I’m sitting in an office, in a clean white shirt and tie, impatiently tapping my fingers on the desk. My coworkers, Javier and Franck, are opposite me. A conference call is underway and the phone is on loudspeaker mode. I look intently at them for a while, then my attention wanders off.
I grew up with a hearing loss. Communication has never been something I took for granted. But rather as an experience in itself.
Born and raised in California, schooled at UC Berkeley, I became captivated by life in Europe, and challenges in general. I love adventure and travels. My deafness has not stopped me from mastering several languages – English, French, and Spanish.
I can lip-read at an astounding rate, and catch most of what other people say.
Lip-reading however is not an exact science. It’s a lot of guesswork, which I do almost unconsciously. But at the end of the day, I’m usually drained from the sheer effort.
At my office, Javier asks with a raised eyebrow if I’m fine. I flash back a smile and a thumbs-up. But in fact, I had no clue what is being said on the line.
Javier understands though. He indicates the call is boring and not worth following. He then types on his screen “they’re saying the new business plan needs to be revised.” Why? I ask. “It’s complicated. I’ll explain later.” I drum my fingers again.
Because of my deafness, I am not able to use a telephone. It is something I just learned to get by without, or to ask others to handle for me. I manage most situations just fine with SMS and email. But it always seems to me like my life would be so much easier if I could just pick up a phone. And call. Anyone. In any language.
After my studies I eventually spent a career at Orange. The irony of being deaf and working for a telecom operator hadn’t escaped me.
America has had a phone relay system in place since the 1990’s. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Only a handful of countries have such a system. The rest of the world doesn’t.
Technology, I felt, would eventually change the game. There just had to be a way to make telephone conversations universally accessible even for the deaf.
I teamed up with a friend, Sidney Burks, and explained my challenge. A talented coder and problem solver, Sidney switched careers after his PhD in quantum physics to pursue programming. Together with another friend and serial entrepreneur, Pablo Seuc-Rocher, we’ve cooked up various schemes to change the world.
This time, I wanted to change my own life. I wanted to stop depending on others to handle a conference call, dial a plumber, or even just to call my parents.
“Impossible, it’s not going to work” said Sidney. “That’s why we can do it!” I countered.
So this year at age 33 I quit my job and launched RogerVoice.
RogerVoice delivers real-time transcriptions of phone conversations. It read the words off your screen as your correspondent talks. Because RogerVoice uses automated technology, our promise is that we can operate 24/7 and cover multiple languages worldwide.
The founders have launched a crowdfuding campaign on Kickstarter to complete their project, and expect to release a first version on Android by the end of the year. The founders hope to double their funding target in order to develop an iPhone app as well, and include a text-to-speech functionality for deaf people who do not speak.
Here is the link to their website and their project video: http://kck.st/1C526AE
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Cathy
October 10, 2014
Well well well, after all these years of doing the same as you, Olivier, I too longed to just pick up a phone n have a conversation!
I’ve always felt inferior having to ask someone to call this person n that person. We have had teletext relay service, but the problem was not solved due to the Data Protection Act! This Act discriminates against us, so after a few years of total frustration I gave it up in favour of the new mobiles.
I thought I was “free” at last! Silly me, of course I wasnt!! The problem now is that many companies do not have mobile text services! So I have to go back to my old method of asking people to ring for me! So there we are: 2 steps forward n 10 steps back!!!!
I look forward to RogerVoice, but if its going to cost thousands of pounds to run per year, I cant see Britain taking this new “phone method” up for deaf people anytime soon!!!
Darren
October 10, 2014
Teletext relay? Lol. Love it.
The Data Protection Act doesn’t discriminate against us, it’s there to protect us.Or did mean Official Secrets Act? That’s there to protect us too. I have been using Text Relay for many years and now using their NGTS service, with no problems at all. I’d never be without it now.
Sure, it’s using a third party but then so is asking someone else to handle your calls for you.
RogerVoice does sound good but as stated on their website, it’s only going to be good for really short and simple calls. The software is not going to be 100% perfect to transcribe all callers voices otherwise the BBC would have developed it by now for use with live subtitles so Text Relay and NGTS will still be required. At least for me. 🙂
queby
October 10, 2014
What’s NGTS please?
Darren
October 11, 2014
See here – http://limpingchicken.com/2014/10/06/deaf-news-next-generation-text-relay-service-goes-live/
And here – http://ngts.org.uk
queby
October 11, 2014
Thanks for the info on NGTS…I must have had a senior moment there! I didn’t realise it was up and running.
queby
October 10, 2014
Wonderful if it’s true and it works!
Edward
October 10, 2014
Oh, the link to Kickstart crowdfunding doesn’t work!
Editor
October 10, 2014
That’s been amended now, thanks Edward
Jemima Buoy (@jem_ardenholme)
October 10, 2014
Will it be available in the UK?
Liz B
October 10, 2014
Come up with something too for Deaf BSL users too? 🙂