IMPROMPTU

Impromptu demonstrates that Voice over IP means bigger changes than just another type of telephone. Windows and the Internet changed the PC from a single process text screen to an environment where we do many different activities supported by a variety of network protocols. Impromptu makes a similar leap from the telephone to a wireless voice terminal which runs multiple audio applications, using auditory cues to indicate which application is active and signal alerts from the others, and all controlled by a speech user interface. IP and an appropriate resource management and connection architecture allows a digital appliance with a single radio to perfom many functions simultaneously.

Applications include radio, MP3 music, voice "chat", text-to-speech news headlines, and a baby monitor. Even conventional telephony is enhanced to allow the caller to eavesdrop on appropriately garbled audio to decide whether to ring through to just leave a voice message. Applications share resources such as text-to-speech and speech recognition; recognition vocabularies change dynamically depending on the active application, much like the selected window on a desktop comes to the fore.

Impromptu is implemented on an iPaq using an 802.11b network. Services are distributed in the network. Connections include control paths and streaming audio.



Kwan H. Lee, DL Fall '01 Presentation

More information will be available soon.


The Impromptu Gang

Kwan Hong Lee (kwan@media.mit.edu)
Jang Soo Kim (jangkim@media.mit.edu)
Gerardo Vallejo (gvallejo@media.mit.edu)
Ivan Chardin (chardin@media.mit.edu)
Elina Kamenetskaya (elinakam@mit.edu)
David Kim (djkim@mit.edu)

Advisor: Chris Schmandt (geek@media.mit.edu)

Last Modified 01/09/2002 04:02:46 PM