SoftBridge in Action: The First Deaf Telephony Pilot W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis

SoftBridge in Action: The First Deaf Telephony Pilot

W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis

University of Cape Town

Work in Progress

Computer Science & Communication Sciences and Disorders


Sep 9, 2003



Deaf Telephony

• Text-based communications– SMS

– Instant Messaging

– Deaf Telephones, e.g. Teldem

• Real-time Bridging to PSTN– Text-to-Speech (TTS)

– Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)


Sep 9, 2003



Prototypes and problems with Automated Deaf Telephony

• Telgo323 & TelgoSIP– One way direction

– Bi-directional work in progress

• Automatic Speech Recognition– Poor free-flow recognition

rates

– Restricted domain conversations

– Accent bias


Sep 9, 2003



SoftBridge


Sep 9, 2003



Experimentation

• Deaf user (DU) has a Text in/Text out Exodus client

• Hearing user (HU) can vary the media input/output

• All conversations logged for subsequent analysis


Sep 9, 2003



Test One

• Explaining procedure via SoftBridge vs. signed language interpreting created a real exchange

• DU concerned that HU would not comprehend “Deaf writing”• DU used half-duplex (from Teldem experience)• Computer literacy of this DU was high• PCs proximity too close


Sep 9, 2003



Test Two

• TTS messages arrive abruptly and delivered quickly (no replay or visualization)

• DU again concerned about Deaf literacy to unfamiliar HU• DU liked synchronous exchange (better than SMS)• Presence indication required to alert for incoming• DU acts in Teldem character mode, rather than complete message


Sep 9, 2003



Test Three

• Expected, and got, poor ASR performance that required – Overly careful articulation– Pauses between words– researcher to use text to clear up misunderstanding

• Relied on the fact that this DU had effective repair skills• Log mechanism needs to annotate HU output modes


Sep 9, 2003



Next Steps

• Client software needs presence indicators• Server software

– Log requires more automated annotation– “Teldem-ese” inserted into TTS dictionary

• Move to other input/output devices, e.g. Teldem, cellphone, telephone

• Expansion of trials to Deaf users with more typical text and computer literacy

• How to get the hearing community to accept the delays and poor quality?


Sep 9, 2003



Authors

• William Tucker– [email protected]

• Meryl Glaser– [email protected]

• John Lewis– [email protected]

SoftBridge in Action: The First Deaf Telephony Pilot W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis

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