Prof. William Tucker
http://hdl.handle.net/10566/1723
2024-03-28T16:42:58ZVideo Relay Service for Deaf people using WebRTC
http://hdl.handle.net/10566/5321
Video Relay Service for Deaf people using WebRTC
Henney, Andre J; Tucker, William D
This paper reports on an experimental open
source video relay service prototype that helps Deaf people
communicate with hearing people by accessing a third party
sign language interpreter on a mobile device. Deaf people are
disadvantaged in many ways when communicating with the
hearing world in real world scenarios, such as hospital visits
and in cases of emergency. When possible, Deaf people can
enlist the assistance of a family member, community worker or
sign language interpreter to assist with such scenarios, however
this assistance is pre-arranged and Deaf people would prefer
on-the-fly assistance. Our application will assist Deaf people to
contact any available sign language interpreter to facilitate
communication between the Deaf person and a hearing person
using a split screen model, effectively creating a three-way
conversation between the Deaf person, the hearing person and
the sign language interpreter. The prototype was developed
using the WebRTC platform, with JavaScript for browser
operability and hardware platform independence. Our hope is
that the research can be used to persuade mobile network
operators of the need for free or heavily discounted data
connection to relay services for Deaf mobile customers.
2019-03-01T00:00:00ZMobile video comparison to help Deaf people make informed choices: a South African case study with provincial data
http://hdl.handle.net/10566/3705
Mobile video comparison to help Deaf people make informed choices: a South African case study with provincial data
Henney, Andre; Tucker, William David
Deaf people use sign language to communicate and use mobile video calling to communicate with one another. Mobile video utilises much more bandwidth than text and voice communication modes, resulting in higher expenditure for communication by Deaf signers. We surveyed multiple Deaf communities to explore their level of mobile phone usage as a mode of communication. The findings indicated that despite high data cost video telephony is frequently utilized resulting in revenue generation for mobile service providers at the expense of poor Deaf end users. In South Africa, unlike for text and voice calls, both users of a video communication pay for upstream and downstream data. This paper presents a test bed comparison of the data usage and cost of the three mobile video applications with the four South African mobile network operators used by the Deaf communities. The results indicate which applications perform best on which networks and at what cost. The results can help anyone working with Deaf end users to help them make informed decisions about the use, and cost, of mobile video in South Africa.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZBattery and data drain of over-the-top applications on low-end smartphones
http://hdl.handle.net/10566/3704
Battery and data drain of over-the-top applications on low-end smartphones
Om, Shree; Tucker, William David
Low-end smartphones with sub $50 price tags provide affordable device ownership to low-income populations. However, their limited capacity, when combined with the need for multimodal connectivity, raises usage concerns in rural off-grid regions. Some off-grid regions in sub-Saharan Africa provide recharge facilities using solar power and charge money for the service. Adding data bundle costs to frequent recharge costs, affordability of low-end smartphones becomes questionable in such areas. Community-controlled solar-powered wireless mesh network models with Session Initiation Protocol capability could alleviate the network usage cost conundrum and consume less power in low-end smartphones with the usage of WiFi. This paper reports on investigations that reveal usage of WiFi consumes less battery than 3G, 2G and Bluetooth. In addition, we feel that lowering recharge costs also requires battery consumption knowledge of the over-the-top applications. Using automated voice calls, this paper reports on battery and data consumption by multiple popular social media applications using one type of low-end smartphone. Data consumption was calculated with the objective of learning how to lower data bundle costs by selecting the application with least data consumption. Battery consumption due to CPU usage by the applications was also measured. Results show that WhatsApp consumes the least battery amongst instant messengers and also the least data over all apps measured. SipDroid consumes the least battery overall. Additionally, the reported experiments provide a framework for future experiments aimed at evaluating battery and data consumption by other smartphone applications.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZAmplifying positive deviance with ICT enabling community development and interdependence
http://hdl.handle.net/10566/3702
Amplifying positive deviance with ICT enabling community development and interdependence
Tucker, William David
Positive deviance is a social mechanism whereby a beneficial practice that is not considered as normal gets taken up and spread within a community. This enables a community to solve its own problems aided by mentorship and facilitation. Through two long term case studies, we have identified positive deviants and are now learning how to leverage the ICT inherent in our interventions to cultivate and amplify positive change. We find both ourselves and beneficiary communities developing through various stages of dependence, independence and interdependence. We consider the latter a strong form of development. We now look at ICT4D projects as opportunities to identify positive deviants, and to amplify positive deviance with ICT. We posit that affordable, accessible and generic ICTs offer a way to do so, and that explicitly aiming to mentor and facilitate positive deviance with such ICT offers a path toward community development and interdependence.
2017-01-01T00:00:00Z