I posted some information about Sightspeed in my wide-topic blog, The Open Learner, but I want to say more about this new VoIP software here in EduResources. It's rare, but always impressive, to see a software package that has been assembled with careful attention to the user interface. From the download, to the installation, to the setup, to the first demonstrations of the software, Sightspeed provides a model for ease of use.
I use Skype, the most popular voice over internet software and Echolink, a specialized VoIP package for ham radio, and have found them both to be useful. However, the quality of the audio in Sightspeed and the ease of use of the interface is far superior. Plus, Sightspeed facilitates both audio and high quality video connectivity: add a microphone to your computer and you are communicating live by voice, add an inexpensive webcam and you are communicating by voice and video. Sightspeed also facilitates the creation and mailing of short video mail messages.
The business model in place for Sightspeed is somewhat similar to Skype's, i.e., they encourage the spread of the software by making it available for free downloads and by permitting free one-to-one calls. People and businesses that want to use one-to-many conferencing must pay a monthly fee. The charge for a small conference with up to four participants is pegged at a very reasonable $4.95 a month. At this rate I would expect educational institutions to consider using Sightspeed; it would certainly facilitate instructor to student communications and small conferences among students and the instructor.
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Here is what the Sightspeed About Us section reports about the technology used in the product:
"SightSpeed uses an innovative approach to video calling by emphasizing and retaining the information the human eye and ear care the most about. Utilizing advanced research from Cornell University's DISCOVER Lab, SightSpeed brings to everyday people an experience previously available only in complex systems costing thousands of dollars.
SightSpeed's technology is a unique combination of research into artificial intelligence, computer science, and information theory. This nexus point is the study of human interaction, as facilitated by technology. In application, SightSpeed uses a combination of techniques to encode images and sounds by removing information that is unimportant to the human vision system. Much of the information presented to the human eye is not crucial to accurately relay emotions. SightSpeed transmits the information crucial to emotion, and just enough additional information to allow the brain to fill in the missing information from cues transmitted from the eye. SightSpeed is able to identify the cues from images the eye would transmit to the brain, and limit the data transmitted, to this relevant information. To discern the relevant cues in images, SightSpeed uses artificial intelligence to mimic the interaction between the eye and the brain.
Using our artificial intelligence model, SightSpeed is able to drastically reduce the amount of information transmitted, achieving compression levels of 90 to 1. This compression ratio is an order of magnitude higher than current state of the art compression levels of only 15 to 1, while offering high quality real-time video.
In addition to the impressive compression ratio, SightSpeed minimizes the latency, maximizing the responsiveness of the system. Latency is the lag between an action happening at one end and being seen and heard by another. Being able to see and hear reactions leads to a natural conversation that captures the life-like experience. Minimizing the latency allows for more natural communication, while avoiding jerky video and delayed reactions. In all, the technology allows SightSpeed to send 30 frames per second (fps) over a home DSL, wireless, or cable connection with latency below the human perception threshold. This combination of capabilities positions SightSpeed as the highest quality experience for everyday use."
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