Alternative emergency communication channel through television cable

Abstract

This paper studies the feasibility of deploying an alternative communication channel using domestic TeleVision (TV) set with minor modification in hardware and software. The remote control, video and audio circuits are modified while a new component - Communication Transceiver (CT), is introduced between the cable entry point and the TV set. With the proposed system, the user can plug in a normal telephone to the CT to make and receive calls. In addition to this, textual messaging is also possible with the help of the remote control unit and the TV. Due to the wide spread use of television sets in homes, this alternative communication can be particularly effective during medical or other emergencies for information transfer, broadcast of announcements etc. It may also be useful for other applications such as an dasiaintercompsila is societies living in clusters. Similarly, options for telemedicine are explored. All the details of this work are presented.