Send three and fourpence. We are going to a dance.
Apparently, some military type once sent a message over a radio that was relayed between multiple stations, it was simple but mission critical in the truest sense of the term:
Send reinforcements. We are going to advance.
After being passed between these multiple relay stations it was received at the other end in a somewhat less critical form:
Send three and fourpence. We are going to a dance.
It is not clear if this happened or not…. but why let the truth get in the way of a good story.
The point that this drives is the importance of communication over communications.
Communication is concerned with an exchange of symbols/messages/meanings among humans and is a most common method for exercising leadership. In contrast, communications is concerned with the means, technologies, channels, and media people use when communicating. Communication is a strategic message creation activity; communications is a focus on the methods and channels selected for transmitting the message. Communication, along with leadership and conflict management, are inextricably intertwined elements within organizational processes that impact on outcomes. Anthony H. Normore (2016) Handbook of Research on Effective Communication, Leadership, and Conflict Resolution
Furthermore, linear communication is a one-way flow of information with no ability to feedback or clarify points. This can create a problematic “Broken Telephone” or “Chinese Whispers” style of communication. Would we give someone instructions and not check that they are understood or allow them the opportunity to ask for clarification?
Consider now how we make decisions and the importance of visual information.
Our large ape ancestors that began to evolve about 13 million years ago, eventually becoming Homo Sapiens around 200,000 years ago, would have heavily relied upon their eyesight to make decisions. They lived in extremely arduous environments with many predators and nasty ways to die and visual information would have been key to identifying threats and staying alive.
If they had poor eyesight or were too slow to interpret the visual information they were seeing it would be a very short and painful exit from the land of the living, and possibly impact the wellbeing of the wider tribe.
Today we face less issues caused by the threat of being munched on by a leopard, wolf, or sabre-toothed cat, although it still occasionally happens with bears, sharks, crocs, and other hungry creatures. What we do face is a vastly more complex and volatile world with many situations that benefit from visual information. Consider a day-to-day term we use to show we understand a situation; “I see” when positively confirming that a situation or opinion is understood. Or some of the tools for gaining an advantage in warfighting or in business, such as John Boyd’s OODA Loop, the first of the four steps being “Observe” (followed by Over-react, Destroy and Apologise, or is it Orient, Decide and Act?). Or how we are so often swayed into a purchase by the packaging and visual appeal of a product…just to be disappointed by the substance of the transaction (I’m thinking craft beer branding… there are some not so good craft beers with great branding — a terrible disappointment).
Over time we have evolved to rely on visual information to help us make all sorts of decisions, from the mission critical decisions of disaster responders to the engineer assessing a problem with a piece of equipment, the challenge often comes when we need to gain input on a particular scenario from a third party who is not in the same location. Visual sensors exist that can capture photos and video with exceptionally high resolution allowing subject matter experts to assess a bridge for structural damage without needing to physically be in a disaster zone, or for an engineer to remotely connect with the original equipment manufacturer or expert on a component and seek advice on what action to take. The problem is not the capture of visual information but the communication of that information.
Compression tools exist that can reduce the image or video size to a level that it can be sent over even the smallest communications pipe, but at what cost? And I don’t just mean financial. The problem with compression is that it is often a linear communication process, the image or video is compressed, losing the high precision value of the sensor that captured it, and it is transferred without the ability to communicate — to verify the content in a more interactive manner or with associated data such as text or voice captions, with geo-tagging, etc.
This is akin to wearing a COVID mask and having a conversation with someone, the nuances get lost, interpretation can be difficult, and a message can be misunderstood (we are off to a dance with three and fourpence). This is even worse because in this linear manner we are giving direction or information through that restrictive mask (pure compression) without checking that it has been understood or allowing the third party to interact with us and clarify the information conveyed.
Shout louder is the approach of providing more bandwidth. Instead of shouting louder, why not communicate smarter and convey more information over the available bandwidth. More sensors down the same pipe, more visual feeds, more valuable data to support the individuals on the ground.
AnsuR was founded on the understanding that interactive, not linear, communications can best be effectively optimised to ensure significantly better communication.
If you would like to learn more about how we can help you save 90 to 99% of your bandwidth (to save on cost, reduce time to transfer or more efficiently use your data) or how we can stream HD quality video at speeds below 200kbps (and SD video at less than 50kbps), send me a message on LinkedIn and I would be very happy to set up a conversation.
Be well and keep your eyes peeled for sabre-toothed cats!
Paul Gudonis
AnsuR Technologies
