Advances in Multimedia - An International Journal (AMIJ) Volume 1 Issue 2

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ADVANCES IN MULTIMEDIA - AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL (AMIJ)
Table of Content
Volume 1, Issue 2, October 2010
Pages
26 - 36 Soft Shadow Rendering based on Real Light Source Estimation
in Augmented Reality
Zakiah Noh, Mohd Shahrizal Sunar
37 - 48 Enhancing Multimedia Communication Components in
Instructional Consulting Service Online: Students’ Perspective and
Perception
Abd Hadi Abdul Razak, Ang Ling Weay
Advances in Multimedia - An International Journal (AMIJ) Volume (1) Issue (2)

Zakiah Noh & Mohd Shahrizal Sunar
Soft Shadow Rendering based on Real Light Source Estimation

in Augmented Reality
Zakiah Noh zakiahnoh@gmail.com

ViCubeLab,Department of Computer Graphics and Multimedia,
Faculty of Computer Science and Information System,
UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia,
81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Mohd Shahrizal Sunar shah@cs.utm.my

ViCubeLab, Department of Computer Graphics and Multimedia,
Faculty of Computer Science and Information System,
UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia,
81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Abstract
The most challenging task in developing Augmented Reality (AR) applications is

to make virtual objects mixed harmoniously with the real scene. To achieve
photorealistic AR environment, three key issues must be emphasized namely
consistency of geometry, illumination and time. Shadow is an essential element
to improve visual perception and realism. Without shadow, virtual objects will
appear like it is floating and thus will make the environment look unrealistic.
However, many shadow algorithms still have drawbacks such as producing sharp
and hard-edged outlines, which make the shadow’s appearance unrealistic.
Thus, this paper will focus on generating soft shadow in AR scene, rendered
base on real light sources position. The reflective sphere is used to create
environment map image that can estimate the light source from the real scene
and generate the soft shadows.
Keywords: Augmented Reality, Shadow, Soft Shadow, Reflective Sphere, Environment Map.
1. INTRODUCTION
Augmented Reality (AR) is part of mixed reality that mixes the physical world with virtual objects.
This technology allows users to interact and control the environment with their actions. Azuma [1]
defined three criteria of an AR system. Firstly, AR is a combination of real and virtual world.
Secondly, AR is interactive in real-time, and finally, AR must be registered in 3D. Currently,
developers of AR technology are working on broad areas of AR applications which are reliable to
be used in real world application such as in cultural heritage [2][3], game, simulation, medical and
education.
To achieve photorealistic rendering in AR, three problems have been identified, geometry
consistency, illumination consistency and time consistency [4]. Consistency of geometry refers to
the correct position of a virtual object in real scene location. Time consistency is the
correspondence between real world and virtual world. Hence, it is important part to make a
possible smooth interaction in real time. Meanwhile, consistency of illumination is to match the
shading of virtual object with other object in real scene, where virtual object must cast a correct
Advances in Multimedia - An International Journal (AMIJ), Volume (1): Issue (2) 26

shadow. Shadow is one of the elements that can add realism to an AR environment. To improve
objects presence, it is important to provide more information of the size, position and shape of
virtual objects in the real world.
Related techniques have been done since several years ago, where elements such as light
source, object placement, luminance and the geometry of the environment were given high
consideration onto creating a realistic shadow [5][6]. Without shadows, computer generated
images will look unreasonable even with precise measurements of the light source and material
properties [7]. Thus, this paper will focus on generation of soft shadow that can be rendered
based on real light source estimation to produce a credible soft shadow in AR environment.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 gives brief explanations about related
works in shadow in AR. Section 3 discusses the process of shadow implementation in AR
environment and continue on with experiment in section 4. Experimental result will be discussed
in section 5 and finally, section 6 will conclude about this paper and future work.
2. RELATED WORKS
Recently, computer graphics technologies have seen rapid growth and researchers involving in
AR field have continuously trying to improve the quality of graphics system. Jacobs et al. [8]
present the classification of illumination methods to be applied in mixed reality environment. Two
categories of rendering method were stated, common illumination and relighting. Common
illumination method provides a consistent lighting when virtual objects are added into real world,
and does not allows any modification of the current scene. The method that used common
illumination can be found in [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Whilst, relighting method allows the
modification of the original illumination such as in [16][17].
Naemura et al. [18] proposed the concept of virtual light and virtual shadow. The concept of
virtual shadow in this method is divided into four types: i) real to virtual shadow for rigid objects, ii)
real to virtual shadow for non-rigid objects, iii) image-based virtual to virtual shadow, and iv)
virtual to real shadow. These methods will project the shadow of real object onto virtual world and
vice versa. A natural merge between real and virtual worlds will be obtained when the shading
and shadows correspond between these two worlds. Sugano et al. [7] and Madsen et al. [19]
highlight the importance of consistent shadows in AR environment.
Research which is related to performance of shadow can be found in [20][11][15]. These

proposed approaches were designed to run in graphics hardware and offer the way to balance
the performance without sacrificing the visual quality of shadows. Besides that, generating
shadows using shadow maps [7][15] or shadow volume [12] can be developed at a low cost.
Meanwhile, Haller et al. [12] proposed the concept of using shadow volume, which is focusing
more on the shadow problems in AR system. The reality of AR world was improved with projected
real shadows onto virtual objects and vice versa.
The survey of soft shadow classification method was done in [21]. This method can be applied to
generate shadows in the context of AR environment. Jacobs et al. [13] and Madsen and Laursen
[15] point the issues of double shadow in AR environment, where they had solved the overlapping
between real and virtual shadow to produce realistic shadow. A real-time rendering solution to
simulate color-consistent of virtual shadows in a real environment was presented by Jacobs et al.
[13]. The rendering process in their proposed method has three step mechanisms; shadow
detection, shadow protection and shadow generation, in which every step produces consistent
shadows between real and virtual objects in real-time. To accomplish the successful shadow
detection and shadow generation in their method, three requirements are needed: the geometry,
the light source position and only hard or semi-soft shadows are allowed.

The credibility of shadow generation also can be achieved with correct estimation of light source
position. The researches related to the light source position can be found in [5] [17][22], which all
have the same direction, to propose a method that can create lighting for virtual object in AR
environment to be as realistic as possible like in the real world. This paper is based on the
research that estimates light source position to render soft shadows which is associated with the
real world.
3. SHADOW GENERATION IN AR
This section will explain the detail process of generating realistic shadow. The framework was
created to lead the development process of shadow and the method of soft shadow that will be
used in this work will be explained.
Implementation
The problems in terms of consistency of geometric and photometric registration as described in
[23] will be highlighted in the implementation processes. These problems need to be resolved
especially when dealing with unrealistic fake shadows generation. Then, shadow will be rendered
based on estimation of light source position in the real scene and get the correct-perception of
user viewpoint. This result will produce the photorealistic rendering in AR environment. In this
paper, the implementation of the proposed method involves several steps as illustrated in Figure
1.
The cameras will detect markers composed with reflective spheres in the real scene. Then, the
relationship between the 2D marker and camera coordinate system will be determined using
existing technique. This relationship is an important step to complete the geometric registration so
that the virtual object is placed in the right position. After that, the system will detect the reflective
sphere segmentation on the marker, which is painted with glossy black paint to avoid the dynamic
range problem to create the environment map. Environment map will define the incoming light
from all possible directions at some reference point.
The system will use median cut algorithm, which presents a credibly complex lighting
environment. This algorithm will produce a set of light sources [25] and will estimate the light
source position in real scene from the environment map. The light sources are used to generate
realistic shadows using projection shadow. Then, the soft shadow will be applied to get smooth-
edges outline of shadows so that the shadows will look realistic. Finally, the 3D virtual object with
the correct attached shadow is rendered in the real scene.
The setup of the system in this work is inspired from [5]. This setup consists of laptop or personal
computer as a display device, camera to track marker and display virtual object as output video,
2D marker to display virtual object, 3D marker to estimate light source from the real scene and
light as a light source for the system. 3D marker was constructed using the reflective sphere and
2D marker. Figure 2 illustrates the setup of the system prototype.
Median cut algorithm

The algorithm will split the environment map image into 2n regions based on latitude and
longitude format. The regions that are already split have an equal light energy and each of them
has a light source representation. The steps to split the environment map image are as follows:
1. The environment map of light probe is added to the region list as a single region.
2. Every region in the list will subdivide along the longest dimension so that its light energy
is split evenly.
3. Return to step 2 if number of iteration is less than n.
4. The light source is placed at the center of each region and the color of light source is set
to the sum of pixel values within the region [25].

The advantages of using this algorithm are it is efficient, fast and easy to put into practice. The
algorithm is very practical to apply the merging of virtual object into the real scene.
Camera tracking
Geometric Marker detection

Registration
Detect reflective
sphere segmentation
Create
environment map
Median Cut
Algorithm
Photometric
Registration
Estimate light
source direction
Create shadow
Soft shadow
Render 3D objects
with soft shadows
FIGURE 1: Frameworks of System Prototype.

FIGURE 2: Setup of the System Prototype.
Soft Shadow
The generated shadows are still unrealistic since they have sharp and hard-edges outlines of
shadows, also known as hard shadow. To get a realistic shadow, the soft shadow method must
be applied. The differences in appearance between hard and soft shadow is depicted in Figure 3.
FIGURE 3: Hard Shadow (Left) and Soft Shadow (Right) [21].
The soft shadow method that can be applied in this research is based on the concept of Heckbert
& Herf’s soft shadow [27]. The method will produce the number of hard shadows samples. These
samples consist of the number of different dark color and size of the shadows, where the size
slightly bigger than the size of the original shadow. The numbers of samples influence the quality
of soft shadow. The higher number of sample used, the higher quality soft shadow will be
generated and vice versa.
After few number of hard shadow samples have been produced, the samples will be blended
together with different dark colors and sizes together with the original shadow. This process will
be done by stacking each other starting from the less dark color with ends with original color of
the shadow. Figure 4 shows the overlapping process of samples hard shadow.
+ + + + =
Overlapping
FIGURE 4: Overlapping Process of Samples Hard Shadow.

4. EXPERIMENT
This section discussed the experiment of rendering soft shadow in AR environment. The
experiments were conducted using three samples hard shadow in which every sample has
different number of hard shadow.
Testing Platform
In this experiment, the laptop and camera device with specification specified in Table 1 and Table
2 were used to conduct the experiment processes. The results from this experiment are
discussed based on Frame per Second (FPS) and the appearance of the soft shadow on the
display screen measured the quality of soft shadow.
Intel® Core ™2 Duo CPU T7250 @

Processor
2.00GHz
Memory (RAM) 3.00 GB
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
TABLE 1: Specification of the Laptop for Display Soft Shadow.
Type Aloha Digital PC Camera

Frame rate VGA, 30 Frame/Sec
White Balance Automatic
Megapixels up to 8 megapixels
Over View Glass element lens
Connectivity USB 2.0
System Windows 2000, Windows XP,
Requirements Windows Vista
TABLE 2: Specification of the Camera.
Soft shadow process

The soft shadow was generated based on the concept of Heckbert & Herf’s soft shadow [27] as
described in previous section. This technique used two parameters to produce the soft shadow
which is length and gap factors. The length factor determines the length of soft shadow from the
original hard shadow. Meanwhile, the gap factor determines the distance between hard shadows
in the sample. Figure 5 illustrated the concept of Heckbert & Herf’s soft shadow [27] with length
and gap factors.

Length factor
Original hard
shadow Gap factor
FIGURE 5: Illustration of Soft Shadow with Length and Gap Factors.
5. RESULT
This section will discuss the result from the experiment of rendering soft shadow in AR
environment. The quality of shadow appearance is important to produce realistic AR environment.
In this experiment, three samples of hard shadow are being used which consist of five, seven and
ten shadows in each samples. Every sample will be measured in terms of their performance
based on FPS and the number of the light source used in median cut algorithm.
(a) (b)
FIGURE 6: Shadow of Computer Generated Object Based on Real Light Position.
The median cut algorithm was used to estimate real light source position from the real scene
using the environment map. Figure 6 (a) and 6 (b) show the shadow that render based on
different position of real light source. The object with green color is a computer generate object
and object with white color is the real object. These figures show the computer generated object
produce shadow that are in the same direction of real shadow. Thus, these make the AR
environment more realistic. The object in this experiment also can be applied to more complex
geometry objects and render multiple objects in the one AR environment.

(a) (b)
(c) (d)
FIGURE 7: Comparison of Appearance Hard Shadow (a) and Soft Shadow Generation (b)(c)(d).
Figure 7(a) shows the result of hard shadow that was generated from the system in AR
environment. The appearance of hard shadow has proved that it is not realistic because it has
sharp and hard-edge outlines. Meanwhile, Figure 7(b), (c) and (d) show the result of soft shadow
being generated from Heckbert & Herf’s technique [27] with different samples of hard shadow.
Sample 1 consists of 5 layers of hard shadow, sample 2 consists of 7 layers of hard shadow and
sample 3 consists of 10 layers of hard shadow. From these results, we can see that the number
of hard shadow layers influenced the quality of shadow appearance. The quality of soft shadow
becomes higher with the large number of hard shadow layer and less quality with small number of
hard shadow layer.
The experiment also measures the performance of the system based on FPS. Figure 8 illustrates
the graph of comparison performance between the three samples of hard shadow used in the
experiment. In this graph, the result of FPS depends on the number of light source used in the
median cut algorithm. The graph shows the FPS will be decreased with the increasing number of
light sources. It is because every light source renders the samples of hard shadow which involved
a lot of computation.

FIGURE 8: Comparison of 3 Samples of Hard Shadow Layer.
Apart from that, the samples used in the experiment influenced the performance of the system.
From the graph, sample 1 with five layers of hard shadow produced the highest FPS compared to
sample 3 which contain ten layers of hard shadow. This means with the higher number of hard
shadow layers, the high quality will be produced but the performance becomes low. It is
contradictory with the small number of hard shadow layer with high performance but produce low
quality of soft shadow appearance.
Thus, to achieve realistic soft shadow in AR environment, it involved a large number of hard
shadow layer. Since higher computational will decrease the performance of the system, the
optimization techniques is needed such as Level of Detail (LOD), Culling, Octree and others.
These techniques will increase the performance of the system.
6. CONSLUSION & FUTURE WORK

The method to create soft shadow in AR is presented in this paper based on the concept of
Heckbert & Herf’s soft shadow [27]. Compared to hard shadow, the purpose of soft shadow is to
add realistic on appearance of shadow in AR environment. This is because hard shadow still has
drawbacks such as sharp and hard-edge outlines that are deficient in the appearance of shadow.
In this paper, soft shadow was rendered based on estimated light source from the real scene.
The estimation of real light source is important to create credible shadow. However, the
experimental result shows the high quality of soft shadows will reduce the performance of the
system. In future works, the development of method to improve the performance of the system
without sacrificing the quality of the system must be applied to produce realistic AR environment.
7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to express our appreciation to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Malaysian
Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) for providing financial support for this research through
Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (vot no.: 78599).

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Computer Vision and Media Technology Lab, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, 2008
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Photo-Realistic Real-Time Augmented Reality”. In Proceedings International Conference on
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1996

Abd Hadi Abdul Razak & Ang Ling Weay
Enhancing Multimedia Communication Components in Instructional

Consulting Service Online: Students’ Perspective and Perception
Abd Hadi Abdul Razak ahadiar@uum.edu.my

UUM College of Arts and Science
Building of Information Technology, Universiti Utara Malaysia
Sintok, 06010, Kedah, Malaysia
Ang Ling Weay ling_weay@yahoo.com

UUM College of Arts and Science
Building of Information Technology, Universiti Utara Malaysia
Sintok, 06010, Kedah, Malaysia
Abstract
Online consultation - one of the advancement of communication technology in

consulting service is conducted electronically in various contexts such as online
medical consultation, IT consulting and online financial service consultation. It enables
participants communicate in synchronous and asynchronous way [1]. However,
implementation of this technology in instructional consultation in higher education is
not fully integrated. This may due to lack of investigation, analyzing and proper
strategy planning on problem encountered by students and lecturer. This paper
discuss about the limitations of typical instructional consultation and students’
perspective and perception on conducting consulting service online. The potential
benefits of communication components for students in higher education are
determined by investigate their perceptions and perspectives on implementation of
communication technology for online instructional consultation. The limitations of
typical instructional consultation that elicited from literature review are included in this
quantitative research study in order to investigate precisely students’ response
pertaining to instructional consulting service in higher education. Data was solicited
from a sample of 130 students in College of Arts and Science (CAS), College of
Business (COB) and College of Law, Government and International Studies (COLGIS)
in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) via simple random sampling method. Student’s
response to five point Likert-type scale anchored by the terms Strongly Disagree (1) to
Strongly Agree (5), Not Important (1) to Extremely Important (5) and Never (1) to Very
Often (5). The finding of the research revealed that students were generally positive
about potential of multimedia communication tools for traditional consultation system in
higher education organization.
Keywords: Instructional Consultation, Real time communication technology, face to face consultation, online
instructional consultation, Yamane’s (1967) formula.
1. INTRODUCTION
Instructional consultation is commonly recognized as a problem-solving model systematically designed
around school IC [2] with the purpose in solving academic and behavioural problem encountered by
students. Accompanying with the rapid growth of technology advance, the need of providing consulting
and information delivery service online are increasingly concerned, not only in financial service [3] or
Advances in Multimedia – An International Journal (AMIJ), Volume (1) : Issue (2) 37

business context [4] but also telemedicine consultation that are widely studied by many researchers [5].
According to [4], conducting of consultation service online help to keep the cost to a minimum while
offering competitive service on client’s demand as well as enable the staff work from client location
regardless the working place. At the early phase of conducting consulting service online, asynchronous
technology such as email and forum discussion are more commonly employed as collaboration tools
among these virtual team staff compared with synchronous technology that enhance the collaboration
on real time [23].
At present, as the advantages of synchronous communication technology had been acknowledged,

many organizations started to blend this technology advance as part of e-consultation, enable the
participants to communicate in synchronous and asynchronous way [1]. As a result, web conferencing
platform that mushroomed developed and adopted to fulfil demand of organization, to provide support
and enhance collaborative on real time and delayed time, to overcome the time and space constraints
that burden face to face consultation. More specifically, video conference component engender high
social presence that absence in text-based mediated communication, enable conveying of information
through non-verbal cues such as facial expression, gesture and body language. This directly will reduce
a sense of isolated feeling as inhibited from virtual environment.
However, in education context, even though there are many suggestion regarding with provide
consulting service online [24] & [25], but yet the used of communication technology is not fully
implemented as an essential support for instructional consultation in higher education. Shifting of typical
instructional consultation towards virtual consultation is not simple. Since there is lack of investigation,
analyzing and proper strategy planning on issues encountered by students and lecturer for instructional
consultation in higher education. There is lack of quantitative research for study mentor-mentee system
in education context [6]. Furthermore, there is no standard and common consultation process as a
guideline in designation of consultation process. Many researchers have their different perspectives on
the typical consultation processes. For example, consultation processes may different related to
consultation purpose, and the tasks and actors involved [2]. While some researchers present that
designation of e-consultation platform should support consulting processes as in face to face
consultation [7] & [8] and more specifically the task involved [9], [10] & [11]. Thus, It can be seen that
designation of online instructional consultation model should be look as academic problem-solving
consultation based on overall aspects: the consultation process, the tasks perform on each phase and
actors involved. Before making decision on whether which communication tools are appropriate to be
implemented, a preliminary study on students’ perspective and perception towards conducting
consultation service online are conducted.
2. BACKGROUNDS
From literature review, there are 3 majors problems on typical consultation in higher education identified
which regarding with the difficulties faced when participants are at a distance, ineffective time
management [12] & [13] and last, but not least, the problem on recording consultation session and
management of recorded document in systematic and effective way for later references and review.
Mentor-mentee system in higher education in Malaysia is to provide advisement and guidance regarding
students’ academic matters and personal problem. A lecturer can schedule a consultation time to meet
with their students. However, it does not guarantee that students can meet their mentor being on time.
They may face the situation in which one or more members are at physically separated environment.
Research on the higher education in Malaysia conducted by had found that majority of students show
their unsatisfactory on the mentor-mentee system on difficulties to meet with their supervisor for
consultation [14]. This may due to sometimes, lecturer may have conduct emergency meeting, attend to
the outstation seminar and may not meet their students for a period of time. This indirectly leads to
student frustration when the people they rely on solving urgent problem are probably at a distance. The
other reason related, travelling and recovering from a remote location are time-consuming and costly
endeavour [15]. It is not always promptness for working adults that take part-time course especially
postgraduate student, have family commitment or job commitment to travel to a remote location just to
meet their lecturer. Loss of human contact indirectly cause decrement in interactivity among participants
when they are at a distance. These difficulties with long distance travel, time as well as cost spending on
travel may reduce with accessible and usable of ICT in field. Nonetheless, time management as the key
ingredient to determine the successful of consultation process or may lead to consultation frustration

especially when in synchronous discussion [16]. Communities do exist successfully without effective
time schedule management but those communities that are designed around time management are
provided with much greater flexibility. Observation on the mentor-mentee system in higher education in
Malaysia shows that insufficient time and inconsistent consultation time schedule by lecturer or staff of
the faculty cause student lack of enthusiasm to meet with their mentor [12] & [13].
The third problem related to second problem in which recorded documents are needed for future review
or references. Effective and systematic way in recording meeting and organization of recorded
document is essential in community and work organization. Usually, meticulous students may take note
during consultation session. However, it is not always promptness for them to do so as hand writing take
longer to be produced rather than read or speech. If they attend to take note, but on the same time, they
may not focus on discussion and information delivered. This circumstance may due to human limitation
in performing multi-task simultaneously [17] .Lack of focalization in content delivered during consultation
may cause difficulties especially in making decision.
Hence, regarding with the problem addressed, building consensus on instructional consultation
processes in higher education and define the communication technology that best suit the participants’
requirement is important. Human are not all alike. Thus, this research emphasizes more on human
factors. In order to explore more deeply on students’ behaviour, attitudes and goals on typical
consultation, their perspective and perception towards implementation of multimedia components is
investigated.
3. OBJECTIVES
The specific aims of the study are threefold as below:
a) To analyze students’ problem on face to face instructional consultation in higher education
b) To analyze students’ attitudes and behaviour towards face-to-face consultation in higher

education.
c) To analyze on students’ perceptions on online communication tools.
4. METHODOLOGY
This study attempts to focus on several aspects of instructional consultation service that can be
measured:
Sample Characteristics
Respondents (Students) College of College of College of Law, Total
Arts and Business Government and
Science (CAS) (COB) International Studies
(COLGIS)
Diploma Lepasan Ijazah 841 - - 841
Diploma 67 - - 67
Bachelor Degree 5977 10556 2578 19111
Master 2229 2144 248 4621
PHD 373 690 169 1232
Total 9487 13390 2995 25872
TABLE 1: The Approximate Total Population of Students in UUM for 2009/2010 Sessions
Table 1 shows the total population in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) was estimated at 25872 students
for 2009/2010 sessions. Obviously, it is impossible to collect all the data from wide and diverse range of

population in UUM. According to [18], it’s necessary to determine the accurate sample size in order to
obtain the meaningful result. Thus, Yamane’s formula was applied by draw the identical sample from the
large population in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Figure 1 shows the Yamane’s formula for
determining the sample size of student’s population (n=25872) with 90% confidence level and error limit
of 10%.
n= sample size
N= Population
e=level of precision/ acceptable sampling error
Substitution:
N= 25872
e = 90% confidence level or 10% acceptable
sampling error
n= 25872/(1+25872(0.10)(0.10))
= 99.614
≈ 100
FIGURE 1: Yamane’s Formula (1967)

Based on table of determining the sample size and margin of error developed by Yamane [22], 100
obtained responses are needed for population of 25872 students in UUM. Thus, in order to compensate
for non-response or non-returned questionnaires [22], the sample size is increase to 30% in which 130
students was chosen from College of Arts and Science (CAS), College of Law, Government and
International Studies (COLGIS) and College of Business (COB) in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Of
all 130 questionnaires distributed randomly, only 108 questionnaires were returned and 6 were missing
values, results a response rate of 78%. A reliability analysis (Cronbach’s Alpha) was employed for each
dimension. The results show satisfied results (higher than 0.60) ranging from the lowest 0.678 to highest
0.878 for dimensions as stated in table 2.
Dimension Cronbach’s Alpha

Students’ Problem on Consultation 0.678
Importance of Features for Online 0.852
Communication Tools
Students’ Behaviours 0.878
Towards Face to face Consultation
TABLE 2: Cronbach’s Alpha for All Dimensions
The first part of questionnaire showed that respondents consisted of 37% students from College of Arts
and Science (CAS), 38% students from College of Business (COB) and 25% students from College of
Law, Government and International Studies (COLGIS). The population mainly consisted of
undergraduate students (74%) while 26 % are postgraduate students.

5. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

5.1 Problem Faced During Face-to-Face Consultation
Figure 2 shows that out of 108 respondents in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), 54.7% of them
encountered with problem in consultation with their lecturers. Out of 58 students that encountered with
difficulties, majority of them (43.1%) meet their lecturer for sometimes while only 1.7% of them never
meet their lecturer for consultation.
FIGURE 2: Respondents by Problem in Face-to-Face Consultation
Table 3 shows five dimensions of frequency for students perceived problems on face-to-face
consultation in higher education environment. From the mean analysis, it is clear that the score are
between 2.60 and 3.31. This means that students give the score above the middle point of 2.50 where a
Likert-scale between 1 and 5. The median score also indicate that the score are distributed closer to
normal distribution.
Scale
Problems NA NI
0 1 2 3 4 5 N= 58
Frequency (%) 5.2 12.1 20.7 43.1 17.2 1.7 Mean = 2.60
Ineffective Time 1.7 19.0 10.3 41.4 22.4 5.2 Mean = 2.79
Management (%)
Constraint by Distance (%) 1.7 10.3 13.8 56.9 15.5 1.7 Mean =2.79
Record Consultation 1.7 12.1 19.0 39.7 10.7 6.9 Mean =2.86
Session (%)
Emergency Consultation 1.7 22.4 8.6 41.4 17.2 8.6 Mean =3.31
(%)
Note: 0-Not Applicable; 1-Often; 5-Never

TABLE 3: Students’ Behaviours and Attitudes towards Face to face Consultation in Higher Education
Of these five dimensions of perceived problems, most of the students (56.9%) encountered with problem
in meet their lecturer when both of them are at a distance sometimes. Only 1.7 % of them are not

constraint by distance. 94.8 % of students having timing problem in which majority of them (41.4%)
having insufficient time or ineffective time management. Observation on the mentor-mentee system in
higher education in Malaysia show those students’ insufficient time and inconsistent consultation time
schedule by lecturer or staff of the faculty cause student lack of enthusiasm to meet with their mentor [6]
& [13]. Whereas 48 students (82.8%) having the problem in record consultation session or take note
during consultation session. It is significant to note that students concede that they always conduct
emergency consultation with lecturers (mean – 3.31). There are relatively high-level percentages
(22.4%) of students (with the scale “very often”) to meet their lecturers for emergency consultation as
compare to other 4 dimensions with the same scale.
5.2 Importance Features of Online Instructional Consultation

Figure 3 and table 4 present students’ perceived importance of features of multimedia communication
components to be included in online instructional consultation model. The criteria are measured in term
of means and standard deviation by using scale of 1 (Not Important) to 5 (Extremely Important).
FIGURE 3: Students Perceived Importance Features for Online Instructional Consultation Model

No Variables Number of
Respondents
Valid Missing Mean Median Std.
Deviation
Q1 Ability to deliver information clearly in 106 2 4.01 4.00 0.910
audio-visual form.
Q2 Ability to deliver information in real-time 106 2 4.13 4.00 1.052
Q3 Ability to store and retrieve consultation 105 3 3.75 4.00 1.133
document and agenda record
Q4 Ability to record consultation session 106 2 3.79 4.00 0.933
Q5 Ability to customize profile online 105 3 3.55 4.00 0.940
Q6 Ability to make appointment online 106 2 3.87 4.00 0.947
Q7 Ability to upload and share document 106 2 3.87 4.00 1.005
online.
Q8 Ability to playback video online in video 105 3 3.70 4.00 1.136
player
Q9 Ability to view document online in 106 2 1.75 4.00 1.272
slideshow
Q10 Ability to get consultation 106 2 3.99 4.00 0.889
announcement online.
Q11 Ability to take note online and upload 106 2 3.99 4.00 0.856
note for sharing.
Q12 Ability to leave message online 105 3 3.61 4.00 1.122
TABLE 4: Students’ Perceived Importance Features of Multimedia Communication Components
From table 4, mean analysis is to determine the average score of the 12 variables which rating the level
of importance of different function and features to be included in multimedia consultation components. It
can be seen that students provide the score between 3.50 and 4.13. Students provide the score above
2.50 indicates that they are strongly feels that all the proposed function and features are important and
may take into consideration when design the multimedia communication components. The high score
mean (4.13) for variable “ability to deliver information in real-time” and variable “ability to deliver
information clearly in audio-visual form” with score mean (4.01) indicates that students concede dynamic
two way communication with immediate feedback, as well as deliver information in visual and verbal
cues.
The lowest mean score (mean-3.5) for variable “ability to view document online in slideshow” resulted. It
is significant to note that students concede that it’s not as important as other features as denotes by
students to be included in online consultation model. This may due to they probably need document
downloaded, store in hard disk and view them when they are offline instead of playback the consultation
document online.
5.3 Students’ Attitudes and Behaviour toward Face-to-Face Consultation in Higher Education
Respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement and disagreement with the statements
regarding with consultation in higher education. Their responses are present in table 5 and figure 4.

No Variables Number of
Respondents
Valid Missing Mean Median Std.
Deviation
Q1 I know my problem very well and can 101 7 3.17 3.00 1.025
present my problem clearly to lecturer
face to face.
Q2 I involve actively by give many opinions 105 3 3.05 3.00 0.942
during consultation session.
Q3 The consultation decision can be made 106 2 2.37 3.00 0.764
without delayed to later consultation
Q4 It is always promptness for me to take 106 2 2.20 3.00 1.129
note while lecturers deliver the
information.
Q5 I always record my consultation activities 106 2 3.59 4.00 1.226
into logbook.
TABLE 5: Students’ Behaviours and Attitudes towards Face to face Consultation in Higher Education
FIGURE 4: Students’ Behaviours and Attitudes towards Face to face Consultation in Higher Education
Based on in-depth analysis of students’ behaviour on face-to-face consultation, 5 questions were

constructed. Table 5 shows the relative students agreement and disagreement on the statements.
Strong evidence with the high mean score (mean-3.59) shows that most of the students agree that they
always record their consultation activities into logbook. However, when asked about whether involve
actively in face-to-face consultation, they neither agreeing nor disagreeing (mean-3.05).
On the other side, most of the students claim that they are not always promptness to take note while
lecturer delivers the information during consultation session (mean-2.20). This circumstance may due to
human limitation in performing multi-task simultaneously [17]. A lower mean value (2.37) denotes that
most of the consultation session may sometimes terminate before decision being made and perhaps
delayed for later consultation.

5.4 Students’ Perception on the Frequency used of Online Communication Tools
No Variables Number of Respondents

Valid Missing Mean Median Std. Deviation
Q1 Instant Messaging 108 0 4.17 4.00 1.032
Q2 Video Conferencing 108 0 2.93 3.00 1.257
Q3 Audio Conferencing 108 0 1.94 2.00 1.036
Q4 Forum Discussion 108 0 2.89 3.00 1.231
Q5 Email 108 0 4.22 5.00 1.097
TABLE 6: Students’ Perceived on the Frequently Used of Online Communication Tools
FIGURE 5: Students’ Perceived on Frequently Used Communication Tools
Table 6 and figure 5 shows frequency use of online communication tools among students in Universiti
Utara Malaysia (UUM). The criteria are measured in term of means and standard deviation by using
scale of 1 (Never) to 5 (Very Often). In general, students are often using all the proposed online
communication tools unless the audio conferencing with the low mean score (mean-1.94). A high mean
value for students’ response indicates that respondents were very often use email for online
communication tools as compare to the other online communication tools. This followed by synchronous
communication tools which is videoconference that provide the mean score 2.93. Even though
synchronous online communication were found to offer a number of advantages over asynchronous
online communication, however, email indicates the most frequently used by intended participants that
do not expect immediate response to the proffered comment, for documents retrieval and submission as
well as place comments for later viewing.
6. SUMMARY OF RESULTS
The finding of this research revealed that students were generally positive about potential usefulness of
multimedia communication tools for traditional consultation system in higher education organization.
54.7% students report their consensus on the consultation problem as derived from literature review.

Almost 93% of them denote that they are willing to learn new technology that can assist them in
consulting purpose even though some of them are not encountered with problem in traditional
consultation.
Among the 12 specified important features of multimedia components, obviously it cannot denied that
students’ highly perceptions towards real time audio-visual communication tools with the high mean
score value 4.13 for “ability to deliver information at real time” and mean score value 4.01 for “ability to
deliver information clearly in visual and audio form” denotes that video conference are necessary to be
included in online consultation model. This rich media (synchronous) convey information at high rate to
resolve the ambiguity. These synchronous communication components would be the useful medium for
conducting the emergency consultation but in situation in which both the students and instructor are
available on the specific time. The media richness and social presence level of video conference
component would provide high intimacy and immediacy feedback [19] & [20]. The facial expression and
gesture movement allow the participants to access participants understanding. Even though the degree
of intimacy and immediacy of video conferencing is not as high as face to face communication, however,
it is the most suitable multimedia component that can represent more warmth and a sense of sociability
when communicate online.
The high mean value for online communication tools that frequently used by students are instant
messaging and email denotes that real time synchronous communication tools are not the only one that
dominate the way we communicate online but combination used of these communication tools may
facilitate the online consultation effectively. Students perceived instant messaging and email more
satisfying and easy to use as they had experience about it and may included in online instructional
consultation application. Besides that, email is predicted to better process uncertainty information.
Students may sometimes communicate through video conference even though it is a new matter in real
time communication context and its advantages are yet to be discovered. Similarly, a high mean value
for the usage of online communication tools (mean-2.93) denotes a favourable response towards the
use of synchronous videoconference. In contrast, the lowest mean score are audio conference
(mean-1.93). Both of these online communication tools are synchronous when the participants aware of
the dynamic two ways communication more or less in real time, differing only as video conference are in
visual and verbal cues, provide look as the “look and feel” that does not exist for audio conference. Audio
conferencing participants may feel inhibited when cannot “see” each other at remote sites. Besides that,
students denoted that get the updated consultation announcement online is important as well as the
ability to make appointment online.
Dealing effectively with online communication technology not only the potential usefulness of this ICT
tools but also related with students’ attitudes and behaviours towards the instructional consultation in
institution of higher education. Their interactivity indirectly affects the successfulness of online learning
[21]. For these reasons, students’ attitudes and behaviours were examined. The results (as in figure 4)
show that means score value for all the four variables did not achieve at least 4.00 which denote the
degree of agreement. Low mean value (2.20) of variable “I involve actively by give many opinions during
consultation session” indicates that students mostly disagree that they contribute actively towards the
consultation session. Presumable over talkative or passive participants may cause lack of interactivity
and poor communication among participants that lead to consultation frustration. Instead of play the role
as consultant that initiate the consultation session and terminate the session, lecturer should be given
the authority to control students’ speaking order during online collaboration.
Overall, there is necessary to add in synchronous verbal and visual communication cues as provided in
video conference to lead to the overall better online communication processes. Presumably,
combination used of those synchronous and asynchronous tools may facilitate consulting service
effectively.
7. CONCLUSION
Increasing concerned on the conducted instructional consultation online would help to generate
motivation for researchers to study on the user requirements as well as bring a fresh perspective to
existing issues. For the future research that regarding with online instructional consultation in higher
education need to include analyzing on problem encountered by lecturer as well as their perceptions’ on
usage of communication tools for assisting consulting in higher education. Lecturers play an important
role in control the way the student’s reaction and communicate during online consultation session. Thus,
their perspectives on the use of multimedia communication applications will be needed to be

emphasizing precisely for designation of online consultation system. As a conclusion, research in this
context is essential if we are to understand the communication and collaboration environment more
efficiently and thus learn how to improve the participant’s quality of online consultation.
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Professional School Counselling 5(2): 124-131, 2001

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Volume 1, Issue 2, 2010

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Editorial Board Members

Volume 1, Issue 2, October 2010

Advances in Multimedia - An International Journal (AMIJ) Volume (1) Issue (2)

Soft Shadow Rendering based on Real Light Source Estimation

Zakiah Noh zakiahnoh@gmail.com

Mohd Shahrizal Sunar shah@cs.utm.my

The most challenging task in developing Augmented Reality (AR) applications is

Advances in Multimedia - An International Journal (AMIJ), Volume (1): Issue (2) 26

Research which is related to performance of shadow can be found in [20][11][15]. These

Advances in Multimedia - An International Journal (AMIJ), Volume (1): Issue (2) 27

Median cut algorithm

Advances in Multimedia - An International Journal (AMIJ), Volume (1): Issue (2) 28

Geometric Marker detection

FIGURE 1: Frameworks of System Prototype.

Advances in Multimedia - An International Journal (AMIJ), Volume (1): Issue (2) 29

FIGURE 2: Setup of the System Prototype.

FIGURE 3: Hard Shadow (Left) and Soft Shadow (Right) [21].

FIGURE 4: Overlapping Process of Samples Hard Shadow.

Advances in Multimedia - An International Journal (AMIJ), Volume (1): Issue (2) 30

Intel® Core ™2 Duo CPU T7250 @

Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

TABLE 1: Specification of the Laptop for Display Soft Shadow.

Type Aloha Digital PC Camera

TABLE 2: Specification of the Camera.

Soft shadow process

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FIGURE 5: Illustration of Soft Shadow with Length and Gap Factors.

FIGURE 6: Shadow of Computer Generated Object Based on Real Light Position.

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FIGURE 8: Comparison of 3 Samples of Hard Shadow Layer.

6. CONSLUSION & FUTURE WORK

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21. J. Hasenfratz, M. Lapierre, N. Holzschuch and F. Sillion. “A Survey of Real-Time Soft

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Enhancing Multimedia Communication Components in Instructional

Abd Hadi Abdul Razak ahadiar@uum.edu.my

Ang Ling Weay ling_weay@yahoo.com

Online consultation - one of the advancement of communication technology in

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At present, as the advantages of synchronous communication technology had been acknowledged,

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b) To analyze students’ attitudes and behaviour towards face-to-face consultation in higher

c) To analyze on students’ perceptions on online communication tools.

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FIGURE 1: Yamane’s Formula (1967)

Dimension Cronbach’s Alpha

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5. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

FIGURE 2: Respondents by Problem in Face-to-Face Consultation

Note: 0-Not Applicable; 1-Often; 5-Never

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5.2 Importance Features of Online Instructional Consultation

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Based on in-depth analysis of students’ behaviour on face-to-face consultation, 5 questions were