Australian telco Telstra unveiled the Telstra Innovation Challenge winners. Telstra announced that online health consultations, advanced speech recognition technology, internet video searching and enhanced computer network protection are the winners of this year's competition.

The four Australian research projects were judged on their potential to benefit industry, business and consumers by drawing on Telstra's networks and technology products.

The four selected programs are:

RMIT University - Real time stress and emotion recognition in speech

The project aims to develop an automatic system that will provide a continuous monitoring of emotional states and stress levels of contact centre customers using speech analysis.

Specialist Link - e-health for allied health

Specialist Link provides an online matching service between allied health practitioners and patients, as well as cutting edge software as a service for allied health practitioners that addresses their unique financial and administrative burdens, while benefiting patients. Specialist Link provides electronic health records and automated payments technologies.

This existing e-health system provides a base platform to integrate online video consultations and supporting clinical reports and clinical notes between stakeholders to facilitate online consultations. This project will enable a trial of online consultations between practitioners and patients across the Specialist Link allied health network to improve health access for people in regional Australia

iWebGate - DMZ in a box

A demilitarised zone (DMZ) is a way for businesses to reduce the risk of hackers attacking their network. It resides between an organisation's private network and external networks such as the Internet. The 'DMZ in a Box' can be setup and ready to go in less than 20 minutes to provide a significant boost in both network security and new business capabilities.

Seecue - Text indexing and search of video

With over a billion videos viewed daily on the internet it is difficult for users to find the exact content they are looking for. Seecue is developing an online search tool that allows video content to be searched as easily as text and includes a recently developed mobile phone version and opportunities for contextual advertising.

Telstra said that the four winners of its Innovation Challenge are clear example of what Australian researchers and innovators are capable of and are a reflection of the first-class applications that the company received.

Telsta Chief Technology Officer Dr. Hugh Bradlow observed that the diversity of these projects highlights a variety of ways in which telecommunication networks and technologies can be applied to benefit a range of industries and communities from the health sector to businesses and online consumers.

"While there are a lot of great visions out there, a helping hand is often needed to get an idea to market. Telstra is happy to be able to help by providing technical assistance, access to our world-class networks, technology, marketing, facilities and internal experts who are often the world leaders in their field," he said.