Miss-Delectable
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Deaf Talkabout: Hi-tech vision set to help us deaf folk too - Opinion - News - Belfast Telegraph
A friend of mine loves BMW cars and I jumped at the offer when he invited me for a ride in his shining new model last week.
It has all the latest gadgets and is fast and luxurious, but what enthralled me most - and him too, if he's honest - was the large sat-nav screen installed on the dashboard that responded to voice messages. I could only stare in amazement as the driver spoke my address and a map came up on the screen showing the way to my home.
Apparently the voice recognition only works with one person at a time and my friend needs to be patient as it adapts. His spoken commands did not always bring about the right reaction and the screen display then changes to show a printed message asking him to spell the words it was unable to comprehend from voice alone.
I was thrilled to see this demonstration of words and diagrams responding to spoken commands. As always, progress in communication for deaf people has come about through the technical expertise developed from research in other fields such as computers and mobile phones. The next step in the battle for the holy grail of a portable speech recognition device may be hastened by the technology being perfected in cars such as my friend's BMW.
The other day, a professional deaf woman sent a circular to all her sign language students, business partners and friends saying she no longer used Minicoms or faxes for communication and from now on the only way to contact her would be by email or text messages to her mobile phone.
Dumping technology that many deaf still regard as their lifeline may seem extreme, but there is no doubt that the mobile phone has revolutionised communication in the deaf community, and there is more to come.
During the first years of our married life, Evelyn and I were completely cut off from any form of electronic communication and had to ask help from a neighbour for emergencies such as fire or a burst pipe.
While awaiting the birth of our first child I remember being terrified I might not be able summon a taxi to get Evelyn to hospital in time. We had no car in those days and I dreaded the thought of having to bang on the door of our neighbour in the dead of night.
The Minicom arrived and gave us our first taste of freedom. For many years we were able to use the phone line without outside help and with the aid of Typetalk make contact with hearing folk in any corner of the world.
Fax, too, has been a boon to us, but as with the Minicom, they were heavy and clumsy and not always available. Many of us still make use of the old technology, but the important point is that texting on our mobiles give us the same convenience of instant communication as enjoyed by our hearing friends.
My own mobile is very basic but with several very handy functions such as an alarm and calendar which I use with the vibration alert to remind me of important dates or even to wake me up when away from home.
My daughter uses her mobile to take photos and her handset is half the size of mine.
Before long the very latest models may be able to keep us up to date with the latest news and display clips of films and football matches.
All these wonderful thingamajigs have brought lots of genuine pleasure to the deaf community and enriched our lives to a remarkable degree.
But engineers are finding ways of adding even more information to very tiny silicon chips and surely the day is not far off when the last bastion of speech recognition will be overcome.
A friend of mine loves BMW cars and I jumped at the offer when he invited me for a ride in his shining new model last week.
It has all the latest gadgets and is fast and luxurious, but what enthralled me most - and him too, if he's honest - was the large sat-nav screen installed on the dashboard that responded to voice messages. I could only stare in amazement as the driver spoke my address and a map came up on the screen showing the way to my home.
Apparently the voice recognition only works with one person at a time and my friend needs to be patient as it adapts. His spoken commands did not always bring about the right reaction and the screen display then changes to show a printed message asking him to spell the words it was unable to comprehend from voice alone.
I was thrilled to see this demonstration of words and diagrams responding to spoken commands. As always, progress in communication for deaf people has come about through the technical expertise developed from research in other fields such as computers and mobile phones. The next step in the battle for the holy grail of a portable speech recognition device may be hastened by the technology being perfected in cars such as my friend's BMW.
The other day, a professional deaf woman sent a circular to all her sign language students, business partners and friends saying she no longer used Minicoms or faxes for communication and from now on the only way to contact her would be by email or text messages to her mobile phone.
Dumping technology that many deaf still regard as their lifeline may seem extreme, but there is no doubt that the mobile phone has revolutionised communication in the deaf community, and there is more to come.
During the first years of our married life, Evelyn and I were completely cut off from any form of electronic communication and had to ask help from a neighbour for emergencies such as fire or a burst pipe.
While awaiting the birth of our first child I remember being terrified I might not be able summon a taxi to get Evelyn to hospital in time. We had no car in those days and I dreaded the thought of having to bang on the door of our neighbour in the dead of night.
The Minicom arrived and gave us our first taste of freedom. For many years we were able to use the phone line without outside help and with the aid of Typetalk make contact with hearing folk in any corner of the world.
Fax, too, has been a boon to us, but as with the Minicom, they were heavy and clumsy and not always available. Many of us still make use of the old technology, but the important point is that texting on our mobiles give us the same convenience of instant communication as enjoyed by our hearing friends.
My own mobile is very basic but with several very handy functions such as an alarm and calendar which I use with the vibration alert to remind me of important dates or even to wake me up when away from home.
My daughter uses her mobile to take photos and her handset is half the size of mine.
Before long the very latest models may be able to keep us up to date with the latest news and display clips of films and football matches.
All these wonderful thingamajigs have brought lots of genuine pleasure to the deaf community and enriched our lives to a remarkable degree.
But engineers are finding ways of adding even more information to very tiny silicon chips and surely the day is not far off when the last bastion of speech recognition will be overcome.