After double-clicking on the phonebook entry, the computer will attempt to connect to the other party. Once the connection has been established, the screen will change to the following view (there is another, similar window, which appears during the connection process):

Click "Go" to start the conference.

The Conference Window

• Toolbar: This is the strip across the top of the screen. The most important icon (circled) is "Hang Up," which ends the conference and returns you to the phonebook. The "Customize" pulldown also provides a number of options for configuration; probably best to leave this alone if you don't know what you're doing!
• Participant list: Lists people in the conference. Since we are only using direct conferences at this time, there should only be two people (yourself and the other party, of course). Drag a person's name into the video windows in order to show their picture; or drag the picture into the participant list in order to hide it. (I use this to get my ugly mug off-screen, since I don't really care about seeing myself; it's the other end of the connection that's important).
• Video windows: Shows the video. A few notes on the subject of video (these also apply to multi-user conferences):
  • if you are showing a sample, try to make the lighting even across the subject. Shield glare with your hand, for example.
  • the cameras can focus very close to an object. So, go ahead and put the lens right next to the sample. Focus using the ring around the lens. But:
  • Due to lag in the software, it is very difficult to focus properly while in a conference. So, the best procedure seems to be:
    1. Establish a conference and get the preliminaries out of the way
    2. Notify the other party, terminate the conference and quit Cu-SeeMe, and start up the image capture software
    3. Place the sample under the lens and arrange everything 'just so'
    4. Focus while still in the capture program
    5. Quit the capture program, restart Cu-SeeMe, and reestablish your conference.
    Unfortunately, Cu-SeeMe cannot run at the same time as the capture software (they both need exclusive access to the camera), thus necessitating all of that quitting and restarting.
• Audio controls and information: Since we are not exchanging live audio as a part of this project (Why? Mainly for speed and quality), you can safely ignore these controls.
• Chat windows: Since we aren't using audio, the chat window is the main communications tool for this project. The lower window shows the text you are currently working on; click in here before you begin to type (to move the cursor into the box) and press Enter to send a line of text. The upper window shows all of the typing which has been sent to the conference, prefixed by the sender.

This is wonderful for a two-way conversation, but what if you need to consult with a number of people at once? Stay tuned...