Ask Slashdot: Bulletproof Video Conferencing For Alzheimers Home?

Milo_Mindbender writes I'm trying to find a bulletproof near zero maintenance video conferencing client for shared use in an Alzheimers living facility. It's used so the patients can regularly see their relatives who are often out of town. Most everything I've tried on PC or Mac requires tweeks/updates from time to time to keep it working, not good in a place where there are no computer savvy people. It looks like most of the low cost dedicated boxes have died out too. The ideal setup will be turnkey with little-to-no maintenance and if possible support auto-answering calls from approved users. It needs to be compatible with video conferencing apps the relatives can easily get on phone/tablet/pc such as Skype, Facetime, Hangouts...etc. Any suggestions?

WebRTC, Asterisk/FreeSwitch and a JS SIP client

[Splab]

Move the maintainance to something you control and deploy through a browser.

One setup could be:
Crhome/Firefox as VoIP client
SipML5 http://sipml5.org/ [sipml5.org]
Webrtc2sip (see above)
Asterisk for handling the RTP exchange and authentication.

The security aspect is handled by Asterisk via. simple sip.conf, all clients use a webcam + browser and connect through a simple client (see the call.html example at sipml5.org ).

This way you have a linux box somewhere at your control running asterisk, apache and webrtc2sip (needed for dtls proxying); the clients can be a simple kioskmode setup with a webcam and a single page served from your apache.

Re: WebRTC, Asterisk/FreeSwitch and a JS SIP clie

[amjohns]

Actually, my suggestion is in a separate comment down the page...

But to answer why the above is still a bad idea, it leaves OP on the hook for regular/recurring maintenance. Moreover, it creates a single point of failure if he gets hit by a bus, or just goes on vacation.

When dealing with highly nontechnical users, especially under a high-stress environment such as distant family wanting to talk to failing relatives before they die or can't usefully communicate anymore, any delay or breakdown leads to massive tension- and gets OP called at 2am on Sunday!

Therefore, a 100% COTS soltution is ideal.

Fronkly OP needs to learn to use freakin' google, I found COTS solution, in stock at Best Buy, in ~45sec... There are still supported, stable solutions out there

Skype on Xbox one

[alen]

Get an Xbox one with Kinect and set up a shared skype account on it. The camera even moves and zooms automatically to whoever is talking

Logitech Skype device

[Bowdie]

Take a look at the Logitech Skype TV box. No computer to speak of, just plugs into a HDMI and Network (they do a wifi version)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logite... [amazon.co.uk]

hope that helps.

Thoughts

[jon3k]

I work in IT in LTPAC (nursing and rehab). This is something we've discussed many times. The best model we've found is a TV with Skype (either PC or SmartTV) on a cart. Family schedules a time and staff (eg CNA) brings cart into the room and answers call. I'm in a higher acuity environment most likely (mostly SNF, some ALF) so this might not be ideal for your environment. We do have "Memory Care Units" at some locations. Generally it's a specific hall that has some additional accommodations (read: Wanderguard).

Reply to this post with contact info if you'd like to discuss in detail. I can talk to our reimbursement folks, but I believe this is billable via Medicare and Medicaid.