Thursday, February 26, 2009

New Software Brings Lip-Reading to Cell Phones

After talking several times here about technologies designed to help blind people, it's time to look at one which will benefit deaf people.

With this technology, they will be able to use cell phones, but not in the streets. They'll need a PC -- soon a PDA -- and for the time being, to be in Israel.

Reuters unveils the story.
Israel's largest mobile phone operator Cellcom and Israeli start-up Speechview (Your Link to the Hearing World) launched on Tuesday a worldwide patented software that will allow the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate through mobile phones.
The product, LipCcell, is a software installed in the user's computer and connected with a cable to a cell phone. When the deaf user gets a call, the software translates the voice on the other side of the line into a three dimensional animated face on the computer, whose lips move in real time synch with the voice allowing the receiver to lip read.
The software can be used initially only with a computer or laptop, said SpeechView chief executive Tzvika Nayman, though future developments will allow the software to be installed on personal digital assistants.

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