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TECHNO WATCH: Researchers Work To Perfect Computerized Lip Reading

January 20th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Communication, Techno Watch, Technology

Pretty soon all of us Deafies and deafies, can rest our poor, tired eyes. The latest in technology is this: Criminals Beware: Computerized Lip Reading! <Arched Eyebrows! MINE>

It took them long enough to realise that,

Lip-reading is a very difficult skill to master - human lip reading is often unreliable, even when it’s performed by trained lip readers. “We all lip read, for example in noisy situations like a bar or party, but even the performance of expert lip readers can be very poor.

Something us Deafies have always known, but Hearies in the throes of enlightened understanding, are only just discovering [or have they always known, but daren't admit it to us?] just how hard lipreading is:

It appears that the best lip-readers are the ones who learned to speak a language before they lost their hearing and who have been taught lip-reading intensively.

Really? No kidding?

And the poor buggers are so inspired by the potential applications of puter tech, that they are working hard, very hard, to make their lives easier!

Forgive me readers for my sarky post, but you know, human ingenuity knows no bounds. Further down the article, Criminals Beware: Computerized Lip Reading, there is a mention of the technology being useful, extremely so, to wait for it, “hearing-disabled individuals” [rolling eyes].
 
Is the sum total knowledge of deafness still one of “hearing-disabled individuals”? In spite of humanities accumulated knowledge and documented experiences, if it ain’t hearing, it ain’t =normal?

First of all, we are PEOPLE [pronounced: pee-pull], and we have IDENTITIES [pronounced: EYE-DENT-TITTIES]. But Hearies in their rush to appear enlightened, are frightened off using words like Deaf, or the idea that we maybe OK as Deaf people. [What the..........SIGH!]

Even if it proved useful, how many gadgets are us Deafies meant to own? How many gadgets are required to live a normal life? More tot he point, are these gadgets designed to ease the consciences of the Hearies who are can’t interact with us on a human level, so they build a gadget?

Before too long, we are all gonna have to become roadies to cart around all these gadgets that we need to help us live normal, satisfying lives. This could be a common scenario, so loaded with gadgets, that we have to hire a roadie, and send them on ahead of time [to whatever and wherever we have an appointment] where they can set up all these gadgets making the environment ready and accessible for us!

Still, it says more about their vanity, than it does about building bridges between the Deaf and Hearing worlds.

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TECHNO WATCH: Radio for the Deaf [New Edit]

It had to happen, captioned radio: Listen Up: It’s Radio for the Deaf and Captioned Radio for the Deaf. As laudable as the aim is, the problem is, how do Deafies interact with a talk back program? The provision of captions and subtitles, assumes information is going one way and that the audience [Deafies] is a passive one.

Hearing people [people in general] need to realise that when providing technologies that enable access, they need to address the question of how to make Deaf people feel included. How does technology benefit Deaf people beyond providing access to information? There is much evidence that they don’t get it.

Yes, captions and subtitles are a huge step forward, however, it still doesn’t address the issue of HOW to include Deaf and hearing impaired people in culture and society. Hearing people can participate in talk back via their mobile and landline phones. That give stalk back radio an immediacy and intimacy that facilitates “community”. Makes people feel part of a community.

How will captioned radio allow Deaf people to do the same?

Further Reading:

Do Hearing People Get It? At All? EVER? Part Uno Numero  [Not Safe For Work]
New technology allows you to read the radio
First Ever Closed-Captioned HD Radio for the Deaf Launched By NPR, Harris and Towson University
Closed-Captioned Radio? That’s Right, It’s Here
Tantalizing News About Captioned Radio
Companies To Peddle New Gadgets At Show
NPR, Harris and Towson to Demo Accessible Radio at CES

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