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Fraunhofer IIS Demos Full-HD Voice Over LTE On Android
MojoKid writes "Fraunhofer IIS has chosen Mobile World Congress as the place to present the world's first Full-HD Voice mobile phone calls over an LTE network. Verizon Wireless has toyed with VoLTE (Voice over LTE) before, but this particular method enables mobile phone calls to sound as clear as talking to another person in the same room. Full-HD Voice is already established in several VoIP, video telephony and conferencing systems. However, this will mark the first time Fraunhofer's Full-HD Voice codec AAC-ELD has been integrated into a mobile communications system. Currently, the majority of phone calls are limited to the 3.5 kHz range, whereas humans are able to perceive audio signals up to 20 kHz. The Full-HD Voice codec AAC-ELD gives access to the full audible audio spectrum."
wow this sounds really cool. I think it's so lame that as technology improved in the past 15 years and we went from landlines to cell phones, we took a huge step back in audio quality. Kind of like the step back from CDs to MP3s. I hope this catches on - do both parties need to use it? Perhaps it will be directly implemented in Skype or something.
It makes every bit as much (or as little) sense here as it does when used to describe a television.
...when the phones have shit sound components.
Handset makers have been so focused on stuffing their handsets with cameras, MP3 playback, video playback, picture messaging and other dumb things in a features race that they only phone-in (pun intended) the basic voice calling capabilities now.
Full HD is a marketing term referring to 1080p-resolution content/screens. Why is it being used here? How does it make any sense whatsoever?
With the new high definition screens rumored to be used by the iPad 3 (and I assume its imitators not long after) going 1080p is not a problem.
It's worth it, though -- horrible audio is why I don't own an iPhone, just an iPad and an old dumbphone. Cellphone audio quality is simply horrible; whoever decided that the utter crap they call audio was "good enough" deserves to be taken out and shot. And considering how good audio compression is these days, there's very little excuse for it. Yeah, there are several points that have to support it, but we've seen lots of things added to the phone network, decent audio quality could easily have been one of them at just about any time.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
How many users/cell before this starts throttling? in the single digits?
...distribution channel for Full 20Hz - 20kHz music source. Now go figure. Do the maths
It doesn't matter which codec you use, nothing will change the fact that voice communication is one of the most ineffective tools for getting real work done.
Once your communication goes beyond one or two sentences, it quickly becomes inferior to written- or text-based communication of some form.
With the web and smart phones being so prevalent these days, the need for voice-based communication is quickly dwindling. For quick questions or communication, you're better off sending a text message or even an email. If dealing with a business, email or even just a website is usually much more effective.
It's much too easy for voice communication to fail, especially with today's multi-cultural world and dealings where many communicators don't speak or understand the language of the other party very well. This leads to many misunderstandings, or a complete breakdown in most cases. This is usually much less of a problem when written text is involved. Given that it persists, it allows the other party to read it several times to make sure that they understand the full meaning, and it forces the sender to slow down and actually think about what's being communicated.
It's understandable that voice communication had value back when we didn't have powerful smart phones, tablets, and other portable communication device. But those days are long past. Voice communication should be a fallback option that's very seldom used.
I can make phone calls with my phone now!
So what's the actual audio quality? It's probably inferior to uncompressed 16-bit 48KHz CD audio. I've been trying to find an audio sample on line, but haven't found one yet.
It's actually a variant of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, which is the codec on Blu-Ray audio. But not at a high bit rate, as on Blu-Ray discs. It's AAC/ELD v2, at 24Kb/s.
It's already in IOS Facetime, anyway.
Only those who have not had high-intensity hoot and thump music piped into their ear canals for the last ten years. Most twentysomethings won't be able distinguish HD audio from a 1940s telephone. They'll buy it anyway, though.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
There are very few people left alive who listened to something that wasn't 'high-intensity hoot and thump music' in their youth. Sorry about your lawn.
Going 1080p... for what? A full-screen spectrum analyser? Note that this is voice calls, not video calls.
HD voice is of limited use, but I find it works good for when you need to spell something or read a serial number, part number, etc. over the phone. It's much easier to tell apart letters like S and F over the phone when you're using a wideband codec.
Of course, text or email is much better for things like that.
CELP anyone?
Sorry about your lawn.
It's not the lawn that's the problem. It's the billions of dollars in hearing aids that Medicare and Medicaid will be expected to provide for stupid people who stupidly listened to hoot and thump music being played FAR TOO LOUD. One thing to listen to music, another to listen to it on headphones that can still be heard by people five rows away on a train, or in a car that is audible a half mile away.
Never heard somebody using radio procedure over a cell conversation, eh?
I-SPELL INDIA TANGO APOSTROPHE SIERRA SPACE DELTA OSCAR ALPHA BRAVO LIMA ECHO.
I use it instinctively whenever I'm doing something like that over the phone, even if it's a good connection, and I ask the person on the other end to read it back to me phonetically as well. And when it's a bad connection, I'll use "words twice". It just makes sense when it's information like that, and I suspect even with "hd audio", you'll still need to do it, because people can still screw up S and F, D and T, and others like that. Surprisingly, even when you're speaking with somebody who doesn't have radio/military experience, when you start using radio indicators like "Figures", "I Spell", "Say Again", and the phonetic alphabet, people don't seem to have a hard time understanding it.
And yes, a text or an e-mail is better... in theory. On my cell phone, the keyboard is a pain in the backside, and it's very easy to make a typo. And that's one of the rare phones that actually has a keyboard... it's worse with the touchscreen. If I'm in the field, it is usually faster to simply spell it phonetically over the phone, rather than trying to write a text or an e-mail on my phone. And gods help anybody who's stuck using T-9.
Note to self:
Buy stocking heating aid company
And yes, a text or an e-mail is better... in theory. On my cell phone, the keyboard is a pain in the backside, and it's very easy to make a typo. And that's one of the rare phones that actually has a keyboard... it's worse with the touchscreen. If I'm in the field, it is usually faster to simply spell it phonetically over the phone, rather than trying to write a text or an e-mail on my phone. And gods help anybody who's stuck using T-9.
You don't have an iPhone, do you? I've had one for about 3 weeks now (employer issued) and I hate the auto-correct/predictive text on it vs a Droid based device. I am much more efficient with emails/text on a Droid device vs an iPhone. No clue if either use T-9, but I'm guessing that's more of an early Blackberry function?
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend I don't care that you're not here with me
Surely, you would be better served by stock in a hearing aid company.
Note to self:
Sell stock in speech recognition company
You're in your 20s, aren't you?
Xiph released the fixed point decoder called Tremor in 2001, before the project even officially hit 1.0. That was only about a year and a half after the first alpha release.
Vorbis didn't unseat mp3 for a number of reasons (neither has anything else), but fixed point wasn't one of them.
Most twentysomethings won't be able distinguish HD audio from a 1940s telephone.
Did they have really high quality phones in the 1940s or something? Because anyone who isn't completely deaf could distinguish current phone call quality from "HD audio".
WHAT!
Just means you will get throttled faster.
Until cell providers get a clue, we should not be developing new tech for their networks and instead stop sending them our money.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Back in my day we called it HiFi.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
T9 is the system you'd typically use on a non-ancient phone with number keys: If 1 is [abc], 2 is [def], and 3 is [ghi], you press each key once per letter. "Bag" becomes 113, "head" becomes 3212. It then uses a dictionary with weighting to chose the most likely of the possible words, and you can scroll through the alternatives. Combined with a system for adding your own words, and a decent implementation that learns your preferred words, it's probably the nicest way to enter "normal" text with a slightly extended numeric keyboard. The first phone I used with it was the Nokia 3310, back in 2000. It was a massive step up from the multitap system used previously, where you press each key a number of times to indicate the letter (using the same examples, "head" would be 33 22 1 2, and "bag" 11 1 3 - the pauses were significant and somewhat annoying).
So, uhm. No touchscreen phone preferentially uses T9, I think - but it's possible (at least on android) if you so prefer. It can be nice if you've got a tiny screen, since the fewer, larger, buttons are easier to hit. Incidentally, blackberries are famous for not having T9; their hardware qwerty keyboards are one of the main selling points.
You simply cannot handle the truth about your evil culture and anti-human behavior. The fall of the 'merican empire is nigh and you did it to yourselves. You selfish, reckless, dumb fucks.
I think you're misunderstanding what he meant by T9. That's text entered on a numeric keypad, one press per letter with a predictive dictionary to work out what word you intended. The only Android based phone I've seen this used on was a Sony X10 mini (with it's tiny touch screen), and even then it was a 3rd party keyboard app.