COLLABORATIVE TOOLS IN ATLAS (HOMER NEAL, STEVE GOLDFARB, JEREMY HERR, MITCH MCLACHLAN)
The University of Michigan ATLAS high-energy physics group has remained quite active in providing collaborative tool support services to the ATLAS collaboration, and in conducting cutting-edge research designed to provide better tools in the future. This effort is led by Homer Neal, who has wbs responsibility for collaborative tools in USATLAS, Steve Goldfarb and Jeremy Herr who coordinate the web recording of ATLAS tutorials and serve various LHC-wide roles, and Mitch McLachlan who manages the session recordings.
Steven Goldfarb was chosen to chair an LCG RTAG (Requirements and Technical Assessment Group) on collaborative tools for the LHC. The group's final report, which has received endorsement by the spokespersons of the four LHC experiments, was published last year as CERN-LCG-PEB-2005-007. Since that time, Steve has been invited to present the findings and recommendations of the group to various international conferences, including HEPiX 2005 (Stanford), ESnet 2005 (LBNL), CHEP 2006 (Mumbai), and ViDeNet 2006 (Atlanta), and LHC forums, including ACCU (CERN Users Group) and the ATLAS Overview Plenary in Stockholm.
Beyond the positive reactions to the report, action has been taken by ATLAS, CERN and the LHC toward adopting several of the report's recommendations. This has included consolidation of responsibilities for infrastructure under CERN IT, the installation of prototype video conferencing facilities, investment in an MCU complementary to ESnet through the HERMES collaboration, automation of phone conferencing with the possibility of integration with video conferencing, and the creation of the RCTF (Remote Collaboration Task Force) at CERN with representation from each of the LHC experiments and IT. Steve currently serves as the ATLAS representative on that body.
The Michigan group has received a special allocation from ATLAS management to record its plenary sessions and software tutorials for posting on the Web to provide access to members of the collaboration not able to be present in person. Reports that we have from colleagues in the collaboration have reassured us that our archives are being heavily used and that they are serving a clear need. We know of no other technology that is as effective in providing high-quality, inexpensive web lecture recordings as ours and we are constantly seeking ways to improve it.
Drawing upon our experience in web lecture recordings over the past decade, we have determined that the most expensive and nonscalable component of the recording process is the camera operator. Over the past two years we have focused our r/d efforts on developing a system that would not require the presence of a human camera operator but would utilize sophisticated tracking techniques to determine the "camera-pointing" protocol. Our current proto-type system only requires that the speaker wear a small unobtrusive infrared LED necklace which is then tracked by an infrared camera and the tracking information is then conveyed to a regular video camera which is then directed toward the speaker. This system is currently being tested in classroom settings at the University of Michigan and we hope that in the course of a year we will be in a position to incorporate its usage into the recording of Atlas tutorials.
Finally, we note the very successful operation of the dual videoconferencing system the Michigan ATLAS group established at CERN and in Ann Arbor. This robust link has turned out to be a key component in the massive task of maintaining strong communications between staff located in Ann Arbor and CERN, for purposes of coordinating the commissioning of the endcap muon system, dealing with the development of computing clusters, and for meetings with other colleagues. Indeed, we have been under tremendous pressures to share our facilities with colleagues from other institutions -- which we do whenever possible -- even though Michigan colleagues alone frequently encounter scheduling conflicts with each other. We believe the high usage ,and the numerous productive sessions made possible by these facilities daily, attest to the wisdom of investments in such collaborative tools.