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Blog Details for "STONE DEAF PILOTS - the deaf tech blog"
STONE DEAF PILOTS - the deaf tech blogSTONE DEAF PILOTS - the deaf tech blogA blog about deaf technology, assistive technology, and accessibility issues faced by the deaf and hard of hearing. Articles
Note from the Editor
2007-09-30 19:58:00 I started a new full-time job in May. It’s going really well; my official title is “Sr. Graphic Designer” and I’m working with a large consumer software company. The work is creative and fun, and my co-workers are terrific. The entire company is very accommodating about meeting my needs; when we have ... More About: Note , Editor
Looking for a new phone
2007-09-30 19:32:00 After 2 years my trusty Sidekick 2 has finally crapped out on me. The D-key is broken (it couldn’t hold up to my aggressive Tetris playing) and sometimes sticks, which moves the cursor all over and keeps me from opening windows. On Monday it started locking up and freezing, and I couldn?t switch between applications. ... More About: Phone
Note from the Editor
2007-06-22 02:51:00 I started a new job a month ago and that’s taken #1 priority in my life. I’m enjoying the work and the people I work with very much, but I’d like to get back into blogging here. Please bear with me as I adjust to a new schedule. More About: Note , Editor
Text transcripts on LiveJournal voice posts
2007-05-23 18:25:00 The LiveJournal blogging platform offers members the ability to do voice posts, and text transcripts are either made by the creator of the podcast or the readers; it’s a community-driven effort and works quite well - many people are willing to do this. Podcasts that are under three minutes are automatically transcribed by SpinVox. Previously: Spinvox: ... More About: Voice , Text , Trans , Posts , VOIC
Stem cell research might help restore hearing
2007-05-23 18:14:00 Deafness and hearing loss are a result of varying circumstances. In my case, I contracted Haemophilus influenzae meningitis at age 3.5 years, which destroyed the stereocilia in both my cochleas. The stereocilia are important for hearing since they act as “microphones” and sound filters. Without them, sound doesn’t travel to the brain. In a ... More About: Research , Cell , Stem Cell Research , Rest , Stem Cell
Casting Words transcripting services
2007-05-23 02:39:00 Casting Words transcripting services are text transcripts made of podcasts and other MP3/MP4 files and are created by humans, not computers. Turnaround time is 3-4 working days and the cost is $0.75 per minute. If you need it done in 24 hours, the rates are $2.50 per minute. Previously: Project ReadOn - free web captions Speche ... More About: Services , Casting , Trans , Vice
Fully Accessible Airport Paging System at PHX
2007-05-23 02:30:00 Yesterday I had a connection at Phoenix SkyHarbor Airport , and noticed a new piece of deaf-friendly technology there. Throughout the airport large screen monitors have been installed, and they display the names of people being paged over the airport intercom system. There are over 30 terminal stations for the intercom system that are ... More About: System , Aging , Stem
Airport improvements made for deaf travelers
2007-05-17 21:13:00 Deaf travelers at airports are obviously oblivious to verbal announcements that come over the intercom. Some of these announcements might contain pernitent information, and should be made accessible to all. Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan installed new technology into the public address system that allows verbal announcements to be transmitted directly into hearing aids and Cochlear implants that have a special kind of receiver called a hearing loop. Essentially, this is like wifi for hearing aids. Previously: Salt Lake City airport installs video phones for the deaf More About: Made , Improvement , Improve , Rove
Sex-tech merges with deaf-friendly: a quiet vibrator
2007-05-17 20:22:00 Editor’s Note: In this post I’ve got some links that are tagged with “(NSFW).” This means they may not be safe for work viewing, depending on how your workplace feels about semi-nudity and images of sex toys. Last year, I guest-blogged for Regina Lynn, the sex-tech columnist for Wired, while she was on vacation. In one of my posts, I discussed how the fact that deafies can’t tell how loud their sex toys are. This can cause funny and embarrassing moments when they have hearing roommates. I had the Good Vibrations(NSFW) store in San Francisco recommend some quiet toys, such as the Laya(NSFW), the Femblossom(NSFW), the Dolphin(NSFW), and the Wahl 2-Speed Body Massager. I tested the Laya and the Wahl with my hearing roommates, who confirmed that they couldn’t hear the toys between the walls.Regina pointed me to a new kind of vibrator called the Eroscillator(NSFW) and one of its features is that it’s extremely quiet - so quiet “you can... More About: Tech , Friendly , Vibrator , Brat , Merge
Note from the Editor
2007-05-17 16:03:00 Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, and before you know it, it’s been ten days since your last post. My apologies. Thanks for hanging in there. I’ll start some new posts today. In the meantime, I’d been considering moving my websites to a green hosting company for a while. I had some misgivings about doing this as I’ve been with Dreamhost for a while and am pretty happy with them and wasn’t willing to give up their service. Recently, Dreamhost announced they are now a green hosting company. This means that all three of my sites - this blog, my personal blog, and my photography site - are all carbon-neutral, and I can scratch “switch to green hosting” off my to-do list. Thank you, Dreamhost! More About: Note , Editor
SDP gets a shout-out on BlogHer
2007-05-08 05:20:00 Virginia DeBolt gave Stone Deaf Pilots a positive review on BlogHer. Thanks! The deaf tech blog is Stone Deaf Pilots. This blog is by Kathryn Hill. It covers deaf technology, assistive technology, and tech-related accessibility issues faced by the deaf and hard of hearing. It’s a fairly recent addition to the blogosphere, but has gained a ... More About: Gets , Shout
Telecommunications Relay Service
2007-05-08 03:32:00 A Tele communications Relay Service (also known as TRS, Relay Service, or IP-Relay) is a service that the deaf and hearing impaired use to make and receive phone calls to and from hearing people who do not have TTY/TDD’s. There are many kinds of Relay calls, such as video relay (which I recently blogged about) ... More About: Communications , Telecommunication
Stone Deaf Pilots: 105,000 visitors since 3/23/07
2007-05-05 01:20:00 I started Stone Deaf Pilots for many reasons, the main one being that I wanted a place where both deaf and hearing people could come to learn about deaf technology. With so many different technology options on the market these days, it’s difficult to keep track of them all, and I wanted to provide an ... More About: Visitor , Visitors , Visi
Salt Lake City airport installs video phones for the deaf
2007-04-30 19:49:00 Partnering with Sorenson Communications, the Salt Lake City airport became the first airport in the United States to install video phones for deaf and hard of hearing travelers. The video phones are located on each side of Salt Lake City International Airport ’s two baggage claim areas, and the service is free. To use a videophone ... More About: Video , Phones
IP-Relay
2007-04-30 19:32:00 I’m going to be writing about Relay services a lot this week to increase public awareness to the different types of Relay services and how they work. In this post I’m going to talk about the service I use, and why. I use IP-Relay for almost all of my telephone relay needs. I started ...
Video Relay Service
2007-04-30 06:41:00 In 2001, there was a commercial on television from a major ISP that was advertising broadband Internet services - I can’t remember exactly which one, but I think it was SBC. In the commercial, a woman is sitting at her window watching a new family move in next door. They have a son ... More About: Video , Service , Vice
911 centers need to upgrate to accommodate new technology and be accessible
2007-04-30 05:52:00 I’ve posted about this before, and I’m going to keep posting about it, especially after reading this article in the New York Times: In Bessemer, Ala., city employees could not get through to their own 911 system when a colleague had a seizure, at a time when the city and others like it are struggling to ... More About: Technology , Access , Need , Center , Enter
CHI2007 in San Jose
2007-04-30 05:41:00 Tomorrow & Tuesday, I’ll be at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in San Jose , CA. If you’d like to meet up with me and discuss deaf tech, please feel free to SMS me at 626-416-9217.
U.S. Not Ready for Rise in Disabled
2007-04-28 01:24:00 Via WebMD: Experts Say Policy Reforms Needed for Growing Population of Disabled Americans By Todd Zwillich WebMD Medical News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD April 24, 2007 — Experts warned in a report Tuesday that the U.S. is largely unprepared for a coming explosion in its disabled population. As many as 50 million Americans currently live with physical or mental impairments that prevent them from taking on regular work or life activities. But that number is expected to skyrocket as an aging population and rising obesity rates take their toll on Americans, concludes a report issued by a panel at the Institute of Medicine (IOM). “It becomes quite clear that disability will essentially affect the lives of most Americans,” says Alan M. Jette, the panel’s chairman. The panel called on the federal government to eliminate barriers that can delay medical coverage for disabled people under Medicare. But it also pointed to a broad range of resea... More About: Rise , Ready , Bled
Subtitle reading glasses
2007-04-27 01:44:00 Researchers at Madrid’s Carlos III University for the Spanish Center for Subtitles and Closed Captions developed a gadget that affixes to a person’s glasses. The gadget contains a receptor that picks up subtitles that are being projected by a computer, and displays them on the microscreen in the device. The computer installed in the theater emits the captions if you are within 50 meters. More About: Reading , Glass , Title , Glasses
Floridians can now receive hurricane warnings via SMS
2007-04-27 01:06:00 Mobile FYI has launched a text messaging hurricane alert system for Florida hurricanes. Very useful for both deafies and hearing people. More About: Warning , Dian , Warnings , Cane , Hurricane
CaptionKeeper - captions from TV to the Web
2007-04-26 03:22:00 Via the Caption Keep er website: CaptionKeeper is a software program which converts television-based closed-caption data into web streaming formats. It takes closed-caption (line-21) data as input, and creates simultaneous outputs suitable for live and archived multimedia presentations in RealPlayer™, Windows Media™ Player and QuickTime™ Player formats. More About: The Web
Odiogo - text to voice podcasts
2007-04-26 03:01:00 Due to my deafness, I speak with a speech impediment. Most people can understand my speech fine when they interact with me in person, but I think that if they could not see my face and listened to a recording of my voice, they might not understand me so well. I wanted to be able to offer podcasts to accompany my blog posts to help make everything more accessible, but I don’t feel confident enough in my speaking pronunciation to do a podcast on my own. So I started googling for text-to-voice podcasting services, and came across Odiogo, which does this service - for free. From their website: Check out our automated podcast “to go”: your site’s RSS feeds, text articles and blog posts can be converted automatically to iPod-ready audio files ready to download and play anywhere, anytime, on any device. I registered with the service, and it immediately created podcasts of my text posts. I don’t have to notify the service when I update my blog; it’s subscribe... More About: Voice , Podcasts , Cast , Text , VOIC
CART
2007-04-25 00:28:00 CART stands for Communication Access Real-Time Translation and is a method of interpreting. Deaf and hard of hearing people who do not sign (and therefore cannot use a sign interpreter) can use CART to keep up with speakers at conferences, multiple speakers in meetings, videocasts, and so on. A trained stenographer works either on-site or remotely and uses a stenotype to convert spoken words into text. If done on-site, the captions are either displayed on a laptop or computer screen, on an overhead projector. Remote CART is done with the stenographer working at a remote location; a microphone is placed on the speaker, (a telephone works as well) and the speech is heard by the remote CART reporter, who captions the speech, and the text is transmitted back in real time via a modem or Internet connection to deaf viewers. More About: Cart
Subtitles for DivX movies
2007-04-24 16:45:00 DivX movies and video torrents downloaded from the Internet can be played with an accompanying subtitle file called XSUB that is embedded in a .divx container. Here’s a selection of some subtitle resources: DivX Subtitles : subtitle files for DivX, DVD, and HDTV. Offered in other languages besides English. Subtitles are created by forum users and have a rating system. Subtitles Box: DivX and DVD subtitles. Open Subtitles: user-generated subtitle files in various languages. DivX Station RDW Subtitles More About: Movies , Title , Divx , Titles
Project ReadOn - free web captions
2007-04-20 02:26:00 Project Read On is a standalone caption player that provides captions for online media such as videos and podcasts. They are funded by sponsors, ads, and grants. The captioners watch online videos and transcribe the spoken text into captions which are viewed online using an interesting web browser technology - there are no fees, and ... More About: Free , Project , Caption
Speche Communications: real time text streaming
2007-04-20 00:31:00 Speche Communications provides real-time text streaming over the Internet via their eScription service. A very useful service for providing captions for internet radio, podcasts, vlogs, and videocasts. More About: Time , Text , Stream , Real
Voicewriting
2007-04-20 00:19:00 Voicewriting is an emerging interpreting technology. A transcriptionist uses a stenomask to repeat spoken words without being heard by others. The stenomask is connected to a laptop computer which has speech recognition software installed in it, and a text transcript of the conversation is automatically created. Since the stenomask allows full focus ... More About: VOIC
CapTel - captioned telephone
2007-04-17 22:52:00 CapTel is a captioned telephone service that is useful for people who have good speech but cannot hear well - hard of hearing or late deafened people, for example. To use this service, one must purchase a CapTel phone. The CapTel user will speak directly to the person they are calling; both parties will ... More About: Tele , Telephone , Caption
Emergency notification service for email and SMS
More articles from this author:2007-04-17 20:28:00 The Emergency Email & Wireless Network provides SMS and email notification services that notify subscribers about local, regional, and national emergencies such as natural disasters, Amber Alerts, breaking news, and Homeland Security information. They also offer a bird flu alert. The service is free in exchange for agreeing to receive messages from ... More About: Service , Vice , Merge 1, 2, 3 |
