CU-SeeMe
Encyclopedia
CU-SeeMe is an Internet videoconferencing
client. CU-SeeMe can make point to point video calls without a server or make multi-point calls through server software first called a "reflector" and later called a "conference server" or Multipoint Control Unit
(MCU). Later commercial versions of CU-SeeMe could also make point-to-point or multi-point calls to other vendor's standards-based H.323
endpoints and servers.
. It was first developed for the Macintosh in 1992 and later for the Windows
platform in 1994. Originally it was video-only with audio added in 1994 for the Macintosh and 1995 for Windows. CU-SeeMe's audio came from Maven, an audio-only client developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
.
CU-SeeMe was introduced to the public on April 26, 1993 as part of an NSF
funded education project called the Global Schoolhouse.
"It is Not About the Technology" tells about Global SchoolNet's Global SchoolHouse Project using the first multi-point Internet-based video conferencing to connect schools in the United States and with schools worldwide. By sending video and audio signals over the Internet using CU-SeeMe software, students were able to see and hear each other while they worked on collaborative assignments. As part of the program they interacted with special guests, such as Vice President Al Gore
, the anthropologist Jane Goodall
, Senator Diane Feinstein and surgeon general C Everett Koop.
On Thanksgiving morning in 1995, World News Now
was the first television program to be broadcast live on the Internet, using a CU-SeeMe interface. Victor Dorff, a producer of WNN at the time, arranged to have the show simulcast on the Internet daily for a six-month trial period. CU-SeeMe was also used in a taped interview segment in which anchor Kevin Newman and Global Schoolhouse director and founder Dr. Yvonne Marie Andres discussed the future of computers in communication.
The United States military was a large customer of the technology, making use of the CU-SeeMe Conference Server MCU for many applications, including using the T.120 server for Microsoft NetMeeting endpoints.
White Pine locked out users of version 1.0 from using its free, public videoconferencing chatrooms. As users upgraded to the commercially available version, some were frustrated to discover that others were downloading the trial version and using software registration keys readily supplied by some participants on White Pine's public chatrooms.
On March 15, 2005, Radvision Ltd.
acquired substantially all of the assets and intellectual property of First Virtual Communications (FVC), including its Click to Meet (formerly CUSeeMe) and Conference Server MCU solutions. The descendants of the CU-SeeMe technology live on in part in the Radvision Scopia product line.
There is still a small but active community of users of the original CU-SeeMe releases. Although there have been no releases of software from the various incarnations of White Pine since roughly 2000, freeware alternatives are available for both the Windows and Macintosh platform.
Videoconferencing
Videoconferencing is the conduct of a videoconference by a set of telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously...
client. CU-SeeMe can make point to point video calls without a server or make multi-point calls through server software first called a "reflector" and later called a "conference server" or Multipoint Control Unit
Multipoint Control Unit
A Multipoint Control Unit is a device commonly used to bridge videoconferencing connections.The Multipoint Control Unit is an endpoint on the LAN that provides the capability for 3 or more terminals and gateways to participate in a multipoint conference...
(MCU). Later commercial versions of CU-SeeMe could also make point-to-point or multi-point calls to other vendor's standards-based H.323
H.323
H.323 is a recommendation from the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector that defines the protocols to provide audio-visual communication sessions on any packet network...
endpoints and servers.
History
CU-SeeMe was originally written by Tim Dorcey of the Information Technology department at Cornell UniversityCornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. It was first developed for the Macintosh in 1992 and later for the Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
platform in 1994. Originally it was video-only with audio added in 1994 for the Macintosh and 1995 for Windows. CU-SeeMe's audio came from Maven, an audio-only client developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
.
CU-SeeMe was introduced to the public on April 26, 1993 as part of an NSF
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
funded education project called the Global Schoolhouse.
"It is Not About the Technology" tells about Global SchoolNet's Global SchoolHouse Project using the first multi-point Internet-based video conferencing to connect schools in the United States and with schools worldwide. By sending video and audio signals over the Internet using CU-SeeMe software, students were able to see and hear each other while they worked on collaborative assignments. As part of the program they interacted with special guests, such as Vice President Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
, the anthropologist Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
, Senator Diane Feinstein and surgeon general C Everett Koop.
On Thanksgiving morning in 1995, World News Now
World News Now
World News Now is an American overnight news program broadcast on American Broadcasting Company's television network. Its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous...
was the first television program to be broadcast live on the Internet, using a CU-SeeMe interface. Victor Dorff, a producer of WNN at the time, arranged to have the show simulcast on the Internet daily for a six-month trial period. CU-SeeMe was also used in a taped interview segment in which anchor Kevin Newman and Global Schoolhouse director and founder Dr. Yvonne Marie Andres discussed the future of computers in communication.
From freeware to commercial
CU-SeeMe 2.x was released as a commercial product in 1995 through an agreement with Cornell University. The full commercial licensing rights were transferred to White Pine Software in 1998;.A nascent market - quality perceptions and reality
While not directly competing against hardware-assisted video-conferencing companies, it suffered in that the nascent market was expecting hardware quality audio and video when CPUs of that time weren't really ready to support that quality level in software. Early wide acceptance of CU-SeeMe outside of the hobbyist market was limited by its relatively poor audio/video quality and excessive latency. While the commercial and freeware products were useful to hobbyists, CU-SeeMe and its accompanying server product were beginning to build a following in education - with up to 40% of commercial sales from educational establishments. (A spinoff application called ClassPoint which was based on CU-SeeMe and the conference server was released commercially in 1998. It was an early attempt to add features to a real-time collaboration product specifically designed for K-20 education users.)The United States military was a large customer of the technology, making use of the CU-SeeMe Conference Server MCU for many applications, including using the T.120 server for Microsoft NetMeeting endpoints.
White Pine locked out users of version 1.0 from using its free, public videoconferencing chatrooms. As users upgraded to the commercially available version, some were frustrated to discover that others were downloading the trial version and using software registration keys readily supplied by some participants on White Pine's public chatrooms.
Changing names and changing hands
White Pine Software was briefly renamed CUseeMe Networks, then merged with First Virtual Communications. The commercial standalone client was decommissioned. (An independent company used a version of the embedded commercial CU-SeeMe client renamed "CU" as part of a fee-based video chat service called CUworld) The commercial client and server environment evolved further, was renamed "Click To Meet" and along with an enhanced and more scalable version of the software MCU.On March 15, 2005, Radvision Ltd.
Radvision Ltd.
RADVISION., founded in 1992, is a Nasdaq and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange-traded company, which is a component of the TA-100 Index of the largest 100 companies traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange by market cap, it provides products and technologies for videoconferencing, video telephony, and the...
acquired substantially all of the assets and intellectual property of First Virtual Communications (FVC), including its Click to Meet (formerly CUSeeMe) and Conference Server MCU solutions. The descendants of the CU-SeeMe technology live on in part in the Radvision Scopia product line.
There is still a small but active community of users of the original CU-SeeMe releases. Although there have been no releases of software from the various incarnations of White Pine since roughly 2000, freeware alternatives are available for both the Windows and Macintosh platform.
CU-SeeMe as part of the legacy of the early Internet
The CU-SeeMe name and legacy remains important for a number of reasons.- CU-SeeMe was an early, widely recognized internet computer application that almost predated the World-Wide-Web;
- CU-SeeMe foretold the wide acceptance of videotelephonyVideotelephonyVideotelephony comprises the technologies for the reception and transmission of audio-video signals by users at different locations, for communication between people in real-time....
in a number of markets, and was likely the first product to be referenced using the term 'video chat';. - CU-SeeMe software on the client and server sides were one of the first platforms that proved that IP networks could be effectively used for real-time communication and collaboration The history of Videoconferencing.
External links
- Internet TV With CU-SeeMe (by Mickey Sattler, co-authored by John Lauer)
- Comparison of Radvision Hardware MCU and CUSeeMe Networks Software MCU
- Scientist on Tap (by Yvonne Marie Andres)
- Streaks reflector scanner(not functioning )
- PMRef2.package.zip Cuseeme reflector in java
- PMRefMon.zip reflector optool in java
- PMRef_StartupItems.dmg for OSX only
- [http://hoople_ny.tripod.com/ Hoople's CU-SeeMe Help Site]
- [http://ipsix.org/source/Cyberpornographia.html Cyberpornographia cuseemeata by John Becker aka Moazogotl]
- [http://www.ilovereality.com/Yikes/links.html Yikes CU-SeeMe links]
- [http://securities.stanford.edu/1032/FVCCPK04-01/200571_r04t_04CV3585.pdf (PDF) First Virtual Securities Litigation]
- [http://ipsix.org/source/protocol_documents/ CU-SeeMe Protocol Documents]
- OpenCUOpenCUopenCU is a cross-platform, open source implementation of CU-SeeMe, a video-conferencing protocol, written in C++.While the SIP and H323 needs human intervention, it is not really recommended for large conferences....
An attempt to recreate the idea with today technology]