The digital evolution, continued

Ä?Imagine turning on your computer in Prague and, with a few clicks of the mouse, being able to visually check traffic conditions in the city, then move to a site in Italy and check out ski-resort conditions there, then to a childhood friend's computer in Seattle and see her new baby while you talk. Ä?CU-See Me desktop video software is one way to explore a new mode of communication that allows anyone with a computer, modem, inexpensive camera and Internet connection to see, hear and speak directly with others all around the world in real time. Currently available for Macintosh and Windows, the software was created by students at Cornell University and is available for free at their site http://cu-seeme.cornell.edu>.Ä?Editors of high-tech magazines liken current CU-See Me technology to the state of television in the 1940s. Michael Sattler, a San Francisco computer consultant and recognized authority on CU-See Me, reports a "hit rate" of up to 100,000 per day on his World Wide Web information site for the facility.Ä?CU-See Me offers children-only sites, adult-only sites and sites dedicated to education, art and politics. Some sites concentrate on software discussions, while others deal with travel, food, exhibitionism and sex. Even the National Aeronautics & Space Administration has three sites. Participants have the option of being a sender, a receiver or both. Some people choose to be a "lurker"; a user who voyeuristically watches, reads and listens in on the conversations happening at the hundreds of CU-See Me reflector sites.Ä?"If you're not exciting enough, they'll go somewhere else," says Ken Ganfield, a regular CU-See Me user, about the participants in the live audio video chat-sites spread across the globe that allow users to interact with one another in what he describes as "real-time public-access TV." Ä?The technology has recently been made available to local users by Internet access provider Terminal Bar (See Story, Page C2.) At the Prague Film Faculty's FAMU Film Festival this month, Terminal Bar provided free access to three computers with video connections. One broadcast live Internet video of the festival's speakers and films, while the two others were "always three deep with people queuing to talk, see and be seen on screen," according to Jeremia Schall, a festival organizer. Ä?At the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in July, Terminal Bar will provide live Internet broadcasts of festival events from Hotel Thermal. Terminal Bar has future plans to offer video conferencing to individual customers and business clients on the cafe's computers and in a specially designed video-suite equipped with a wide-screen television located in the forthcoming Prague 1 Cyberworld Emporium.Ä?Professor Michael Bielicky of the Audio Video University (AVU) in Prague has held exhibitions involving CU-See Me at Veletrzni Palac and abroad at the avant-garde artist's space "The Kitchen" in New York. He is said to occasionally log in on his laptop to have a few friends over for dinner while the camera rolls, talking with people around the world between bites. Ä?There is talk of computer video technology eventually replacing the telephone and being used for projects like setting up rural educational and medical facilities around the world. Formerly impossible projects like concerts and theatrical performances composed of participants from around the globe are now happening. San Francisco's Alfredo Lusa even explored the World War II underwater wreck of the Atlantis for an hour with a camera as people watched, discussing the dive as it took place. Ä?When I logged on, five different sites introduced me to a wide array of people and venues - students hanging out in university computer labs, a crowded swimming pool in France, a Canadian businessman who perpetually talked on the telephone, the view from a window of a beautiful New England garden, a woman dressed in lingerie lying on a couch, empty offices, bedrooms and dorm rooms, and a hairy-chested man who sat coma-like in front of his computer in Moscow - all while I, and the camera's glaring eye, watched.Ä?HOW TO GET INVOLVEDÄ?Ä?What you need to start:Ä?Ä?**CU-See Me softwareÄ?(downloaded over the Internet via modem)Ä?**Any newer Macintosh or PCÄ?**Video cardÄ?**A 14.4-baud data rate, preferably 28.8 or higher. (A 14.4 modem will allow you to receive video, but the audio portion is effectively lost.)Ä?**A low-end camcorder or digital black-and-white camera currently available from Connectix Corp. for approximately 3,000 Kc ($100).Ä?Ä?Recommended Cu-See Me Sites:Ä?http://www.rocketcharged.com/cu-seeme/>Ä?http://www.cu-seeme.com/>Ä?http://www.indstate.edu>Ä?http://www.koganuts.com>Ä?