3G phones for the visually and deaf impaired

Sadao Hasegawa, a blind man in Japan, has set up a website called Telesupport Net which uses sighted volunteers to help visually impaired people using the video capabilities of 3G mobiles, reports the The Sydney Morning Herald. Blind users point their mobile's built-in camera at the place or object that they want to decipher, and the sighted person on the other end of the phone can report back to them immediately. Rebecca Ladd, the executive director of community services at the Deaf Society of New South Wales, says 3G videophones are still not good enough to convey the visual-gestural sign language of Auslan, which uses fast hand movements, facial expressions and body language to convey meaning. "No one in the deaf community in Australia uses video mobiles to sign in regular conversation. The screen is too small and they're just not fast enough," she says. permalink (November 1st, 2004)

3G Breakthrough For Deaf Customers

3 Sweden deaf customers will have the same possibility as hearing to "speak" live in the mobile, according 3G. "Together with Sveriges Dövas Riksförbund (SDR) Swedish Deaf Organisation, 3 will evaluate and head the development of future new 3G services for signing people in Sweden. As a first step in the cooperation, 3 has today launched web pages with signlanguage pages on www.tre.se/tecken. "Through this cooperation with 3, we would like to contribute to the possibility of our members and their relatives now and in the future will be able communicate in their own language, the sign language." says SDRs Chairman Lars-Åke Wikström". Related articles in SMS for Deaf category in Textually.org permalink (September 20th, 2004)

Video phone help for deaf people

Deaf people who prefer to communicate using British Sign Language (BSL) could soon be having their phone conversations relayed using webcams or videophones and an interpreter, reports the BBC. "The Video Relay Service is being piloted by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) who is urging telecoms regulator, Ofcom, to reduce the cost of the service, making it the same as ordinary phone calls. The service works by putting a deaf person in visual contact with a BSL interpreter via a webcam or video phone, and the interpreter then relays the deaf person's conversation using a telephone and translates the other person's response into sign language. For many deaf people, especially those born deaf, BSL is a first and preferred means of communication. For more on services and features offered by operators around the globe, cf SMS for Deaf category in Textually.org. Read aslo Scene and heard. permalink (December 17th, 2004)

Motivations for Adopting New Technology

Jan Chipchase reflects on what motivates the adoption of new technology and recounts how walking in front of a print shop in Old Delhi with a friend and colleague, they were beckoned to sit down to see a movie that was playing on one of the mobile phones. Excerpts: "Younghee and my Hindi is non-existent and these gentlemen spoke next to no English so communication was body and sign language and a smattering of words. They had no way of knowing we worked for a handset manufacturer, as far as they were concerned we were just to foreigners walking by. The movie itself was made famous by the fact that it was shot on a mobile phone and eventually distributed as an auction item though Bazzee.com. Baazee is owned by EBay and recently renamed eBay.in. This distribution culminated in the arrest of Avnish Bajaj CEO of Bazzee.com on the grounds of peddling adult content. (The video Shan is referring too is of a 17-year-old schoolboy who used his mobile phone camera to record his girlfriend giving him oral sex which created a a huge scandal in India). The movie was in the public domain and had gone viral - presumably passing from phone to phone - each new recipient sufficiently motivated by the desire to have a copy of the file to overcome the hurdle of pairing Bluetooth devices and going through the still-not-yet-that-easy data transfer process. Whilst it may be possible to arrest the CEO of a high profile auction site, it is not practical intercept this content passing from phone to phone. The real power to make decisions on whether content is suitable for consumption is shifting to the individual. P2P networks are I presume to a large extent trackable. Interactions directly between devices are much less so." permalink (July 29th, 2005)

Sign language for your cellphone

Roland Piquepaille in Emerging Technology Trends for ZDNet, wirtes about mobilesign, a dictionary of 5,000 words in British Sign Language (BSL) with accompanying downloadable videos for mobile phones. [via 21talks.net] Below are screen captures of a search for the word "phone", and the sign language that goes with it. permalink (March 16th, 2007)

Can You See Me Now? - Sign Language on Mobile Phones Tested

A group at the University of Washington has developed software that enables deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans to use sign language over a mobile phone. [via Cellular News] "UW engineers got the phones working together this spring, and recently received a National Science Foundation grant for a 20-person field project that will begin next year in Seattle. This is the first time two-way real-time video communication has been demonstrated over cell phones in the United States. Since posting a video of the working prototype on YouTube, deaf people around the country have been writing on a daily basis. Links to related articles on video phones for the deaf or hearing impaired. permalink (August 22nd, 2008)

Broadband could help deaf people make phone calls

Communication channels for the disabled often lag behind those created with mainstream users in mind, reports Hearing Loss News and Reviews. "Advocacy groups for the deaf community tried to convince policymakers Thursday that high-speed, cable connections could benefit everyone - if they were more affordable and more accessible. They want the federal government to help pay for the system. Frank G. Bowe, author of the new report "Broadband and Americans with Disabilities," demonstrated how high-speed, cable connections - or broadband - would work. Bowe, who is deaf but reads lips well, made a direct call for the first time to his secretary at Hofstra University in New York. "We have never done this before," Bowe said. "For the first time, we will not be communicating with text, I will be able to see her expressions over the phone." Bowe spoke, and she used a sign-language interpreter to reply. Deaf people - estimated at about 28 million in the United States - have limited options when it comes to communicating with people far away. And even though the Internet has extended the ability for instant communication, Bowe argued that offering real-time, visual interaction will help the disabled feel more a part of society. permalink (June 17th, 2005)