The event, held in Madrid, hosted a live development competition to celebrate and promote the use of APIs and other technologies used to create apps in the telecoms space. Over 60 development teams from all over the world submitted their entries both directly and via six satellite events across America, Europe and Asia. Prizes went to the most innovative and compelling applications developed during the course of the event.
The ipcortex entry, RTC Emergency, is a proof of concept app that adds value to emergency service calls using only the base software on an Android phone with no special application or network support. An emergency call, initiated via the normal telephone network was augmented by RTC Emergency to pass location information accurate to within a few metres directly to the operator and allow them to view a real time video feed of an unfolding emergency via the caller’s smartphone. With “eyes on the scene”, call centre operators would more effectively engage response teams. It even allowed paramedics en route to an incident to view the same feed to allow them to arrive fully prepared. For example, paramedics would triage or dispense advice whilst making their way to the incident, all from their passenger seat in the ambulance. Functioning on any smartphone with a suitably up to date web browser, all the caller needs to do is click a link sent by text message to activate the feed; there is no need to install any application and the emergency call is not affected.
The application was based on the use of the WebRTC protocol, an open standard spearheaded by a group of companies including Google, who selected ipcortex as a winner. It allows web browsers to set up audio, visual and data connections without third party programs.
Rob Pickering, ipcortex CEO, said, “Participating in TADHack was very illuminating and anyone who still doubts the effect that emergent telecommunications APIs will have in setting the future direction of UC should take a look at some of the entries. Our winning RTC Emergency application was a crude proof of concept, developed in a few man days of effort, but the fact that it was even possible demonstrates how the stage is set for new solutions to real world problems which merge traditional telecommunications and rapid web based development.
We’ve been working on WebRTC applications since 2012 to implement functionality that will feed into our mainstream VoIPCortex UC platform. For now, though, RTC Emergency was just a way of illustrating how WebRTC will allow a re-think of well-established services and processes and we’re delighted that Google recognised our efforts at TADHack”.