Research On Human-To-Human Interaction Based On Op-Channel Technology Under A Heterogeneous Environment

Facing the time of the Internet, we always regard the Internet as a whole, therefore, the traditional research in Human-Computer Interaction has been turned to Human-to-Human Interaction based on the Internet as a media. Under such a systematic process, building a complete Human-to-Human Interaction model is a basic to the research, due to the fact that the existing the Internet's bandwidth is too narrow, which could hardly meet the needs of the customers because of the rapid growth of the net-goers compared with the slower infrastructure improvements. As a result, putting forward a new and applicable software technology to reduce the net flow and to greatly support Human-to-Human Interaction would be of a practical value. At the same time, the environment of Human-to-Human Interaction must embody a heterogeneous character, owing to the complexity of the Internet, the variety of computer's operating systems, and the speedy development on micro-interaction facilities, so it seems very important to research for Human-to-Human Interaction theory and technology under heterogeneous environment. This article is written under such a background, aiming at the existing Internet, to analyze the practical needs of Human-to-Human Interaction, to build a Human-to-Human Interaction structure, and to propose a Human-to-Human Interaction model based on OP channel. For the purpose of existing narrow Internet bandwidth, it puts forward a way of OP channel structure and virtual net keyboard, in which the replication controlled method is employed to effectively cut down the net flow in the interaction process while examining the quantity of the net flow. Furthermore, the article also suggests a concept of the virtual structure under heterogeneous environment to build up a way of cooperative virtual environment to solve the problem of trans-platform Human-to-Human Interaction. Finally, a software tool called HHII (Human-to-Human Interaction on the Internet) on similar-platform Human-to-Human Interaction and trans-platform Human-to-Human is developed on this research basis. The main contents and academic contributions of this research are as follows: 1) A Human-to-Human Interaction model based on OP channel is put forward, aiming at existing narrow Internet bandwidth, with adopting the replication controlled method of Human-to-Human Interaction structure to build up a multi-channel Human-to-Human Interaction, while giving out a practical Human-to-Human model, a physical connection model as well as an interaction connecting-point model. 2) The replication controlled method is presented to keep the application programs in each connecting point of Human-to-Human Interaction in agreement, while the objects of the replication is defined mainly including the applicable code for application programs, and the objects of application program initialization input as well as system environment variables are also defined. A mathematical description of duplicated objects as O(Init), O(New), O(End) and E ,is presented on such basis, providing an algorithm of producing O(End) as Xi'an Jiaotong University ivwell as Profiles. Also a managing algorithm in realizing the replication controlled method through Profiles is offered. 3) An OP channel structure and a virtual net keyboard method in cutting down the net flow are provided to solve the problem of multi-users'Human-to-Human interaction. In addition, the OP channel related concept, the relative command and a command data-transmitting format are explained and a new concept of the virtual net keyboard is proposed to form the method of the virtual net keyboard, proving that the input operative messages received by each distributed application in Human-to-Human Interaction system are the same. 4) A method of setting up a cooperative virtual environment is suggested to solve the problem of trans-platform Human-to-Human Interaction, through adopting the idea of virtual structure, under the heterogeneous environment. 5) The concepts and characters of video-channel and audio-channel in Human-to-Human Interaction are discussed, presenting a real-time multi-media transmitting-controlled method to set up an orientated chart of real-time channel transmitting control, a transmitting-control matrix as well as the transmitting control description. Then a topological structure of real-time message net-transmitting is provided and the maximum connecting value of video-channel and the multi-mixed problem of the audio-channel are reviewed to give out a correlative algorithm. 6) The quantity of net flow in Human-to-Human Interaction is examined being compared with NetMeeting system. The examination of the flow shows that only several message kits are needed in the starting process of Human-to-Human Interaction applications to complete the starting operation, therefore, in such a stage, the flow is extremely small, in result the flow in the net comes to zero at the application idle status and the flow in Human-to-Human system only equals to the tenth of the NetMeeting flow, so HHII structure embodies great advantages in reducing the net flow. Meanwhile, a calculating formula of the net flow is provided through the analysis, showing that the flow has no concern with the application itself, but has concern with the operating speed of keyboard and mouse. At present, two versions have been realized in Human-to-Human system, the first version, being a similar-platform Human-to-Human system, is applied to Windows 98/NT; another version is realized on Heterogeneous type operating systems as Unix, Linux, Windows 98,Windows NT, while the Human-to-Human Interaction systems used on micro-interaction facilities as HPC are still under the research. This research is sponsored by the Trans-Centuries Human Resources Foundation managed by the Ministry of Education in PRC, and kindly supported by IPO Research Institute of the Eindhoven University in the Netherlands.