iSee, a revolutionary 3D video collaboration technology that could change the way people conduct business and learn across the globe has won the national iAward in the Research and Development category.
Developed by the Smart Services CRC and the University of Wollongong, iSee is a multi-platform, real-time video collaboration tool that uses socially interactive video streaming to create a lifelike immersive environment for participants to look and feel natural. It is the first web -based application to fully utilise the social complexities of real life interactions as a natural element of the technology.
Unlike other web conferencing technologies, iSee can host anywhere from two to hundreds of users simultaneously in custom-built virtual environments. Users are streamed in real-time video and can freely move around the 3D iSee space to interact as part of a dispersed workforce, host and attend events, such as conferences and to be actively involved in team meetings; share files and images and video on virtual screens in a range of professional or educational environments; and engage in collaborative learning via large group presentations or simultaneous smaller group workshops and discussion.
Warren Bradey, Chief Executive of the Smart Services CRC, notes iSee presents particular opportunities for businesses dealing with diversely located workforces or skyrocketing travel costs.
“iSee’s ability to replicate real life social interactions for truly dispersed team members to make it the first laptop driven web conferencing technology that can reproduce genuine business exchanges in an immersive way,” he says.
“Businesses with diversely located workforces can also use iSee to engage their staff in large group meetings and training sessions, rather than dealing with the logistics and the cost of getting people into a single physical space.”
The technology also has huge potential in the Australian and international education sectors, in areas where access to education is limited due to physical distance or lack of adequate infrastructure.
Lead inventor, Professor Farzad Safaei, from the University of Wollongong, noted that, “iSee has been designed to elegantly operate reliably and scale to large numbers of simultaneous participants such that Users need only a low-bandwidth broadband connection to access iSee,”.
Professor Safaei says “For students in remote areas of Australia and in developing countries where education infrastructure is lacking, iSee presents a genuine opportunity for increased access to teaching and learning opportunities from the best teachers wherever they are located.”
The iAwards are the premier technology awards platform in Australia and aim to promote and celebrate collaboration through innovation. iSee was the winner of the NSW iAward in July this year.
iSee is currently being rolled out with a range of users who are assessing the technology’s capacity to improve learning outcomes for remote and regional communities, not-for-profit organisations to train and communicate with their volunteers and the mining industry to bring their dispersed workforces together for project planning. Users include the NSW Department of Education and Communities and an ASX listed mining company.
View a short video of iSee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2XX10NGTbA
iAwards - http://www.iawards.com.au/
12 August 2012
Contact:
Warren Bradey,
Chief Executive Officer, Smart Services CRC
Tel: 02 8374 5083
Email: warren.bradey@smartservicescrc.com.au
Website: www.smartservicescrc.com.au
