Synchronous collaboration: audio/visual communication

Responding effectively to terrorist incidents is a complex challenge, and demands effective communication between tactical and operational personnel. Dr Mark Ashdown of the Marie Curie ESCRITOIRE 2 project, explains how research into synchronous collaboration will allow for verbal and visual communication.

 The threat from terrorism and environmental disasters is on the rise. London, New York and Madrid have all been attacked since 2001, while earthquakes, floods and hurricanes have wrought havoc across the world over the same time period. Responding effectively to such incidents presents a complex challenge. Voice communication is already relatively well catered for, yet the nature and scale of modern-day terrorist incidents and environmental disasters increasingly demands visual means too, an area which forms the primary research focus of the ESCRITOIRE 2 project.

“We aim to provide visual information to complement existing voice channels. As part of my PhD I produced a large horizontal tabletop display called ESCRITOIRE. Meanwhile, at the other end of the size scale smaller devices like the iPhone are already widely used. We have decided to link these two together,” explains Dr Mark Ashdown, the project’s Marie Curie fellow. “Command centres can accommodate large tabletop displays – while field operatives are restricted to something a lot smaller, like an iPhone,” continues Ashdown. “When wireless networks have developed to a point where synchronous collaboration between the two is possible then you’ll be able to communicate not just with the voice channel… but also with visual information, including things like maps and schedules.”

There are a wide range of potential applications for this research with everyday applications like the fire service, police, and even taxi dispatch all requiring effective, efficient communication. “The question is; how do you enable remote collaboration in this very asymmetric way, where one side has a very big display and the other has a small one, where one is in an office and the other is out in the field?”

“Our system focuses on synchronous collaboration that augments those voice channels in the existing command structure with much richer collaboration. You could think of our system as the ‘last mile’ of the network-centric operation, which links the field personnel into the network,” explains Ashdown. The project also has commercial potential. “Touch displays, and synchronous collaboration in visual workspaces, are set to become very popular in the future. They can be used for all sorts of other applications, reinforcing the importance of further research in this area.”

Contact Dr Mark Ashdown, Marie Curie Fellow, at www.ashdown.me

Published: Monday, 9th November 2009

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