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Company's software helps deaf people communicate with speaking world
In a small office cubicle in a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, factory, a startup sells a product with big potential for deaf people.
It's software that works in real time, turning spoken English into text and sign language that a deaf person can view on a computer screen.
The interpreter doing the signing appears on video that looks like a live feed of a translator at work. In fact, it's a series of video clips the patented software strings together.
For two-way communication, the deaf person types responses and a computer-generated voice speaks the typed words.
Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin wept during an episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" she hosted last year when she was shown how the device made by iCommunicator would enable a blind father and his deaf son to converse without an interpreter.
"Technology will bring the family closer together," the deaf actress said on the show - a big boost for iCommunicator's sales.
The company has just one full-time employee. But it's not the typical underfunded business venture.
"There's no scrounging for working capital," said Steve Bruner, 40, the vice president of sales and marketing.
It belongs to 71-year-old former chiropractor turned serial entrepreneur Leonard Feldman, his son Daniel, and their partners Robert Notine and Larry Brown.
They own five businesses, all housed in a cluster of industrial buildings on the Sunset Park waterfront.
The biggest one is 20-year-old ProFoot, which competes profitably against footcare giant Dr. Scholl's with products like orthotics and toe bandages. Annual revenues are $30 million to $40 million.
"Our combined companies have made money every year," Daniel Feldman, 37, said.
They bought iCommunicator in 2005 for an undisclosed sum from Teltronics, a Sarasota, Fla., maker of telephone switching systems.
They were introduced to iCommunicator by Jeff Klare, their partner in consulting business Hire Disability Solutions.
A client of Klare's, the city Department of Small Business Services, had a sign-language interpreter who didn't show up and asked for a reliable alternative. Klare discovered iCommunicator, and the city agency ordered five kits.
Later, Leonard Feldman called Teltronics to talk about the product and wound up making an offer for iCommunicator.
"I'm a gut player," said Feldman, who launched his first business venture - foam neck pillows for whiplash sufferers - in his Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, living room in 1972.
In a small office cubicle in a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, factory, a startup sells a product with big potential for deaf people.
It's software that works in real time, turning spoken English into text and sign language that a deaf person can view on a computer screen.
The interpreter doing the signing appears on video that looks like a live feed of a translator at work. In fact, it's a series of video clips the patented software strings together.
For two-way communication, the deaf person types responses and a computer-generated voice speaks the typed words.
Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin wept during an episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" she hosted last year when she was shown how the device made by iCommunicator would enable a blind father and his deaf son to converse without an interpreter.
"Technology will bring the family closer together," the deaf actress said on the show - a big boost for iCommunicator's sales.
The company has just one full-time employee. But it's not the typical underfunded business venture.
"There's no scrounging for working capital," said Steve Bruner, 40, the vice president of sales and marketing.
It belongs to 71-year-old former chiropractor turned serial entrepreneur Leonard Feldman, his son Daniel, and their partners Robert Notine and Larry Brown.
They own five businesses, all housed in a cluster of industrial buildings on the Sunset Park waterfront.
The biggest one is 20-year-old ProFoot, which competes profitably against footcare giant Dr. Scholl's with products like orthotics and toe bandages. Annual revenues are $30 million to $40 million.
"Our combined companies have made money every year," Daniel Feldman, 37, said.
They bought iCommunicator in 2005 for an undisclosed sum from Teltronics, a Sarasota, Fla., maker of telephone switching systems.
They were introduced to iCommunicator by Jeff Klare, their partner in consulting business Hire Disability Solutions.
A client of Klare's, the city Department of Small Business Services, had a sign-language interpreter who didn't show up and asked for a reliable alternative. Klare discovered iCommunicator, and the city agency ordered five kits.
Later, Leonard Feldman called Teltronics to talk about the product and wound up making an offer for iCommunicator.
"I'm a gut player," said Feldman, who launched his first business venture - foam neck pillows for whiplash sufferers - in his Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, living room in 1972.
