Project Eyeballs

Project Eyeballs will be a multi-threaded, multi-processor capable system modeled after the Computational Grids architectures for computationally intensive research.

The core component of Eyeballs is the visual layer. Each visual layer is a thread assigned to a specific processor. It pulls visual processed data from any set of upstream visual layers and applies a set of filter operations sequentially to the data. Each visual layer is also a server to any connected downstream client visual layers, providing post-processed data as requested by the client(s).

The control thread, along with any satellite control threads, provide control, monitoring, and reporting of the visual layer processing.

The tap proxy thread provides a means to tap into any visual layer data edge to provide a streaming (multi)part MIME data to any requesting client viewer (e.g. web browser).

Eyeballs will provide:
• XML specification to configure specific visual processing models. Part of the specification is the visual layer connectivity (plumbing) via graph vertex-edge XML elements. Directed cyclic graphs will be supported.
• Open and documented SOAP messaging interface for control processing. SOAP allows message extensibility.
• MIME structured visual layer output data. MIME types can be extended for any conceivalbe data formats. For example, the hypothetical MIME type 'application/nn' could represent a neural-network (NN) format for the output NN node values which can then be fed to a requesting client visual layer for more NN processing.
• Open, plug-in component interfaces for (pseudo) video hardware.
• Open, plug-in component interfaces for visual layer filters.
• Built-in control functionality for processor resource allocation and monitoring.
• Graph edge tapable points to allow user monitoring and debugging.
• Manager client provides user management interfaces to Eyeballs.

One possible Eyeballs configuration is shown in Figure 1.