VoIP Platform: A Solution to Advance Communication Practices in Health Sectors Presented by : Mr. Z. Mapundu (Lecturer at Tshwane University of Technology) Med-e-Tel 2015 (22-24 April 2015) - 13th edition LUXEXPO S.A. - 10 circuit de la Foire Internationale - L-1347 Luxembourg
PRESENTATION OUTLINE 1. RESEARCH BACKGROUND 2. PROBLEM STATEMENT 2.1 Research purpose and benefits 2.2 Research questions 2.3 Research objective 3. LITERATURE REVIEW 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES 7. CONCLUSION & USEFUL LINKS
1. BACKGROUND New discoveries based to pre- Alzheimer disease. (Health report of European initiatives on alzheimers disease, 2010) In Europe, according this health report, from 2005 to 2030 the number of Europeans aged over 65 will increase by 52.3% resulting 40 million additional old citizens, in other words there will be more than 100 million people older than 80 years by 2020 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 Hospital Care Nursing Home Home Care France and UK the figures currently stand at around 60%. Germany 82%, Italy 80% of aging patients stay at home. In many European countries caring for elderly patients is a government and private health priority, and the new approach is to care for people in their own homes wherever possible: 20 10 0 France Uk Germany Italy (European Health Report, 2010)
1. BACKGROUND CONTINUES. Responding to the above challenges, the European Government Collaborating with Private Sectors and Academic Sectors are dedicated to assist Citizens that are affected by Pre- Alzhemeir Disease (Aging Disease). Some research leading to the results of this work has received funding from European Community s seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2014, under grant agreement nº216487), French National Research Association through QuaVADis project EU Funding 7,800,000.00 and You can also visit: www.companionable.net According to Couet (2011), there are widely accepted imperatives for helping elderly patients living at home (semi)- independently for as long as possible and CompanionAble provide the synergy of Robotics and Ambient Intelligence technologies with their semantic integration to provide for a caregivers assistive environment. This is reconciled by a robot companion (mobile facilitation) working collaborative with a smart home environment.
1. BACKGROUND CONTINUES WITH KEY RESEARCH CONTRIBUTORS The next session summarises the key research contributors in Work Collaboration View for FP7/2007-2014 under grant agreement nº216487, Figure 1: Research Holistic View Work Collaboration View
2. PROBLEM STATEMENT - There is an undesirable behaviour that old patients are leaving hospital early because of medical expenses and they still need additional care at their home premises while they recover due to their illness, thus treating a patient at home is less expensive than treating them in the hospital. -Can the existing VoIP tools solve the medical expense crisis and address the problem of seclusion/ loneliness of elderly people with the aim of supporting elderly patients in their daily activities? - There is a need for technological tools that will support and help to deploy the integrated care for old and chronic patients. -Various challenges: managing communication between a distant operator and the robot-companion, graphical user interface of Ekiga is complex for old patients. The necessity of a remote control & a robot operator to control the robot-companion.
2. 1. Research purpose and benefits - This research is undertaken to represent the integration of technologies to improve the communication channels like mail, audio, instant messaging, video and etcetera -This is accomplished for elderly patients, family members and medical practitioners using the existing and modified VoIP tools. -This study is important for the reason that it reviews the existing VoIP tools and tries to solve the problem through integration possibilities or find the best corresponding tools that will address the main research objectives. - This study will benefit all people that are interested in Open Source platforms specifically in VoIP Technologies, Telecare platforms, Telemedicine, e-health and will also improve their knowledge on different VoIP tools on how to integrate the existing technologies for communication necessities.
2. 2. Research Questions and Examination - This study has been developed in the context of European environment and the main objective is to provide an integrated cognitive assistance. -A) Does the problem of codec s compression and decompression result from SIP clients or SIP Servers? and which tools should be implemented to address such? -B) Can the IP cameras accept orders from PBX server in a form of audio and videos using Real Time Streaming Protocol, if possible are there any delays? - C) For auto-negotiation of 3 rd channel support, would it be possible for robot operator to utilize send and receive data streams either in a form video, sound, s-command from private, public SIP servers to the Robot machine? -D) Does RTP transmits and encapsulates the voice data streams between endpoints for more than one call in a single packet, if possible does it reduces the IP overheard without increases the latency? - E) Does SIP servers have a commitment to support latest version of Ekiga client with modification of GUI implementation, if so are there more specific technical requirements that might needed?
2.3 Research objectives - Following section summarises the main objective of the study: 1. Testing and making new working version of Ekiga softphone that support H261, H263, H263+ and H264, this involves integration and cross-compilation processes for both Microsoft windows and Open Source platforms. 2. Integration possibilities of an IP cameras that will support RTSP whereby voice orders can be assigned or dialled to an IP camera and access it using RTSP services 3. Preliminary tests and developing a remote control tab for the Robot companion that will use a 3 rd channel support i.e. sending and receiving orders (audio, video, S-command channels data streams)
3. LITERATURE REVIEW We reviewed the current state of VoIP infrastructure or architecture with SIP servers and clients whereby the unified standardized communication solution or infrastructure is explained clearly with system performance. General assessment on different VoIP client applications, assessment on VoIP codec s and identifying possible solutions for Videoconferencing Solution that will act as a communication channel for elderly people, family members and medical Professionals.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW Continue: VoIP Softphones Linphone Twinkle KPhone Ekiga
3. LITERATURE REVIEW Continue SIP Proxy and Redirect Operation
3. LITERATURE REVIEW Continue Identifying Possible Solutions: Client Side Ekiga softphone was selected as a SIP client for this project, because it s an Open-Source VoIP application that allows easy modification, unlike other softphones it supports many audio and video codec s selection and is supported both Linux & Windows Platform. The process of testing and making the latest working version of Ekiga that supports H264, H263, and chat functions was part of research objectives. A number of tests were performed for both platforms (Windows and Open Source Platform) VoIP software or hardware normally comes with option to specify the codec s VoIP users prefer to use and this allows making selection between audio, video quality and network bandwidth Usage.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW Continue Identifying Possible Solutions: Server Side Kamailio and Dester Asterisk were selected as the SIP/ Master Servers for this project. Asterisk can be thought of as middleware ; it seats between telephony technologies and Telephony applications, providing a generic interface between them (Spencer, 2010). Further objectives of this research was the integration possibilities of an IP camera that can support RTSP modules whereby a SIP request can be directed, assigned or dialled to an IP camera using RTSP services. Each patient will be equipped with a SIP client (Ekiga softphone) and with one or more webcams. The robot will have its own equipment (softphone and IP cameras) and it will have its own SIP line.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW Continues Identifying Possible Solutions: Server Side This VoIP solution is composed of three parts: A Master server, A Smart Home and A Remote client. A master server is handling the following: - Asterisk Internet Protocol Private Branch exchange (IPBX) for voice/video communication. - Julius ASR server (it can be hosted by another server). The smart home is equipped with the following: A platform featuring a camera, a display and a VoIP client (ekiga softphone). Various sensors for person monitoring. Internet gateways to support local IPBX. A remote client system: Is a personal machine with VoIP client (Ekiga) or a Smartphone and the Internet access is acting as the main communication media for this platform (Wired or Wireless).
3. LITERATURE REVIEW Continue VoIP Architecture with SIP Client and SIP Servers
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The content of this project followed a simplified strategic planning process, it was conducted as a literature review which starts by introducing the current state of VoIP technologies and its interconnection based on articles and continues to research the existing literature in order to discover theories behind interconnections. Experimental scientific research approach with VoIP supporting tools were conducted and applied in this study in order address the main research objectives. Evaluation and validation of the developed service was done by following further tests and reviews. We proposed an adoption of User cantered Design (UCD) methodology for the design and development of VoIP platform in order to support elderly patients in their daily activities.
User-Centered Design Methodology by D. Walach. and S.C. Scholz
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Continue Research Methods and Tools Utilised: Below is the section that lists the methods that were conducted when pursuing the research aims and objective described above: TOOLS -C, C++, GTK and XML -Glade Interface Designer, VoIP Protocol Integration -Open Source Platforms (Ubuntu and Debian OS) -Windows Platform (Windows XP VM) -SIP Clients (ekiga softphone) and SIP servers (Asterisk and kamalion) - AXISW207 IP Camera for RTSP services
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Continue Experimental Network Topology The network topology for our experiment was conducted at ESIEE Paris test lab environment and each system was installed on both in Linux and Windows platform.
5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP CLIENTS) Continues Ekiga 3.2.6 running on Open Source platform (Ubuntu 9.04) Ekiga Video and Audio Codec s
5.. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP CLIENTS) Continues Ekiga 3.2.6 running on Windows Platform ) Ekiga latest Version 3.2.6 in Windows Platform XP Machine
5.. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP CLIENTS) Continues Ekiga Audio & Video Codecs in SIP Client Windows XP
5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP CLIENTS) Continues Ekiga GUI Modification After the process of compiling and making a working 3.2.6 version of Ekiga, the next step was to modify the GUI of Ekiga and all the GUI test modification were undertaken in Ubuntu Jaunty 9.0.4, the same machine that Ekiga softphone was compiled
5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP CLIENTS) Continues Proposed Remote Control Prototype The intension here was to test the possibilities of modifying the GUI of ekiga with the aim of adding the proposed Remote Control Prototype to pilot a robot machine through the use of keyboard and in future it can be replaced by a joystick. Robot Control via Camera Call Volume Adjustment Command output Dial Pad ALT Button Emergence Call (changing function) Schedule Time, Power, Robot Status Display Command Line
5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP CLIENTS) Continues Ekiga running on Windows XP Client on Live Network)
5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP CLIENTS) Continues Ekiga 3.2.6 running on Debian SIP Client & Registration
5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP CLIENTS) Continues Live Image Captured by AXIS207W IP Camera One of the objectives for the project was to integrate RTSP services from SIP servers (Asterisk) & SIP clients (IP Camera).
5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP SERVERS) Continues Kamailio Open source SIP sever (3.3.0v) Before starting ekiga clients, they need to have a SIP registrar server for communication connectivity of which in this scenario we configured soult.esiee.fr acting as a registrar server and it is possible to issue SIP calls.
5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP SERVERS) Continues DeStar/ Asterisk PBX System Running with SIP Client Extensions For test procedures we tested our solution using SIP extension 2001 (username is agent1) and SIP extension 2002 (username is agent2).
5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES (SIP SERVERS) Continues DeStar/ Asterisk VS Kamailio Finding Summary Function/Specification Support Asterisk PBX System Supported Status Kamailio PBX System Supported Status ( Yes or No) (Yes or No) Modelling and Integration Yes Yes SIP support Yes Yes PSTN function Yes Yes Voicemail and Video Support Yes Yes Video but Not Yet Voicemail IVR (interactive Voice Yes Not Yet Response) Database Support Yes Yes IP authentication and security Yes Yes Presence Message Yes Yes Text Message Yes Yes Interface Management Yes, AGI Yes, MI NAT Support Yes Yes Packet Route and Multi Yes, more used for load Not yet, some challenges when Domain balancing and multidomain working with multi-domains support
5. RESEARCH OUTCOMES EU FP7 Companionable Project Pilot at Eindhoven University: Netherlands (Prof Simonnet, 2011)
7. Conclusion Integrate and test the existing VoIP tools that will help elderly people to have trust relationships with their family or caregivers and one of the tools that was proposed is the implementation of Videoconferencing service (VoIP Tool) that will act as a main communication channel between elderly people, Robot Companion, family caregivers and medical professionals. Both assessments from SIP client and SIP server side has been conducted successful but there are still some limitations in regard to some communication services, hence there are some developments with latest versions of Ekiga soft phones and Asterisk PBX systems that are currently examined by VoIP engineers.
8. For More Information Please Visit The links Below For SIP Client Development (Ekiga): www.ekiga.org For SIP Server Development (Asterisk and Kamailio): www.asterisk.org and www.kamailio.org For FP7/2007-2013 Project: www.companionable.net For Smart Homes in Eindhoven: Netherlands: www.smart-homes.nl For IP Camera AXIS207W: www.axis.com
THANK YOU ANY QUESTIONS.?