deafdrummer

The problem is THIS. There is no way to monitor accuracy of the conversation translation without having someone "RIGHT THERE" to make corrections. Go look at a Youtube CC'ed video. COMPLETELY INACCURATE. What do you offer that Youtube can't offer in CC accuracy?

Here's the other thing. Let's say that I need to make a phone call - how is this applicable to a phone call where I have to pick up the phone, dial a number, and somehow get the translator to hear what the person on the phone is saying? The translator has to get a clear opening to the person's voice on the phone to translate accurately. What if the call is long-distance - why should I bother going through the traditional, less-cost-effective phone when I can do the same call through IM - for free?

Since there has been 50,000 layoffs in the tech industry recently, you might be better off going into stem cell therapy and related fields. That would help us out a LOT better.

Deafness

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Anij

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

Actually I was going to suggest he focus on creating more awareness of relay services in the countries he's talking about. Canada, the USA and many other countries have fully functioning relay services that make it very straightforward for deaf and hearing to communicate with each other ACCURATELY.

70,80 even 90% accuracy isn't good enough when it comes to conversations, especiall in an emergency, or when dealing with health or financial issues.

The technology already exists - I'd focus on finding ways to implement it in areas currently lacking.

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Hoh/Deaf ~ +120db deaf right , mild/mod flux left & APD
English & ASL ...PAH!!


Ignorance is NOT Bliss

G_Imperatore

Wow lot's of feedback thanks. If this is unclear, the app would translate what the person is saying into text. You can reply using your favourite text entry method. I do not see the connection with youtube CC. My app is for making phone calls.

According to my research in some areas outwith the us there is still much to do with respect to mobile phones.

As for stem cell research i see your point I am brain damaged myself, I have palsy. But unfortunately we don't do these in Comp. Science

G_Imperatore

Just to be clear the app does not translate the voice of the deaf person. The deaf person types with his preferred keyboard, the only one who talks here is the hearing person.

Irish

Youtube CC uses 'transcribing' - converting speech to text. It'd be the same concept as your app in the sense that it's converting speech to text. Hence people are mentioning it here. However it is very inaccurate. For example, I tried watching a 'behind the scenes' video for an MMORPG I play, and the CC mentioned Afghanistan... which I am positive they did not mention in the video at all, as it wasn't related. You know Youtube is a major company, with money and resources, yet they still have to release a version of the transcribing option that is actually so accurate we would never have to ask anyone to manually add CC to the videos again. A lot of similar speech to text software on cellphones are not that good yet either. At this point it is easier for us to just use IM or Relay services ourselves because speech to text is still too cumbersome with all the inaccuracies. That kind of thing still has a long way to go, so if people seem quite skeptical with you, hopefully I've explained part of it.

Also, just to clarify, are you looking to make an app that does BOTH speech to text and text to speech at once? I believe a lot of apps out there do speech to text, or text to speech, but not actually both.

G_Imperatore

That is the point of the research guys, to improve the crap that is out there. Yes the app does both TTS and STT. I have a prototype running. You see by using google cloud services it is free, as opposed to dragon where you pay, and where you have no internet connection it uses a library installed on the phone albeit with less accuracy.

Anij

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

FYI Dragon voice to text for voicemail is free

Again, I'd suggest you contact the Dragon Naturally speaking people because what you are trying to do - they've been ding for decades now so they will be able to give you an lot of much needed data.

Also having an "onboard" voice library will never work - the differences in the way people speak, especially accents makes this impossible at the present time (and for the forseable future).

There are better ways to help hoh and deaf than voice recognition software apps.

If you'd like to pm me your questions though, I'd be happy to help.

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Hoh/Deaf ~ +120db deaf right , mild/mod flux left & APD
English & ASL ...PAH!!


Ignorance is NOT Bliss

G_Imperatore

Thanks

Irish

That's what I thought you were trying to do here, improve what we have, but I wasn't 100% sure. Thanks for clarifying. I would try to help here, but I have zero knowledge on developing an app and I am not good at speaking either. Have you considered maybe applying to work with Google, Youtube, any other company out there though? I'm sure there is at least one place where they are looking for people like you who want to help improve what we have, and work in a team.

G_Imperatore

Irish, the app development is my problem, what I would like from you guys is like tell me what you need. What functionality you need even if you think it can't be done. You don't have to speak to use the app. Only the hearing person who calls you has to speak

A Nihilist

ok here's a functionality list for my dream auto-relay app:

1. Ability to call number and tell me whether it's ringing or busy
2. A chat window of some sort that indicates dialogue (see IM interface)
2a. It would be nice if the chat window had real-time updating so I can see each word as it appears rather than waiting for a full sentence
3. Ability to translate words/phrases in bursts so the callee isn't waiting and wondering if I am replying
4. Ability to know if callee hung up
5. Ability to hang up on call

Anij

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

This is already available in the IM and IP relay apps - and it comes with a real human translater (who can ask for repeats, spelling etc as well as notify the hearing caller that it's a relay call - and explain the time delay that is inherent to typed conversations).

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English & ASL ...PAH!!


Ignorance is NOT Bliss

ambrosia

Yes he did, their end would use text to speech, they talk, you get the text of what they said, and he's not talking about your friends, he's talking about businesses. Business generally isn't done a personal cell phone. BUT what I'm confused about is how that would actually work, because the person that's using text-speech, it's done by their cell phone, so the app on your cell is going to do the text to speech itself?

The main problem is obviously going to be the accuracy of text to speech. It's awful, way worse than autocorrect lol. My husband used to try to use it when he first got his new droid, I once got a text that said.....Sarah Porkchops if your freezing I'll be in the microwave.

Bottesini

I am not talking about my friends either. None of them are stupid enough not to use text or video with me.

I meant I don't use any business that won't communicate in an appropriate manner for me as a deaf person.

I boycott those kind of business.

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A Nihilist

Yup, I was just replying to the OP's question.

@G_Imperatore: While I appreciate your good intentions in developing an automated product I have to say unless the accuracy is 97% or higher there's no way I'll use it in the real world. If you want to really enable deaf folks focus on speech recognition technology. I don't really care about how fancy the app looks if I can't even understand what the other person's saying it's a waste of time.

G_Imperatore

Yes ambrosia, the Text to speech is part of android and can be easilly implemented.

I can understand your points guys about the speech recognition guys but by using the cloud and post editing techniques you'd be surprised what can be achieved, don't use windows recognition as your baseline (there are some hilarious videos on the net)

The app already provides partial results in real time, A nihilist thanks for the feedback.

I know there are relay services out there guys, the whole point of this is to automate the process...

SimonJ

Can you post the apk here?

G_Imperatore

Sorry, as I said I am currently researching to design the app, it is not ready for release

respectyoda

Speak It! is an app that will allow the phone to vocally speak a phrase of whatever the deaf person wishes to enunciate via the phone.

Dragon Dictation is an app that will allow a hearing person to speak into the phone and whatever is being will be transcribed. A word of warning though. The app like every other speech recognition program will have difficulty in understanding words that are spoken due to accents and dialects. No app on a smart phone will ever be perfect for transcribing human speech because it requires a huge chunk of memory to be able to use a database to correctly transcribe a human's voice.

G_Imperatore

Guys, just to be clear we don't want to dictate stuff, we want enable people to make phone calls as normally as possible. You don't need other apps to enunciate via the phone android does that for you.

Again thanks for the feedback.

Have you guys heard of software such as mobileASL, ProjectSign, Scribe4Me. Obviously the first two are only for those who employ SL?

G.

Anij

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

If you're planning on relaying on what adroid already has in place for speech recognition, honestly stop now. The Adroid (or iphone, bb etc) speech recognition is years away from being reliable enough as a replacement for relay operators.

It's just not nearly as advanced, accurate or "good" as you seem to think it is.

Sorry.

__________________
Hoh/Deaf ~ +120db deaf right , mild/mod flux left & APD
English & ASL ...PAH!!


Ignorance is NOT Bliss

G_Imperatore

Thanks for feedback, really the accuracy of the SR is part of testing, what we're talking about here is design. At the moment I am focusing on android to have a quick prototype to show during later user studies. I am not doing this for money.

G_Imperatore

What I mean by Android provides enunciation is it does Text To Speech (words translated into robotic voice) without the need for third party software.

Anij

That's fine, but you still need voice recognition software that's significantly better than what is available. Also a hearing person will hang up seconds after hearing a synthesized voice ...so that's not going to help hoh/d/Deaf/SI people at all.

__________________
Hoh/Deaf ~ +120db deaf right , mild/mod flux left & APD
English & ASL ...PAH!!


Ignorance is NOT Bliss

SilentRider

My input would be, maybe for now due to the inaccuracies if it was a 1 on 1 call. If u can design an deaf friendly app that can nbe used to send any form of text. Where for example a deaf is driving, use the app to speak and it turns to text and send. Handless.. that wud be cool. It of course wud need to be able to give feedback to what the deaf is saying and do a set up where it remembers and develop the vocabulary etc.

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¯\_(ツ)_/¯

SimonJ

Really? You can spell vocabulary but not you or would?

G_Imperatore

Thanks to all of you guys, you were very helpful and frank.

I have a question, do you feel that the introduction of ready made phrases which you could expand and modify would increase the usability of the app?

Bottesini

Yes.

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G_Imperatore

wow, that was concise

G_Imperatore

Guys, Just a note I have read that a hearing person will hang up in seconds when hearing an artificial voice. That is true, but it was already covered in the design, the app plays an introductory, prerecorded message that explains the state of things, the user will now when this is finished playing......

Cheers pals