We have run the system successfully on a P3 450MHz machine, however we
recommend the use of a 800MHz or faster CPU with 256MB of RAM, 600MB
of disk, full-duplex soundcard, microphone or telephony hardware.
Additional disk space is required for extensive speech/voice logging.
Our current development platform is a dual Pentium 1GHz machine with
256MB of RAM and using a standard sound card for voice input. In this
configuration, the system operates at 40-50% CPU load.
Operating System
At present, Windows 2000 is the only supported platform, although it
should also work under Windows NT. Parts of Communicator depend
on Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) or make use of Visual C++
idioms, so installation on Unix/Linux platform will require
corresoinding changes. While a Linux port is planned for the future,
the Windows release has been our first priority. Note.Administrator privileges are required to carry out some portions of
the installation.
Database
MySQL 3.23 or latest compatible
versions thereof. Communicator uses the database to service airport
and geography queries. A MySQL database will be populated by the
setup script; scripts for Oracle are not yet available;
however, it is possible to populate the database manually.
Scripting
Perl 5.6 or above. Communicator's database intereaction and
web query components are implemented in Perl. Additional perl modules
will automatically install as you enter the setup stage.
Internet Connectivity
In case you've considered running Communicator off the network, think again.
Airline flight and pricing information are fetched live from the internet.
Optional Requirements
Microphones
We recommend a good quality, head-mounted, noise-cancelling microphone for desktop use. We were satisfied with the Emkay MM106429 headset, the Andrea ANC 500 series, as well as the Telex H531.
Telephony
The most cost-effective solution to a small-scale single-line telephony setup includes an echo cancellation box and a serial interface. Different setup is required if you wish to handle multiple lines. We have instructions on how to obtain and configure the hardware.
Compiler
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0. This standard compiler is required only if certain parts of the system are modified and need to be recompiled.
Please email all comments and feedbacks to Yitao Sun.
