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Video Chat Via Transparent Desktop Overlay

Posted by michael on from the dance-for-me dept.

Jason0x21 writes "Wired News has an article about UNC Comp. Sci. researchers developing a transparent desktop overlay for video conferencing, allowing remote coworkers to literally point and interact with things on your screen. The researchers say that Apple's Quartz graphics engine let them go from idea to prototype in 'about 45 minutes'. Windows versions predicted in the future."

2 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Mac ahead of Windows on graphics, again... by hdparm · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Dude, do you really have to say something about everything? Are you doing this only on /. or you're the same in real life? God forbid spending any significant amount of time close to you.

    Topic wise, without RTFA, this looks like someone integrated VNC and Superkaramba?!?

  2. transparency, overlays, 3D desktops by dekeji · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Before people go all gaga over this rash of new features from Apple and Sun, do some research. Transparency, shadows, overlays, desktops on 3D virtual presences, portals, 3D environments, etc. go back years and years, and many researchers have contributed to them. (You can find many of these features demonstrated in Squeak.)

    This stuff is being shipped commercially now because you can now run it on PC hardware costing $1000-2000, instead of requiring high-end SGI workstations, as it did just a decade ago.

    Apple does have a short-term advantage in this area: as part of their deal with NeXT, they got a Postscript/PDF-based window system, which happens to do these sorts of things already. But they don't have any long-term technical advantage: Microsoft has added similar APIs to Windows, and X11 also is moving towards full support of transparency and blending throughout the entire window system. Whose system will end up being the best long-term choice remains for the market to decide; personally, I think Apple's PDF-based system is the most cumbersome of the bunch.