David C. Carver

The ViewStation: a software-intensive approach to media processing and distribution

The ViewStation architecture embodies a software-intensive approach to the support of interactive media-based applications. Starting from the premise that the raw media data, e.g., the video pixels themselves, must eventually be made accessible to the application, we have derived a set of architectural guidelines for the design of media-processing environments. The resultant ViewStation architecture, as described in this paper, consists of the VuSystem, a complete media-programming environment, and the VuNet, a substrate for the acquisition, communication, and rendering of video and closed caption text. We describe a set of computer-participative applications that demonstrate the present day viability of applications that actively process live media-based information. Early performance results illustrate the affordability and benefits of our software-intensive approach.