503 434-438

Virtual Classroom –Android Application for
Accessing Server using Wi-Fi Service
Dr Anupam Shukla 1
,Anshul Nigam2
, Pavan Kumar Goyal3
and Prankul Garg4
1
ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior, India
Email:dranupamshukla@gmail.com
2
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
Proc. of Int. Conf. on Recent Trends in Information, Telecommunication and Computing, ITC

435
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

436
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: TESTING RESULTS
ID Test Description Test Result Check
1 Installing .apk file Installation successful 1
2 Launch+WI-Fi Check Prompt user if Wi-Fi disabled 1
3 Launching Time Valid connection with server. 1
4 Subtitle check Loads subtitle if exists 1
5 Subtopics Xml is loaded + topics displayed 1
6 Bookmark Video buffered from last bookmark 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
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[9] Lars Vogel (2012 , May) Android XML Processing with the XmlPullParser Version 1.3, Retrieved
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[11] Android Developers: Android External Storage Reference, Retrieved
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[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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