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Category: Technology
the Storybook App
A team of researchers at Gallaudet University have created a new iPad app. It's first of three in a series of bilingual storybook apps designed to help deaf children with language acquisition.
Gally's Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning is titling this first offering The Baobab. Gallaudet alum April Jackson-Woodard came up with the original story while deaf artist Yiqiao Wang created the animation. There is interactive support for ASL.Related Blogs
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New Google Video Chat Features
Google is launching a sign language interpreter app and keyboard shortcuts tied to its video chat called Hangout. The Hangout Captions app, for example, enables live transcription services for the deaf and hard of hearing. It allows you to invite interpreters to speak and sign for you during a Hangout. You'll see your interpreter at the top right of the window and become the focus of the Hangout whenever their interpreter is speaking for you in sign language. Check it out here or you can directly install the app using this link.Then there's something to make it easier for sign language speakers to do a Hangout together. Look at the new Take the Floor here keyboard shortcuts. If can't or don't want to use a mouse during the video chat, you can use these shortcuts. To view the full list of keyboard shortcuts just type '?' while in a Hangout, or visit this page. Here's a video about Take the Floor which allows you to "take the floor" in a hangout with no mic.
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Automatic translation of text to sign
Mohamed Jemni spoke at the TED conference today about his efforts to educate the deaf in developing countries. Jemni's lab at the University of Tunis in Tunisia is building e-learning environments for students with tools like the app MMS Sign, which makes mobile phones accessible for deaf people, and the new WebSign, which unlocks web data using an avatar who speaks sign language.
His lab won the UNESCO Prize in 2008 for their e-learning curriculum for visually impaired and the World Summit Award (WSA) Mobile 2010 in the field of social inclusion. He told the TED audience today that “80% of deaf people in the world do not have access to education.” He demonstrated automatic translation of text into sign using a new piece of software. His app, for example, could be used to translate public address announcements into sign. Jemni said he believes “The disability is not the problem, the accessibility is the problem.” TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It's yearly meetings have blossomed into major events and many offshoots. Here's a video of Jemni appearing at the TED event in Tunis last summer.
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Technology at Gally
How students at Gallaudet are using technology to learn in this video from Voice of America. Read the story here.
Closed Captioning Inventor
Getting to Know… Hearing Loops
When you see a blue sign of a human ear, that's a cue to hearing aid users that they can press a tiny button to hear a special broadcast sent directly to their device. This is called a hearing loop, a thin copper wire that radiates electromagnetic signals in a room. A tiny receiver called a telecoil built into most hearing aids and cochlear implants picks up the signal. With the flip of a switch on the device, sound comes through with greater clarity than can be heard by someone with normal hearing. This might be music, sound from a movie, a or a speaker. Hearing loops are better known in Europe than in the US, where only about a thousand have been installed in museums, stores, theaters, airports, and sports arenas.
For a Homeless Deaf Man, an iPad Makes Life Easier
The NY police have gotten angry with a homeless man because they did not realize that he could not hear their instructions. He was born with no hearing in one ear and only a little in the other. A charity bought him an iPad last month to make it easier for him to communicate through ASL on video relay. Read more of the story from the New York Times here.
Desktop Captioning Phone
A new phone unveiled last week offers a new tool for the deaf and hard-of-hearing when it comes to making calls. Clarity's Ensemble phone is a corded desktop unit that amplifies sound as much as 50 decibels using the same technology found in many expensive hearing aids. Plus, you can read what the other party is saying through a 7-inch color touch-screen text display. The text is provided by call center agent at Purple Communication, so Ensemble offers near-real-time speed captioning. The cost is $229 for the until while the captioning is free. Find out more here.
