Fraunhofer IIS Demos Full-HD Voice Over LTE On Android 99
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."
can you hear me now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:can you hear me now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Skype currently uses the SILK codec, which should give similar quality.
Skype was also involved with the IETF working group to produce a new codec (called Opus) which is also high quality and will hopefully see more widespread adoption than this AAC-ELD codec.
Would be interested in seeing some comparisons between Opus and AAC-ELD, especially since Opus can do both voice and music due to its hybrid nature.
Voice communication is still very ineffective. (Score:0, Interesting)
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.
humans are able to perceive audio up to 20 kHz... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:can you hear me now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Saying that FLAC is better than MP3 is like saying that an M1A1 is better than a smart car. If you care only about getting something from point A to point B undamaged, then yes, it is. If you care at all about efficiency, not so much.
As for Ogg Vorbis, I suspect the patent FUD spread by Fraunhofer pretty much sealed its fate as far as commercial vendor adoption was concerned, which in turn has limited its uptake by the general public.