Color graphics for remote teaching

Abstract

A system for preparation and manipulation of color graphics video frames is described. The system commands are designed for use by a class instructor (who is not a computer science person) in preparation and delivery of lectures to a remote site. The system can provide the types of images, overlays, and coloring that could be drawn using transparency sheets and color pens, or that could prepared as 35 mm technical slides (not photographs, but text and diagrams). The hardware consists of standardly available input, display, and output components. Several hardware alternatives are noted so that cost and capability tradeoffs can be compared. Communication between the instructor's site and the remote class site uses standard telephone lines for transmission of participants' voices and for digital graphics commands and compressed image data. The system software is yet in experimental form. It is in BASIC, but in modular form. While none of the individual components or graphics concepts in this system is in itself dramatically new, the integrated system demonstrates an important advancement in state-of-the-art for remote instruction.