Smartphone based wireless assistive audio system for a social distanced physical classroom

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of virtual learning, resulting in reduced student feedback, social isolation, and inadequate face-to-face communication. During the pandemic, physically and socially separated classrooms with adequate precautions are an acceptable solution for the learning environment. A low-cost local area network-based solution capable of transmitting and receiving audio signals in a noisy and socially distant physical learning environment has been implemented to address this issue. Here, data communication is achieved through socket programming and network protocols. This research problem utilized audio multicasting for one-to-many communication and a peer-to-peer architecture. Along with effective message multicasting between network peers, a simple yet optimized algorithm for peer discovery has been developed. The design and implementation of this data communication system involves tradeoffs among communication factors, including requirements, resources, constraints, and the user experience. In order to evaluate the implemented system, an experimental user study was conducted, and subjective user feedback is considered. The results of the evaluation of the testing procedures indicate that the implemented system satisfies the system requirements when either one or two people address the meeting simultaneously in both the large classroom lecture scenario and the small group discussion scenario. Moreover, customized peer discovery algorithms have produced near-perfect outcomes.