"The badge contains two chips, one a digital signal processor chip from Texas Instruments (nyse: TXN - news - people ), the other a fairly unremarkable wi-fi radio not terribly dissimilar from those found in any Wi-Fi networking card used in a laptop PC. The TI chip handles all the voice processing and the wi-fi radio transmits them up to a computer network.
That's where the real work takes place. Hitting the badge button and saying a name triggers a powerful server-based application that matches the name spoken with a database entry. It then locates that person on the network, activates their badges and starts the conversation, which takes place using Voice-Over-Internet Protocol or VOIP--meaning the voices are converted to bits and transmitted over a computer network."
Check it out at http://www.forbes.com/technology/2004/03/16/cx_ah_0316chips.html
Great, now I need a wi-fi network
That's where the real work takes place. Hitting the badge button and saying a name triggers a powerful server-based application that matches the name spoken with a database entry. It then locates that person on the network, activates their badges and starts the conversation, which takes place using Voice-Over-Internet Protocol or VOIP--meaning the voices are converted to bits and transmitted over a computer network."
Check it out at http://www.forbes.com/technology/2004/03/16/cx_ah_0316chips.html
Great, now I need a wi-fi network
