PhoneTag Live, you’re it!
Ditech Networks (not the lenders) has had a voice mail transcription service for a while. Now they’re offering live transcription for conference calls. This is a mainstream version of the real-time captioning service that’s been available for deaf and hard of hearing participants through specialty service providers. Going mainstream often has payoffs in quality, variety, and price; what will the future of live transcription bring? Right now it’s on the phone; will we see live follow-me transcription bringing captioning into every environment?
PhoneTag Live Transcription for Conference Calls available now from Ditech Networks | Business Wire
Bass-o-matic
The elegantly named ButtKicker translates low frequency sounds into vibrations on whatever you attach it to–the press release suggests “chair, car, or drum throne.” We’d guess Deaf folks will find all kinds of applications for it, both for practical uses (alert systems?) and simply for having a non-auditory way of experiencing musical, cinema, and video gaming environments.
Caption crunch
Onstage LED displays that provide redundant text have been an opera staple for some time, but to the best of our knowledge there hasn’t been a widespread equivalent for other types of theatrical performances. That might change with Airscript, a wireless device currently being tested in London that furnishes simultaneous translation of what’s going on; it has a channel for eight languages, and we were pleased to see that one was English for the benefit of Deaf/hard of hearing people, or just those with lousy seats. It shows multiple lines, so that you don’t have to spend all your time staring at it and away from the stage.
Engadget: AirScript translator beams live theater subtitles over the air
Thus voicemailed Zarathustra
GotVoice is the forthcoming result of a collaboration between Microsoft and a company called Spoken to create a better strategy for doing audio-to-text transcription of voicemails. Unlike some current systems that rely heavily on human transcription, GotVoice will use a hybrid of software transcription and human “troubleshooting.” Fingers crossed that this will lower the price of the service and make it more readily available to the deaf and learning-disabled folks who are likely to find it particularly beneficial.
Gadgetell: Spoken teams with Microsoft to offer transcribed text voicemail service
Sound design
Deaf folks used to get pretty much a free pass through the Internet, since there was minimal sound-only content. This changed with innovations such as podcasts. Now audio has become ubiquitous enough that people are starting to look at recommending techniques for indexing and navigating information for a modality that is presented in a strictly linear fashion. We haven’t yet been able to access the full article, but we’re curious to know whether these techniques will involve any speech-to-text conversion, and whether this text can be exposed at least for Deaf individuals and anyone who benefits from simultaneous audio and visual presentation.
Layared look
Layar is billed as the first commercially viable augmented reality service. For Android devices, aim your camera at any location or object that’s been indexed — a fort, a bar, a train station — and information pops onto the screen, with arrows and captions and everything. They’ve got content from Wikipedia and other sources, and claim to have 500 developers working on content and apps. There are some great opportunities here, as we’ve said before, for people with hearing, cognitive or visual disabilities.
Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Layar Reality Browser 2.0 Launched Globally
Help now a text away
Waterloo, IA is the new national center of 911 accessibility; their call center can now receive text messages, and the operators can respond in kind. There are still a few potential bugs in the system–for example, the caller needs to be able to identify their location, which may be difficult for some nonverbal individuals with cognitive disabilities–but overall, this is a huge step forward.