A multimedia communications workstation for the engineering consultant

Technological advancements and the decreasing cost of telecommunications, computers and multimedia hardware has enabled remote human communications. A multimedia communications workstation can be a vehicle for conveying human expertise in a highly interactive manner. The design of such a workstation is a complex and multifaceted task that is best completed within a systematic framework. A scenario based design methodology, which is based upon a defining communication scenario, optimizes the various quantitative and qualitative factors using a system optimization approach. This methodology allows a simple step by step procedure to be used for station development activities that are inherently difficult to address quantitatively and complex in nature.;A fax based multimedia communications workstation for engineering consultant activities has been designed to demonstrate and evaluate the application of the scenario based design principles. The thesis presents some generalized design guidelines and procedures drawn from the study which can be used to design and develop multimedia communications workstations in general.