all chat and whisper chat messages sent during a session. Pricing and Availability The Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint supports PowerPoint 2000 and PowerPoint XP/2002. It is available immediately from Advanced Reality. Pricing for 15 non-transferable licenses, session directory software, and relay server software starts at $1295. Integration services for customizing the Presence-AR Adapter for PowerPoint and enabling collaboration between PowerPoint and other software applications are available from Advanced Reality. Company Background Founded in October 2000, Advanced Reality, Inc. develops software that makes existing and new applications collaborative without the need for complex programming or expensive infrastructure. The company's flagship product A primary product of a company, which is typically why the company was founded and/or what made it well known. For example, MS-DOS, Windows and the Microsoft Office suite have been flagship products of Microsoft. CorelDRAW is a flagship product of Corel Corporation. , Presence-AR, enables real-time collaboration across any computing platform See platform. , operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. , application, and access device. Advanced Reality customers are enterprises, commercial software vendors, and service providers that want to make existing, and new, applications collaborative. Advanced Reality is privately held and headquartered in Houston, Texas. To contact Advanced Reality call 713.526.4860, visit us on the Web at http://www.advancedreality.com/, or write to info@advancedreality.com. |
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