InfiniteCD Overview
An InfiniteCD is a means to bring very rich media - typically the type used in the entertainment industry - to the PC desktop using hybrid methodology. The goal is to provide a rich media experience - such as the consumer is used to having with television, motion pictures and music - and deliver a framework which would allow the content provider to fully immerse the user in their trademark environment and interface.

Physically, the InfiniteCD is a local storage medium (CD or DVD-ROM) containing rich media, some executable code and information links which allow it to interact with a connection to a remote Internet site and dynamically update and extend information and content.

The architecture of the InfiniteCD encompasses both "pull" technologies which reach out to grab information when it is needed (exemplified by capabilities such as Macromedia’s Shockwave) and "push" technologies which have the ability to drive content from the server down to the desktop’s hard drive without the user’s application intervening. In this respect, the InfiniteCD capitalizes on the concept of intelligent pre-caching which attempts to predict what the user will need well in advance of its use. Determining this, the current revision of information on the desktop is checked and an updated version is sent down from the server and linked to the application. Contrary to "pull" which implies transfer on demand, intelligent push caching would utilize available communications bandwidth whenever it was not being actively used by the consumer. Or another way of looking at it is that all available bandwidth is being used constantly in the background and not simply when it is needed by the application.

Obviously, it is important in this scenario for the relevancy of information to match the user’s interest and needs. In this way the most efficient use of bandwidth and local storage is accomplished. In a perfect situation , therefore, a user can "drill" vertically down into an interesting topic as far as they wish and never feel like they do not have access to a broad base of "horizontal" information completely unbounded by the perceived physical capacity of their local CD or DVD device. Several techniques for relevancy exist and are being examined for use in this product.

In addition, a more direct method of determining user interest is being employed; user interest information is captured on a "cookie" and this information is used by the server to help organize and prioritize the kinds of information being sent to the user’s platform based on their historical interests and usage of the application.

Aside from targeting information to the user the InfiniteCD lays the groundwork for using other and more efficient methods of communication. Aside from POTS (Plain Old Telephone Systems) several other techniques using multi-cast technologies for television, satellite, etc. are being explored which would provide larger pipes and greater flexibility in how information is transferred to the PC.

Unlike the conventional browser interface, the InfiniteCD provides a rich experience for the user with no perceived browser frameworks and menus. The content provider will literally own the entire screen "real estate" and provide a fully immersive trademark environment to their customers. Finally, the impression of CD-ROM capacity limits will disappear and the full potential of the Internet can be exploited as a real-time medium for communications. In the process, the use of rich media will maximize the consumer value proposition on the PC and provide greater creative freedom to the content provider’s developers and graphics staff.

Looking to the future, the InfiniteCD project is just a first step to providing a more compelling link from the PC to the Internet and the new content providers from the entertainment industry. The combination of creative resources on the PC plus a convergence of the various pipes (cable, phone line, satellite, etc.) to the platform opens up tremendous opportunities to developers and content providers and makes the ConnectedPC a more valuable constituent for entertainment and productivity in the home and office desktop.

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