Proc. of Int. Conf. on Recent Trends in Information, Telecommunication and Computing, ITC
Virtual Classroom –Android Application for Accessing Server using Wi-Fi Service Dr Anupam Shukla 1 ,Anshul Nigam2, Pavan Kumar Goyal3 and Prankul Garg4 1
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ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior, India Email:dranupamshukla@gmail.com ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior, India Email:{anshulnigam111, pavangoyal.iiitm ,prankuliiitm}@gmail.com
Abstract— In the present 21st Century every person needs a viable and easy access to undertake any task. The ease that the present technologies provide saves our lots of time and effort. So adhering to the modern world we have developed “Virtual Classroom” an Android Application that establishes a network between the mobile device and server. Using this application one can access the on demand video lecture that is stored at server without downloading onto device. This would create a new revolution in the Indian society and would provide a feasible solution to education system problem. Index Terms— Android, Mobile Application, Smart Phone, Wi-Fi, Video Codec’s, External Storage, XML Pull Parser, SQLite.
I. INTRODUCTION Internet is the easiest way to communicate with the world around us. It helps greatly in providing sufficient /reliable resources in rooting the Education status in the society. Our education also puts more towards easy learning by making its sources online. Virtual Classroom is one of these education based tool developed on Android platform that helps in enhancing the level as well as provide ease in spreading knowledge based information to the students in no matter of time. The mode of retrieving information is Wi-Fi i.e. the connection with the established server. With the rapid growth of smart phones in India this idea will surely adhere to its main issues. Using the above mentioned android application a user can stream in the video lectures present in the server with which it is connected. One needs to enter the desired IP address of the server in order to gain access to its content. The only criteria it should match are that the given server is in the range of Wi-Fi network. After establishing the secure connection user can see the list of the video lectures currently present in the server. The features provided by the application can be summarized as follows; it helps in viewing the currently active video lectures present in server. Moreover it has additional feature of bookmarking a video Also a subtitle feature is enabled to view the language of user’s choice. The mode of implementation lies in the fact that each video lecture has its own xml file. This Xml file contains subtopics of that video lecture and start and ending time for that particular topic .so whenever a user clicks on the video the corresponding xml file is parsed using xml pull parser method and hence whenever a particular subtopic is clicked then it seeks to that particular timing. The application nurtures its purpose in providing an ease in accessibility to a user and is viable mode in imparting a better learning. The approach it follows in relates it to newer technology and use of latest DOI: 02.ITC.2014.5.503 © Association of Computer Electronics and Electrical Engineers, 2014
gadgets hence satisfying in the needs of future generations. So in all Virtual Classroom is a must have application for the students who prefer better utilization of resources in an efficient manner. II. LITERATURE STUDIES In the present scenario there is considerable development in the accessibility of resources. The information sharing and internet facilities have embarked their presence in the current prospective WiFi [1], a type of IEEE 802.11 WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) that is a name for WiFi Fidelity defined by WiFi [12] Alliances. It is designed for cable replacement in corporate environment, providing IP connectivity. Android [2] is an operating system that runs on top of Linux kernel with a custom JVM set on top of it. It allows only JAVA [8] applications to be installed. It shows better performance compared to Sun embedded JVM without JIT because of bionic libc and better VM design. It is developed in C, C++ language. Video Coding [3] deals with the compression of image to that of being most ubiquitous resource activity for the audience to learn about coding standards without having to plough through formal documentation .Basic stress is given on video generalization, digitalization and formats. A major video codec that we have used in “Virtual Classroom” is H.264 [4]. It is a latest video coding standard of ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group and ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group. Scope of Video coding standardization is shown in Fig 1.
Fig.1: Scope of Video Coding Standardization [4]
XML Parsing [5] starts with character conversion followed by lexical analysis that is invariant among different parsing models with syntactic analysis creates data representation based on parsing model used. Using xml parsing in “Virtual Classroom” we have included the streaming capability feature. It requires low latency and memory usage and usually parses a small portion of document sequentially without having full fledged information of entire document structure. Video Streaming [6] in android is divided into five layers, including the user interface, data capture and data output codec and network transmission layer. With this the cycle and complexity of media application cycle gets reduced and hence improves overall software maintainability. This development was meant to enhance the stability and provide portability to the various android based applications. III. PROPOSED METHOD Android [13] operating system is defined as an open source system developed by Google in Linux platform using C, C++ and JAVA [8] language. In “Virtual classroom” we have proposed an android version of 2.2. And above. Basic implementation of the application comprises of the following desired tasks. Starting with the feature that is the basic idea for the application prototype is video streaming from the server which is at the same network of android mobile client. Next is the subtopics task to provide easiness and is potent in viewing the video lecture. When a user feels tired or exhausted while viewing the lecture he/she can pause at that moment and record the timeline so that whenever the video is buffered it starts from the last saved timeline, this feature is called bookmark. Its updating is also possible from application context. Moreover if a user is not comfortable in understanding English then an option called subtitle is provided to adjust it according to the preferable language. And the latest feature that is imposed is based on multiple video format support in android [15] mobile device. Our proposed software is the solution for the problem discussed above .Basic implementation of this software can be summarized in following lines. Basically after installing the android application connect with the same network through which server is connected. On server video, lectures and xml files and subtitles files are stored. When you first start the application it will ask for the IP of server and connection will be created with server. Now in android client list of the video lectures will be displayed. User 435
can select any of the video lectures that are played and XML [9] file corresponding to that video lectures will be parsed and you can view the subtopics in a list view. Also there are additional features like bookmarking and play with subtitle. In bookmarking feature user can save timing of video lecture along with its complete URL. These timings are stored on SQLITE [10] database and retrieved again. Another feature is playing subtitle along with video in different regional languages, this enhances better understand ability of concepts. The tasks are developed using the tools like Eclipse, Android [7], XML Parsing, External Storage, SQL Lite Database, Wi-Fi and JAVA [14] language. IV. TEST RESULTS Application was tested on Samsung Galaxy S5360Y.All the operations can be summarized as in the following table TABLE I: T ESTING RESULTS ID
Test Description
Test Result
Check
1 2 3 4
Installing .apk file Launch+WI-Fi Check Launching Time Subtitle check
Installation successful Prompt user if Wi-Fi disabled Valid connection with server. Loads subtitle if exists
1 1 1 1
5 6
Subtopics Bookmark
Xml is loaded + topics displayed Video buffered from last bookmark
1 1
Fig.2:Data Flow Diagram
V. DISCUSSION Using the Data Flow Diagram Fig.2 all its respective features are presented .The diagrammatical description starts from user perspective where a user starts in either from Wi-Fi [12] connectivity or through SD card [11] .On successful connection video list is displayed in the mobile device. The next depiction of Data Flow Diagram indicates in that selected video is being played and its XML [9] is loaded in to the device and it can be activated using sliding drawer where all the topics are indexed. Additional option are provided to subtitle in the a particular video and hence a user is allowed to bookmark and also update in a particular video by saving in current timeline and then resuming the video in case a user wants to continue from the last bookmarked position. At the end of Data Flow Diagram Fig.2 a user adds in the bookmark in SQLITE [10] database and that particular timestamp is recorded and hence saved in when video is again processed. The motive of data Flow Diagram is to provide in clear view in the minds of user who access in the application for first time. The one sided arrows indicates that the process is irreversible and the circle indicates that it is a process while open rectangular block signifies that it is a storage whereas closed rectangle is a user. All the testing results are shown in Table 1.
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Education is the most expensive and proposed portal in the current scenario. It makes a person literate and gives him/her knowledge to learn the basic needs of life. So taking all these things in mind an android application “Virtual Classroom” is developed to dynamically load /stream the video lectures just by making a secure Wi-Fi connection with the available local server .Some of the inbuilt features in the application are Bookmark feature that helps in pausing the lecture and marking a timestamp so that whenever it is again started, buffers from the last modified time. Subtitles (.srt files) allow a user to view the lecture in his/her preferred language. There is one option to store the important lectures in the SD card [11], in case there is loss of Wi-Fi [12] connectivity. Bookmark updating feature. Supports video formats like 3GPP, MPEG-4 VI. CONCLUSION Virtual Classroom would definitely provide new revolution in our education system scenario. The portability it provides is beneficial from student’s point of view. The feature it has makes it a better education tool for students. In this paper we have stated the utility of the application “Virtual Classroom” that would certainly define the future perspective of the education in society. The methods that are being implicated are useful for learning and saving time and effort. The application provides a real time streaming of video and is portable so the range within which one can operate is reasonable. Finally we can conclude that the use of this application will embark a true mark in the education society and then learning would be affordable to distances. VII. FUTURE DIRECTION Virtual Classroom not only creates an interactive environment but also save their time and enhance the mode of portability by enabling a user with the proposed features. So taking its compatibility in mind there are some future perspective to improve the overall performance. Audio Dubbing in different languages in order to view lecture in regional languages. Support of all video formats on android mobile client. Adjusting the video quality and aspect ratio according to network strength. User can adjust the speed of the buffered video lecture according to the need. Shows the list of related video lecture at the end of current video lecture. REFERENCES [1] WiFi : Retrieved from: http://www.ieee.org/portal/site/emergingtech/techindex.jsp?techId=48 [2] K. Paul and T. K. Kundu, “Android on Mobile Devices: An Energy Perspective,” in IEEE 10th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (CIT), 2010, pp. 2421–2426. [3] M. Ghanbari ,”Video Coding: An Introduction to Standard Codecs” in Electronics & Communication Engineering Journal, Vol.12 , Issue. 2 , April 2000. [4] T. Wiegand, G. J. Sullivan, G. Bjøntegaard, and A. Luthra, “Overview of the H.264/AVC Video Coding Standard”in IEEE Transactions On Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Vol. 13, No. 7, July 2003. [5] T. Cheung (Brian) Lam, Jianxun Jason Ding, Jyh-Charn Liu, "XML Document Parsing: Operational and Performance Characteristics," Computer, vol. 41, no. 9, pp. 30-37, Sept. 2008. [6] Xueliang Zhao and Dan Tian “The Architecture Design of Streaming Media Applications for Android OS”, May 2005. [7] Android Developers : Retrieved from:http://developer.android.com [8] Webopedia : Java Tutorial Reference , Retrieved from : http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/J/Java.html [9] Lars Vogel (2012 , May) Android XML Processing with the XmlPullParser Version 1.3, Retrieved from:http://www.vogella.com/articles/AndroidXML/article.html [10] Android Developers: Android Sqlite Reference, Retrieved from:http://developer.android.com/reference/android/database/sqlite/package-summary.html [11] Android Developers: Android External Storage Reference, Retrieved from:http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html [12] Android Developers: Android Wi-Fi Reference, Retrieved from:http://developer.android.com/reference/android/net/wifi/package-summary.html
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[13] Shawn ,Van Every .Pro Android Media. : Apress,2009;167-172 [14] Deitel .Java How To Program. 4Th Edition : Prentice Hall [15] Zigurd Mednieks, Laird Dornin, G. Blake Meike, Masumi Nakamura. Programming Android. 2nd Edition: O'Reilly Media, September 2012.
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