Protocol Conversion

Having a continuous telematic window open into Access Services!

Deploying Protocol Conversion

It is possible with computer speech recognition, speech synthesis, and related software applications at the user’s end, to send a fax to someone who is blind, and he/she could listen to that fax.

Similarly, with the power to customize the software to reflect needs and preferences, a deaf/hard of hearing could even be able to listen to Internet radio or other voice communications. The downsides are high costs and the need for considerable technical know- how to make everything work smoothly.

Efforts could be made to setup a “flag” at the cable company’s or at the telephone company’s central office to say, in effect, “Do not transmit voice to this user. All transmissions should be in text or data.” This requires an intelligent network and has several advantages. One is that the configuration of the system and the updating of the software are in the hands of network engineers. Another is that the end-user avoid incurring costs to secure, configure, and update communications systems.

Vint Cert, who is hard of hearing and has a wife who is also hard of hearing, shares an enthusiasm for speech recognition. In his “FCC Chairman’s Lecture,” Cert noted that any speech-transporting medium (phone line, Internet, virtual private network, etc.) could convey commands to a speech processor located on the net. That speech recognition capability could “command” any device that is connected to the net — and could also deliver commands to any online service. This might enable someone with quadriplegia to issue voice directives to virtually any net-attached device — with no need to purchase, configure, and maintain his or her own speech-recognition system.

The fact that the lectures and related visuals are digitized raises an interesting question: What prevents those lectures from being captioned? That would help deaf students, some students with learning disabilities, and some who are visual learners. Digitized versions of what a professor writes on the board could be spoken out loud. That would help students who are blind or have low vision and many who are auditory learners.

For a professor who is deaf, a lecture in a classroom at one University could be transmitted through a telephone company switching station right back to the classroom digitized. Whatever students say in the classroom could be captioned. The University no longer would have to employ sign-language interpreters to translate for students. This, however, is still the object of ongoing efforts on the part of network engineers.

Professors could also develop a personalized voice model by teaching speech recognition software to understand their individual speaking style. They could use a wireless microphone connected to a robust computer system during lectures. Specially designed classroom speech recognition software convert the spoken lecture into electronic text. The text is displayed via projector for class in real time – students can simultaneously see and hear theclecture as it is delivered. After class, comprehensive, speech recognition generated notes are available to students on-line and in various accessible, multimedia formats.

Also, in the same room, professors could use a STSP to provides access to communication for people who can not hear or cannot otherwise access speech directly themselves. The STSP provides this communication access by listening to what is said by instructors and other speakers, and then re-presenting what is heard as text for a person to read on a computer screen or other viewing device. A STSP may also provide a permanent copy of that text after the class or meeting, such as notes for review and study.

Supported STSP Systems

We support two STSP systems to convert speech into text

Text Interpreting: the STSP types on a laptop computer with specialized abbreviation and speed typing software;
Automatic Speech Recognition Shadowers: the STSP repeats what a speaker has just said, while speaking into a microphone attached to a computer with specialized automatic speech recognition software.

The Federal Communications Commission defines “Internet access services” as services which “alter the format of information through computer processing applications such as protocol conversion and interaction with stored data” (see FCC, 2002a, fn 27).

Support Services

Offering Technical Support for speech-to-text systems such as C-Print¨ or TypeWel¨
Linking to a local or remote speech-to-text service provider (STSP).
Offering captioning equipments
Offering Technical Support for Automatic Speech Recognition Shadowers(Shadow ASR) like CaptionMic or iCommunicator