Webinar: Bringing telepresence to everyday telephony terminals

Imagine talking to someone on the phone and feeling as if they are in the same room as you — even though they are, in fact, in another city. That, to me, is an example of telepresence.

I must admit, I'm just starting to learn about telepresence. According to Wikipedia, it refers to technologies that "allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance that they were present, or to have an effect... at a place other than their true location."

Later this month, Scott Pennock of QNX Software Systems will deliver a webinar on bringing telepresence to everyday telephony terminals — such as the phone sitting on your desk.

According to Scott, emerging technologies such as spatial sound capture and stereo speech codecs improve talker identification, speech comprehension, and other characteristics, allowing people to feel as if they are present at each other's location.

So far, this level of user experience has been restricted to high-end solutions that allow physically separated conference rooms to feel like a single room — Cisco TelePresence being an example. But now, manufacturers are starting to build "everyday" telephony terminals that can support telepresence. Moreover, the ability to transport the required signals between terminals is improving.

In his webinar, Scott will review use cases and explore design requirements, standardization activities, industry trends, and more.

To register for the webinar, click here.

The webinar occurs Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 3:00 pm EDT.