Over the past weeks I've been working on a security system based on the EFIKA. It uses a UVC webcam and software called Motion.

Motion captures images when motion is detected, creates an avi out of the images, logs the events into a remote MySQL database. It works nicely and the EFIKA is fast enough for this application.

Some additions I will add are the ability to inform users when motion is detected using SMS or phone call, both local and remote event logging (local in SQLite), multiple camera's per EFIKA, additional sensors, redundancy and tamper protection, etc.

You can now connect to the EFIKA powered Streaming Video Server :-D

Point VLC at: http://62.142.199.1:8080

You should see a blue reflection of the Efika Open Client LED. I'll probably move the camera to my lab at the University today or tomorrow. I'll update this post with the info to connect to it at that point.


Johan.

OK, I have some exciting news :-D

I finally got the Creative Optia camera with the UVC driver to work on the EFIKA. To test maximum performance, I used uvc-stream to stream 640x480 video over my LAN to my laptop.

The quality is amazing, it's much faster than what we had with Ekiga until now (will test this camera with Ekiga later) and best of all, here is the output from top:



A mere 2% of CPU usage!


Next week I will put this set-up in my lab and see if I can make the stream publicly accessible - you will be able to see for yourself! :-)


EDIT:
- Ekiga runs even better :-)
- Streaming 640x480 @25fps -> 2.5% to 3%CPU per connection

So, after the last blog some drivers were re-compiled, Ekiga was installed, and we made a video call with Noël (http://projects.powerdeveloper.org/project/efika/337).

The result:



There we have a chocolate Santa Claus in France (Père Noël) conferencing with a DVI/VGA adapter in Finland :-)

More later...

Using the EFIKA as a videoconferencing client sounds like a good idea - a low power client on a desktop to provide audio and video communication.

Combined with Noël's project: http://projects.powerdeveloper.org/project/efika/337 and its spin-off http://portable.powerdeveloper.org/ this makes for a great demonstration of what the EFIKA and the 5200B are capable of, and of what the 5121e will do even better.

With that in mind, here is the first screen shot of EFIKA showing a stream from a USB camera:

.

The quality of the video is bad because of the bad lighting in my room - so don't mind that. What should be apparent is the relatively low cpu overhead while streaming at an average of 20fps.

The next steps will be:

• Try to use a UVC camera (Creative Optia Live Cam) instead of the Microsoft VX1000 camera with the spca driver. This should give superior quality video, without increasing the cpu and memory requirements.
  
• Stream the video over the Internet, maybe using software such as Ekiga or Vic, or something else etc.
  

Will keep you posted,
Johan

Below is a short demo (flash) of what the user interface looks like, and what kind of experience the user can expect.

In the video you can see a file manager, Abiword and Gnumeric (running on the MPC5200B) and Firefox and OpenOffice (running on the server, with their display re-targeted to the Open client - transparent to the user).

The desktop itself is ROX, a very fast and lightweight environment.

Take into account that this is captured over a VNC connection, in reality it behaves faster and more responsive.

Click here to see the demo

EDIT:
Added another one, which shows streaming music, and puts some more stress on the EFIKA by running multiple applications:

Click here to see the demo

As I have posted before (see also here), Ubuntu is an alternative to using Gentoo on the Open Client, even though getting the image working using debootstrap might not always be easy.

Using the Ubuntu installer created by Peter Czanic (info here) things have become much easier.
This installer will only work for the bleeding edge Gutsy, so be careful using this in mission critical places :-)

Using Ubuntu instead of Gentoo has the advantage that a system can be up and running faster from scratch, since the tedious compilation is not needed.
However, the performance of the Ubuntu image is notably slower than the highly optimised Gentoo image.

Naturally, you can host both images on the server, and start whatever you want for whatever situation you're in. I use the Ubuntu image for instance to do quick tests and general demonstration, while the Gentoo image is a stable and fast platform to deploy in real implementations after the details have been worked out in the Ubuntu image.

Conclusion: both Gentoo and Ubuntu images complement each other very well!

Imagine doing your studies in the field of Ancient Greek culture.
You have a large library of Greek texts - naturally.

However, you might also have:
Several databases to consult?
Online documents to print, such as publications?
Save some important notes to a flash drive for safe keeping.
While doing that, send some email to colleagues requesting information about some subject you are researching?

That's exactly what happens at the Center for Hellenic Studies, a research institute affiliated with Harvard University located in Washington D.C.

A T1000/Open Client set-up is in place there right now, taking care of the tasks described above. Flash drives can be connected to the open client, CUPS take care of the printing facilities and multiple printers are available to each Open Client.
Open Office, Firefox, AbiWord, Gnumeric. Gftp for file transfer. Gaim for instant messaging... it's all there.
Even a little applet to keep track of the weather forecast, just in case you wonder if you will get wet later that day :-)

Below are some screen shots of how it looks like.

These Open Clients are installed at two floors of the library (where silence is very much appreciated). Visitors can also use them to check email and browse the web.

Standard desktop after login:



Desktop showing Firefox and Abiword. Notice the Mac-style window decorations. Many of the people were used to OSX, so this should make them feel more at home:



Another screen shot showing Open Office:




The pictures below show people using the systems. They were very excited about the power and versatility of the little Open Client systems. The fact that it is completely noiseless, and consuming only 10 Watt was liked very much!

The original idea for this project was based on a Solaris server and a Gentoo image for the EFIKA.

This set-up works great!

However, to make sure that administration of the system becomes easier for everyone, and requires even less maintenance, the option exists now to use an entirely Ubuntu based set-up.
The synergy between the sever (can basically be anything, depending on the needs) and the Open Client has been expanded this way to provide a uniform and easy to manage system, all based on Ubuntu.

This means there are two options right now.

The Solaris/Gentoo option for those interested in squeezing every last bit of power out of the system, and a great environment for academic and scientific/engineering work.

The Ubuntu set-up for an easy to manage set-up for use in for example internet cafés and small businesses.

The choice is yours :-)

Johan.

That's Community Access Centre in English.



The one here is located in Salé, which is city of around 500.000 inhabitants in Morocco.

What makes this place so special, and what has it got to do with this project?

Multiple EFIKA Open Clients, and a server, are now sitting next to the more conventional PC's at this centre. The goal is formation and education of youth, expanding open source software initiatives, reduce operation costs of the centre to make it self sustained and of course to let the kids have fun!

It is a space of communication, exchange and debate on the various aspects of the local development. Computers and other services are placed at the disposal of the public for various activities, in particular training in data processing and the services on line on Internet. This centre was set up by Tanmia, some more information can be found here: http://www.tanmia.ma/article.php3?id_article=9209

The Tanmia development portal (http://www.tanmia.ma) is a national internet portal designed to increase the capabilities of Moroccan associations by utilising information technology and communication tools. The Tanmia portal is a participation site where associations connect and exchange information.

On the picture below is one of the first EFIKA Open Client installed at the centre. We had some round table session around this time, and the presentations were run from this machine:



So, what can you see on the screen?

The set-up consist of the following elements:

• Customised ROX Desktop (http://rox.sourceforge.net/)
  
• 'Local' applications, such as Abiword, Gnumeric, Gaim,...
  
• 'Remote' applications, such as Firefox, OpenOffice, Gimp ...
  
• User management interface for easy addition and deletion of users.
  

The 'remote' and 'local' applications are an indication of where they are running. Remote applications run on the server, and have their display send to the Open Client. Local applications are those applications which run on the MPC5200B in the Open Client itself.
This distinction alone allows for the use of a much less powerful server while still delivering powerful tools to the user of the system.

We can run Quake III as a local application by the way, just to give an indication of performance possible on board of the client. One can easily edit a document while doing some spreadsheet operations without using any of the server's processing cycles!

Just the same, we can stream music and video. Flash drives connected to the Open Client allow people to take their documents along. Printing documents, burning CD's, etc. is all possible.

Since the Open Client does not have a hard drive in this set-up, the system boots over the network from the server. This consumes far less bandwidth as one might think, and several Open Clients can easily boot at the same time from even a normal PC. During normal operation, network activity drops even further, giving an optimal user experience.

Did they like it? :-)