Photographs and medical data now can be sent on existing POCSAG paging networks to portable devices using a technology developed by Data Critical Corp.
Data-Through-Paging technology, or DTP, is a protocol that compresses images or text, then slices it into packets. Compressed and packetized data then is transmitted through non-proprietary wireless networks, which view it as a typical narrowband transmission, said Craig Kairis, vice president of market development for Data Critical.
DTP operates within the company’s Critical Link software, which is loaded into personal computers at both ends of the transmission. At this time, Critical Link is compatible with the Motorola Inc. Advisor pager.
Data Critical was founded in 1993 by Oklahoma City physician Dr. David Albert, who sought a way to transmit critical medical information to remote locations. With the help of Aziz El Idrisi, an expert in biomedical and digital signal processing, Data Critical developed the DTP-based software. Albert now is the company’s chairman and chief scientist; El Idrisi is vice president of engineering.
Jeffrey Brown is Data Critical’s president and chief executive officer. The company has offices in Oklahoma City and Redmond, Wash.
Kairis said he and Brown, both former employees in the Wireless Data division at McCaw Cellular Communications Inc., saw the future potential of wireless software.
“So instead of building the network, we’re building the software that runs over the networks. There is no question that wireless data will take off. And we’re focused on applications for that,” Kairis said.
The company’s most recent product is Image APB-the name derived from law enforcement’s All Points Bulletin. Mug shots, photos of lost children or search warrants can be sent from an IBM-compatible computer-386 or higher-using Windows-based software.
The person in the field receives the transmission on the Advisor and downloads it into a handheld device or laptop PC loaded with Critical Link software, which reverses the decompression and packetization.
Because the data is encrypted, government and security agencies have expressed interest in the software, Kairis said. “Security agencies can use it to quickly transmit an image from a security camera, getting it out (to law enforcement),” he said. Files also can be transmitted through the Windows file manager.
Data Critical primarily sells the software, although some wireless operators have expressed an interest in selling as well, Kairis said.
“They are spending millions of dollars on two-way networks and looking for companies with applications,” he said. Several large paging carriers have agreed to support the transmission of Image APB on their networks, including the nation’s largest paging operator, Texas-based Paging Network Inc.
“An important part of PageNet’s strategy,” said Doug Ritter, PageNet vice president of new business development, “is to foster the growth of emerging companies like Data Critical, which are helping us demonstrate that paging networks can do much more than provide traditional paging services.”
DTP technology is designed so that it can be adjusted to operate on various wireless networks, Kairis said. When Cellular Digital Packet Data and personal communications services become fully available, Data Critical will use those technologies as well, he said.
The company is concentrating on what it calls “high value data” at this time, but has plans for horizontal market products. Several other applications have been developed and are commercially available:
PalmVue is a handheld device developed in partnership with Hewlett-Packard Co. Patient monitoring information such as blood pressure and other vital statistics can be dispatched wirelessly to physicians away from the office.
Secure Page+ can send any type of data, any length, over the paging network. Secure Page+ features a 56-bit key data encryption standard for security and compression for fast image transfers.
Alpha Stamp allows companies to issue work orders to mobile field employees.
