How internet telephony could improve communication for hearing-impaired individuals

To test, whether modern Internet telephony with a broadband transmission (0.1-8 kHz) of speech improves speech perception in comparison to conventional telephony (0.3-3.5 kHz) in hearing-impaired and normal-hearing adults.

Speech perception benefits of internet versus conventional telephony for hearing-impaired individuals

Telephone communication is a challenge for many hearing-impaired individuals. One important technical reason for this difficulty is the restricted frequency range (0.3-3.4 kHz) of conventional landline telephones. Internet telephony (voice over Internet protocol [VoIP]) is transmitted with a larger frequency range (0.1-8 kHz) and therefore includes more frequencies relevant to speech perception. According to a recently published, laboratory-based study, the theoretical advantage of ideal VoIP conditions over conventional telephone quality has translated into improved speech perception by hearing-impaired individuals. However, the speech perception benefits of nonideal VoIP network conditions, which may occur in daily life, have not been explored. VoIP use cannot be recommended to hearing-impaired individuals before its potential under more realistic conditions has been examined.

R U there yet? using virtual classrooms to transform teaching practice

Access to quality higher education is challenging for many Western Australians that live outside the metropolitan area. In 2010, the School of Education moved to flexible delivery of a fully online Bachelor of Education degree for their non -metropolitan students. The new model of delivery allows access for students from any location provided they have a computer and an internet connection. A number of academic staff had previously used an asynchronous environment to deliver learning modules housed within a learning management system (LMS) but had not used synchronous software with their students. To enhance the learning environment and to provide high quality learning experiences to students learning at a distance, the adoption of synchronous software (Elluminate Live) was introduced. This software is a real-time virtual classroom environment that allows for communication through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and videoconferencing, along with a large number of collaboration tools to engage learners. This research paper reports on the integration of a live e-learning solution into the current LMS environment. Qualitative data were collected from academic staff through informal interviews and participant observation. The findings discuss (i) perceived level of support; (ii) identification of strategies used to create an effective online teacher presence; (iii) the perceived impact on the students' learning outcomes; and (iv) guidelines for professional development to enhance pedagogy within the live e-learning environment.

Implantació de la telefonia IP en un entorn empresarial

L’objectiu d’aquest treball és dissenyar un model general d’un sistema de telefonia IP per a una petita o mitjana empresa. El model ha de tenir en compteles característiques actuals de la xarxa de l’empresa i proposar una solució adient. Un altre requeriment és la utilització de software de lliure distribució, des del sistema operatiu fins al relatiu a VoIP, i més concretament, el software de centraleta VoIP Asterisk sobre GNU/Linux. En primer lloc s’estudiaran els conceptes bàsics de la telefonia IP (protocols, codificadors, servidors, etc.). En segon lloc, s’analitzaran els diferents escenaris possibles i es proposaran solucions adequades per cadascun d’ells. Després s’estudiarà el funcionament de les centraletes Asterisk i la seva configuració encada escenari. Finalment s’aplicarà aquest estudi a una empresa concreta

Disseny i implementació d’un sistema experimental de telefonia IP per a la Unitat de Tecnologies de la Informació i Comunicació de l’Institut Català de la Salut a Girona

L'objectiu d'aquest projecte és dissenyar i implementar un servei de telefonia IP per a la Unitat de Tecnologies de la Informació i Comunicació (UTIC) de l'Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) a Girona. En primer lloc, es descriu el funcionament actual del servei de telefonia de l'ICS a Girona i la seva infraestructura de xarxa. A continuació s’estudia els fonaments de la VoIP. Es segueix amb el disseny, les eines escollides i la implementació realitzada, per acabar amb les conclusions

ToIP: Implementació d'un identificador de trucades

El principal objectiu d’aquest projecte és desenvolupar una aplicació client en .NET que sigui capaç de processar les trucades IP entrants que pugui rebre un usuari al llarg de la seva jornada laboral. L’empresa per la qual es desenvoluparà aquest projecte és Caixa Girona, una empresa dedicada a la banca, fundada l’any 1940 per la Diputació de Girona i que disposa d’una plantilla d’uns 1300 empleats repartits entre unes 250 oficines disposades arreu del territori català i uns Serveis Centrals (SSCC) situats a la ciutat de Girona

Voice over IP 2.0: an analysis of limits and potential of IP2IP telecommunication

Internet Telephony (VoIP) is changing the telecommunication industry. Oftentimes free, VoIP is becoming more and more popular amongst users. Large software companies have entered the market and heavily invest into it. In 2011, for instance, Microsoft bought Skype for 8.5bn USD. This trend increasingly impacts the incumbent telecommunication operators. They see their main source of revenue – classic telephony – under siege and disappear. The thesis at hand develops a most-likely scenario in order to determine how VoIP is evolving further and it predicts, based on a ten-year forecast, the impact it will have on the players in the telecommunication industry.The paper presents a model combining Rogers’ diffusion and Christensen’s innovation research. The model has the goal of explaining the past evolution of VoIP and to isolate the factors that determine the further diffusion of the innovation. Interviews with industry experts serve to assess how the identified factors are evolving.Two propositions are offered. First, VoIP operators are becoming more important in international, corporate, and mobile telephony. End-to-end VoIP (IP2IP) will exhibit strong growth rates and increasingly cannibalize the telephony revenues of the classic operators. Second, fix-net telephony in SMEs and at home will continue to be dominated by the incumbents. Yet, as prices for telephony fall towards zero also they will implement IP2IP in order to save costs. By 2022, up to 90% of the calls will be IP2IP. The author recommends the incumbents and VoIP operators to proactively face the change, to rethink their business strategies, and to even be open for cooperation.

Internet video telephony allows speech reading by deaf individuals and improves speech perception by cochlear implant users

OBJECTIVE To analyze speech reading through Internet video calls by profoundly hearing-impaired individuals and cochlear implant (CI) users. METHODS Speech reading skills of 14 deaf adults and 21 CI users were assessed using the Hochmair Schulz Moser (HSM) sentence test. We presented video simulations using different video resolutions (1280 × 720, 640 × 480, 320 × 240, 160 × 120 px), frame rates (30, 20, 10, 7, 5 frames per second (fps)), speech velocities (three different speakers), webcameras (Logitech Pro9000, C600 and C500) and image/sound delays (0-500 ms). All video simulations were presented with and without sound and in two screen sizes. Additionally, scores for live Skype™ video connection and live face-to-face communication were assessed. RESULTS Higher frame rate (>7 fps), higher camera resolution (>640 × 480 px) and shorter picture/sound delay (<100 ms) were associated with increased speech perception scores. Scores were strongly dependent on the speaker but were not influenced by physical properties of the camera optics or the full screen mode. There is a significant median gain of +8.5%pts (p = 0.009) in speech perception for all 21 CI-users if visual cues are additionally shown. CI users with poor open set speech perception scores (n = 11) showed the greatest benefit under combined audio-visual presentation (median speech perception +11.8%pts, p = 0.032). CONCLUSION Webcameras have the potential to improve telecommunication of hearing-impaired individuals.

Modelo estendido de adoção da tecnologia de comunicação pessoal de voz pela internet

Estudos científicos têm demonstrado a existência de diversos fatores de influência sobre o processo de adoção de Tecnologia da Informação. Vários aspectos potencializadores das intenções de uso das tecnologias parecem estar presentes nas decisões sobre a adoção de tecnologia como, por exemplo, vantagens relativas obtidas pelo uso da tecnologia, conhecimento requerido para operação dos sistemas, facilidade e utilidade uso da tecnologia, entre outros. No entanto, há estudos que demonstram que o processo de adoção de tecnologia pode não ser explicado, somente, por aspectos financeiros e mercadológicos, mas englobar fatores endógenos que interferem nas decisões dos usuários sobre o uso de tecnologias de informação. Teorias e modelos de adoção de tecnologias conseguem explicar uma parcela dos motivos que levam os indivíduos a se comportarem de acordo com o uso de uma determinada tecnologia. Por exemplo: hábito individual, conectividade e conveniência podem influenciar as preferências de uso de uma determinada tecnologia de informação. De acordo com estas teorias, é possível analisar as influências que os indivíduos percebem e consideram nas decisões como justificativas sobre o uso de tecnologias de comunicação pessoal, além da busca exclusiva por resultados econômicos. Observa-se que um dos segmentos de tecnologia que apresenta condições de diferentes ofertas e múltiplas funcionalidades se refere ao segmento de tecnologias de comunicação de voz no qual o usuário pode se comunicar por meio de linhas telefônicas fixas, móveis, Internet, entre outras formas. Para a operacionalização de uma análise de adoção de tecnologia que englobe múltiplas interações de influências ao usuário, optou-se pela contextualização do estudo com foco na tecnologia de comunicação de voz pela Internet – VOIP, pois quando comparada com outras tecnologias de comunicação, adiciona-se que a gratuidade de ligações entre usuários de um mesmo sistema pode ser apresentada como um dos benefícios econômicos principais, aliada a outros benefícios provindos da telefonia em si. Os resultados obtidos por esta pesquisa confirmam a influência de diversos fatores posicionados em diferentes dimensões e proporcionam conclusões relevantes à adoção das tecnologias de comunicação de voz sobre Internet. Conclui-se que as percepções individuais sobre as características da tecnologia, a rede de contatos do usuário, hábito de uso e incentivos comerciais destinados ao uso de outras tecnologias de comunicação podem formar uma rede de influências à adoção da telefonia VOIP frente às percepções sobre os benefícios que podem ser obtidos com o uso desta aplicação.

Principles and practice of telephony.

Mode of access: Internet.

The Radio review; a monthly record of scientific progress in radiotelegraphy and telephony.

Editor: 1919-22, G. W. O. Howe.

The Year-book of Wireless Telegraphy & Telephony

Mode of access: Internet.

The Impact of the Internet in Six Latin American Countries

Access to the Internet has grown exponentially in Latin America over the past decade. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates that in 2009 there were 144.5 million Internet users in South America, 6.4 million in Central America, and 8.2 million in the Caribbean, or a total 159.2 million users in all of Latin America.1 At that time, ITU reported an estimated 31 million Internet users in Mexico, which would bring the overall number of users in Latin America to 190.2 million people. More recent estimates published by Internet World Stats place Internet access currently at an estimated 204.6 million out of a total population of 592.5 million in the region (this figure includes Mexico).2 According to those figures, 34.5 per cent of the Latin American population now enjoys Internet access. In recent years, universal access policies contributed to the vast increase in digital literacy and Internet use in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Whereas the latter was the first country in the region to adopt a policy of universal access, the most expansive and successful digital inclusion programs in the region have taken hold in Brazil and Chile. These two countries have allocated considerable resources to the promotion of digital literacy and Internet access among low income and poor populations; in both cases, civil society groups significantly assisted in the promotion of inclusion at the grassroots level. Digital literacy and Internet access have come to represent, particularly in the area of education, a welcome complementary resource for populations chronically underserved in nations with a long-standing record of inadequate public social services. Digital inclusion is vastly expanding throughout the region, thanks to stabilizing economies, increasingly affordable technology, and the rapid growth in the supply of cellular mobile telephony. A recent study by the global advertising agency Razorfish revealed significant shifts in the demographics of digital inclusion in the major economies of South America, where Web access is rapidly increasing amid the lower middle class and the working poor.3 Several researchers have suggested that Internet access will bring about greater civic participation and engagement, although skeptics remain unsure this could happen in Latin America. Yet, there have been some recent instances of political mobilization facilitated through the use of the Web and social media applications, starting in Chile when “smart mobs” nationwide demonstrated against former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet when she failed to enact education reforms in May 2006. The Internet has also been used by marginalized groups and by guerrillas groups to highlight their stories. In sum, Internet access in Latin is no longer a medium restricted to the elite. It is rather a public sphere upon which civil society has staked its claim. Some of the examples noted in this study point toward a developing trend whereby civil society, through online grassroots movements, is able to effectively pressure public officials, instill transparency and demand accountability in government. Access to the Internet has also made it possible for voices on the margins to participate in the conversation in a way that was never previously feasible. 1 International Telecommunications Union [ITU], “Information Technology Public & Report,” accessed May 15, 2011, http://www.itu.int/. 2 Internet World Stats, “Internet Usage Statistics for the Americas,” accessed March 24, 2011, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm 3 J. Crump, “The finch and the fox,” London, UK (2010), http://www.slideshare.net/razorfishmarketing/the-finch-and-the-fox.

O princípio da eficiência administrativa na regulação da prestação do serviço de voz sobre internet - VoIP

The present work aims to demonstrate the link of the principle of efficiency - as expressed in the Constitution of 1988, by Constitutional Amendment No. 19 - with regulatory agencies, more specifically the ANATEL (National Telecommunications Agency). It also includes this principle’s importance to regulation - to monitor and manage public services - as well as when an activity will be considered efficient, keeping in mind that agencies are subjected to other principles of public administration. The increasing use of telephony has enabled further development of technologies that provide improvements in the provision of this service. The VoIP (Voice over IP), is nothing more than a technological breakthrough that directly targets the providers of conventional telephone service, both by modifying the business working for a long time with the same technology as the amount of new competitors’ dispute on market share. It also analyses the difficulty of understanding and definition of what is VoIP telephony, its growth and the threats that the traditional and mostly which is ANATEL’s role concerning this telephony technology. As regulator of the telecommunications service, ANATEL not yet regulated the voice telephony service using the IP protocol. What looks over the years is that ANATEL exercise its regulatory function to provide better conditions for competition among providers of VoIP and traditional telephone companies, obviously some difficulties are expected, given that VoIP is a technology that provides two services, through conventional telephony and using the internet.