PortalNS Official User Guide
Hermosillo & Chihuahua, México. April 2016
Portal NS is a project to establish real-time communication between the Nearsoft offices, which are located on different cities, through an audiovisual system build as a sci-fi portal, offering a realistic interface and a pleasant experience.
In Nearsoft, the culture is very important, it is considered one of the main pillars, and due the offices are in different cities, maintain the same culture in them is a difficult task. Portal NS is a way for having a direct connection in real time with all the offices, so the Nearsoftians can share its culture more naturally just by cohabiting.
This project is being developed by the interns of the Nearsoft Academy (2016-1).
Portal NS is a “permanent” streaming through the offices of Nearsoft, the streaming will be sent through the Nearsoft internal infrastructure in a secure way, the streaming is broadcasted through an audiovisual communication set build as a portal.
The main features of Portal NS are the following:
- Futuristic design to blend with the environment.
- Easy on/off switch.
- Uninterrupted video and voice communication.
- Secure & encrypted communication.
The design of Portal NS is one of the main features, this system is made to resemble a realistic sci-fi portal to provide a futuristic yet very realistic experience when using it.
The system runs a webRTC application over Node.js, Socket.io and Express.js.
It is recommended to use computers with good video processing, i.e. we use apple’s mac mini computers, to get the best experience.
The system uses two 1080p. Cameras for a realistic video transmission.
The system uses a Raspberry Pi v3.0 and two Arduinos configured to transmit and receive the on/off signal for starting the communication using a custom gun-like interface.
Note: Portal-NS runs the application on your localhost, it is needed to configure your public ip address or use an application as “Ngrok” to connect Portal-NS with another machine.
Pre-requisites:
- Have Node.js (v^4.4.3) installed on the machine that runs the application.
Material Needed:
- 2 Computers with speakers & microphone available.
- 2 high resolution cameras.
- Internet connection on both computers.
How to Start?
Clone the repository of the project from github:
https://github.com/echavezNS/portal-ns.git
Install the dependencies of the project using:
npm install
bower install
Once the project is downloaded you can start the service using:
npm start
You can test the health of the project using:
npm test
Instructions:
The application starts automatically when two devices get connected.
- You can pause or continue the transmission with your computer keyboard using the key
“R”.
Enjoy!.