posted 20 January 2003 11:13 PM               

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Taking VTC out of the board Room and into the field. Link to website at end of post for anyone interested in a little DD.

Telepresence as defined by Microsoft is:

“being present at an event while physically being some other place (space-shifting), or at some other time (time-shifting … The key to successful telepresence is emotional: that you feel present and others feel you are present. … Telepresence will be central to the future of ubiquitous digital media. Low-cost and easy to use software and hardware must emerge to enable the capture, storage, editing, and transmission of digital media such as video, audio, images, and animations.”

Answering the call for a low-cost and easy to use emergent technology, WPI announces its flagship product, SightLink™ - a wearable, wireless telepresence system that can eliminate the need for specialized personnel to be physically on-site to accomplish a task requiring their expertise. SightLink™ integrates a wearable, wireless video camera and video processing software to allow real time streaming video to be sent across any public/private IP or dial-up network. Field personnel can now have any expert assist them without the delay or expense associated with travel.

Using SightLink™, one centrally located expert can interact with several remote personnel, greatly increasing their combined effectiveness and contribution. SightLink™ has the potential to substantially improve quality, shorten response time and reduce operating expenses. SightLink™ is standards based, modular and leverages existing infrastructure so it may be used in a wide variety of situations, regardless of the network connectivity available.

With dedicated, high bandwidth networks, the healthcare industry has several years of experience performing various forms of telemedicine, bringing specialized healthcare expertise to patients in remote areas. NASA has made extensive use of remotely guided video to provide specialized expertise to mission specialists in space. While effective, these telepresence solutions are highly specialized and exceedingly expensive, and require dedicated networks.

SightLink™ is the first commercial implementation of telepresence that makes visual collaboration available to even the smallest enterprise.
http://www.wireless-peripherals.com/products.htm

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posted 27 January 2003 08:56 AM               

SightLink™ overview

SightLink™ is a wearable, wireless telepresence system that can reduce or eliminate the need for specialized personnel to be physically on-site to accomplish a task requiring their expertise. SightLink™ integrates a wearable, wireless video camera and telepresence package to allow real time video to be sent across any public/private IP or dial-up network. Field personnel can now have any expert assist them without the delay or expense associated with travel. Click here to see an illustration of how SightLink™ works.

The missing element in communications

In the 100 years since the telephone was introduced, we have been learning to communicate over extended distances without the benefit of any visual information. This is unnatural for humans, since we obtain over 70% of the information we process visually. Although traditional videoconferencing offers some advantage over traditional telephony, the "talking heads" paradigm offers limited utility, as evidenced by its slow adoption. SightLink™ puts the shared visual element back in the conversation, allowing for a more natural exchange, and putting both parties in the same first person perspective. This technology offers mobility combined with a "hands-free" operation that enables a new paradigm for collaboration.

Disruptive technology comes about whenever there is a need that is very expensive to solve, but absolutely necessary and unavoidable. Business travel is that need and SightLink™ is the disruptive solution. Whenever there is a problem or opportunity, travel becomes necessary when the current “most appropriate person” to handle it is not at the site of the problem or opportunity. Our solution is to extend the presence of the site to the most appropriate person (or people) and, conversely, extend the presence of this person, in a very compelling manner, to the people that are on site.