This NEW day of smartphones able to transmit ASL realtime over a WiFi network is astounding. ZVRS recently announced teaming with AT&T and Apple to make VRS accessable on the iPhone 4 with its latest software released as iZ.
Hurdles to overcome with the iZ experience are it is only exclusive for iPhone 4 users with access to only one VRS provider.
There is also a disclaimer on the ZVRS website that points out the iZ software app IS NOT affiliated with Apple or AT&T. This alleged product "affiliation" is a little misleading for the marketing of their product considering the popularity and quality of Apple products.
Customer Service lies squarely with ZVRS
Significant obstacles remain for ASL smartphone users
Video transmission drains the battery quickly. Also video consumes MUCH more bandwidth. Troublesome, if not disappointing, for availability and cost.
Finding a 3G or 4G WiFi network for practical peak performance is challenging in most areas. Service providers for bandwidth are seeking 'tiered rates' (sound familiar ?) for bandwidth usage.
More data = more money
Fortunately, the University of Washington (with the help of others contributing to critical funding) are ahead of these discouraging problem areas.
A Swedishbandwith solution here
Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband New modems will pave way "We know very well we can do 200Mbps and we could do 400 Mbps. We are launching a new modem by the end of the year that will be 400 Mbps capable. And that's
a vehicle for the evolution of our speed portfolio in the next two years." READ MORE
As Technology morphs and the quality and techno curve rises the prices for things below that drop. An
Ojo Shadow Personal Video Phone was recently offered at buy.com for $99.99
Program opens high-tech world to deaf students
Unique summer academy seeks to diversify the computer-science work force ...This is a GREAT move...educating deaf youth in computer science. The whiz kids of tomorrow! READ MORE
Although this technology has been out there awhile I thought I would still include it in this section for those who were not aware of it....
The iCommunicator promotes independent communication for persons who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or experience unique communication challenges by allowing effective two-way communication to occur in most natural environments.
The iCommunicator translates in real-time:
-Speech to Text
-Speech/Text to Video Sign-Language
-Speech/Text to Computer Generated Voice
This video demonstrates the features and benefits of iCommunicator.
Ray Smets, Cisco's vice president and general manager, Wireless Networking Business Unit, talks about trends and demands around video over enterprise wireless network
Rochester Institute of Technology to Enhance Learning Capabilities With Innovative Video Applications and Cisco Media-Ready Wireless LAN
Ray Smets, vice president and general manager for the Cisco Wireless Networking Business Unit
"The ability to deliver video and multimedia applications over the wireless network -- with the same quality and performance that users are accustomed to receiving via a wired network -- has inherent challenges. The new Cisco VideoStream technology addresses those challenges for the growing demands around delivering real-time visual collaboration and a need for new sustainable business practices, especially to support a distributed workforce. RIT is a perfect example of how the right wireless infrastructure not only delivers key applications for the broader population of students, faculty and IT staff, but can also be the launching pad for the innovation of new applications like the video lectures that RIT is offering to its deaf and hard-of-hearing students." MORE INFO
Google to Add Captions, Improving YouTube Videos
NY Times November 19
In the first major step toward making millions of videos on YouTube accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired people, Google unveiled new technologies that will automatically bring text captions to many videos on the site.The speech recognition technology that Google uses to turn speech into text is not new; Google currently uses it to transcribe voice mail messages for users of its Google Voice service.READ MORE
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