Information KiosksThe Next Generation

Gordy PaceDirector of Applications & Media Development

Mike DreesmanSenior Videographer

Jamey MaxwellSenior Programmer

The University of Montana

• Located in Missoula,

MT• Public unit of the

Montana University System

• 13,558 students

ITO Applications & Media

• Grant and contract funded development group

• University, government and non-profit clients

• Custom web applications, video, interactive CD/DVD development

The kiosk project

Lewis & Clark Trail Intelligent Transportation System Kiosk

Project background• Bicentennial of Lewis

& Clark expedition 2003-2006

• 2,000 miles of Lewis & Clark trail in Montana

• Tourism is Montana’s second largest industry

•Additional 4-8 million visitors expected

Goals of project

• Improve efficiency and convenience for travelers

• Enhance safety• Promote tourism• Develop new ITS

technologiesBozeman Pass - 06/26/03 09:25 MDT

Funding and partners

Project modifications

• Five-year project reduced to one year• Project leadership changes

The kiosks

• Travel and tourism information

• Road reports, weather, live mountain pass images

• Lewis & Clark history and points of interest

• HD video and wireless

Lewis & Clark content

• VIAs – producers of Discovering Lewis & Clark website

www.lewis-clark.org

• Barbara Fifer – author of several Lewis & Clark books

Kiosk locations

Use statistics at two sites

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

Dec-03

Jan-04

Feb-04

Mar-04

Apr-04

May-04

Jun-04

Jul-04

Aug-04

Sep-04

Bozeman Rest Area

Missoula Mall (Plasma Screen)

High Definition on a Low Budget

Mike Dreesman

HDTV What is it?• Part of the new DTV standard adopted by the Advanced

Television Standards Committee (ATSC).

• Scheduled to replace current analog TV system by 2006 (2009?)

• Substantially higher resolution than SDTV.

• 16x9 Aspect Ratio

• 5.1 Surround Sound

Acquisition

• Sony HDW-700a camera

• Tyler Mount for aerial footage

Post Production

Delivery

HD Encoding Solutions

• Windows Media 9 Encoder

• Canopus Procoder

• Sorenson Squeeze

• Apple QuickTime H.264

The Next Big Thing: HDV

• Extremely low cost HD solution

• Records to DV tape

• Transfer via firewire

• MPEG2 compression

• Wide-spread industry support Sony HDR-FX1

Technical Development

Jamey Maxwell

Technical Development• Technologies

– Active Server Pages (ASP)

– C# (.NET)– XML– CSV– Access DB

Project Metrics• 72% of

development done between May 1st – July 27th 2004– 4 Developers– Most

developers @ .5 FTE

Kiosk System Specs

Dell Dimension 4600• Processor: P4 2.2 GHz• Ram: 256MB• Video: GeForce2 GTS 128MB• OS: Windows XP Pro

IIS 5.0SiteKiosk v5.5

• Monitor: Elo 17” LCD Touch Screen

SiteKiosk v5.5• Secure (replaces

OS shell)• Powerful

scripting support• Site statistics• Fully

customizable/skin-able

• Run external applications

Lewis & Clark SiteKiosk Skin• Custom

navigation• Custom

buttons/links• Customize

start page

• Carousel (screensaver)

Kiosk Statistics (SiteReport)• Navigations• Usage-Time• Crashes• Errors

• By Hour, Day, & Month

• Most Requested Pages

Kiosk Status• Stats updated

nightly• View last

reporting date• View kiosk

Statistics– crashes, – navigations, & – active time.

• View FTP Connection Log (Separate application)

Update Kiosk Information

Kiosk• Custom Sync

Application• FTP Connection• Updates every 15

min.– XML– CSV– Access DB

FTP

Server• Windows 2000 Advanced

Server• Parse Applications

– City Conditions (C# -.NET)– City Forecasts (C# -.NET)– RWIS Cameras (C# -.NET)– Zone Forecasts (C# -.NET)– Road Report (C# -.NET)

Kiosk – Mantis (HD) Connection

• Connected via RS-232 (serial com port)

• HDCom• Custom com

application• 4 hours of

development time.

Wireless Application• ASP.NET mobile

web application– Using mobile

web controls– Running on

separate computer

– Accessible from any 802.11b device

– Videos• windows

media encoder 9

– Save text files for later

Thank You