RICE is a collaboration tool software that supports use-cases in remote instrumentation sessions. It can be used by instructors and researchers to train students or conduct research on computer-controlled scientific instruments (e.g. electron microscopes, NMRs, telescopes) from remote locations on the Internet. The RICE software integrates instruments, compute, and storage resources via custom-built VNC solutions and web-services. It provides real-time multi-site collaboration (instant messaging, user presence status, and instrument control-lock passing) along with centralized handling of user accounts/privileges, and data for remote analytics. RICE also has a network health (e.g. latency, packet loss) monitoring feature that warns and blocks instrument user?s control-actions during impending and extreme network congestion periods to avoid inadvertent instrument damage. "Proof-of-concept" versions of RICE are being customized to support idiosyncrasies of different high-end multi-million-dollar instruments such as the 850 MHz NMR at Miami University, a Raman-FTIR Micro-Spectrometer at The Ohio State University, and a Scanning Electron Microscope at The Ohio State University.
Figure 1: Cyber-enabled 850 MHz NMR at Miami University
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Figure 2: Cyber-enabled Raman-FTIR Microprobe Instrument at The Ohio State University
Documents
Papers
[1] Prasad Calyam, Abdul Kalash, Neil Ludban, Sowmya Gopalan, Siddharth Samsi, Karen Tomko, David E. Hudak, Ashok Krishnamurthy, “Experiences from Cyberinfrastructure Development for Multi-user Remote Instrumentation”, 4th IEEE International Conference on e-Science, 2008.
[2] Prasad Calyam, Abdul Kalash, Ramya Gopalan, Sowmya Gopalan, Ashok Krishnamurthy, “RICE: A Reliable and Efficient Remote Instrumentation Collaboration Environment”, Journal of Advances in Multimedia’s special issue on “Multimedia Immersive Technologies and Networking”, 2008.
[3] Prasad Calyam, Nathan Howes, Abdul Kalash, Mark Haffner, “User and Network Interplay in Internet Telemicroscopy”, ICST/ACM Immersive Telecommunications Conference (IMMERSCOM), 2007.
Presentations
[1] “Remote Instrumentation Collaborations in Ohio”, Internet2 Fall Member Meeting – Demo Session, K-20 Advisory Committee Meeting – Plenary Talk, New Orleans, LA, October, 2008.
[2] “Cyber-enabled Instrumentation Challenges and Future Directions”, National Science Foundation Cyber-enabled Instrumentation Workshop – Plenary Talk, Arlington, VA, July, 2008.
[3] “Ohio’s Cyber-enabled 850 MHz NMR”, IEEE/ACM Annual Supercomputing Conference - Demo Session, Austin, TX, November, 2008.
[4] “OSC led Remote Instrumentation Program in Ohio”, NJEdge.Net Technology in Education Conference – Demo Session, Plainsboro, NJ, November, 2008.
[5] “Remote Instrumentation Challenges for Online Training and Research”, SLOAN-C International Conference on Online Learning – Plenary Talk, Orlando, FL, November, 2007.
News Articles
[1] "Miami University Releases Cyber Tools To Share Its Spectrometer", CPU Magazine, Vol. 9, Issue 5, 2009.
[2] “Remote use of Scientific Instruments Expands Research, Education”, OSC Annual Research Report, 2008.
[3] “Cyberinfrastructure Tools Improve Remote Use of Scientific Instruments”, HPCwire, 2008.
[4] “Future Watch: A Better View From Afar” - PC Magazine, Volume 26, Number 25, 2007.
[5] “Software overcomes major problems for Scientists who operate Research Tools over the Internet” – by Pam Frost Gorder, The Ohio State University Research Communications, 2007.
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Last updated: June 2009
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