While SMS and mobile email are great, they still can't match the emotion, interaction, and intonation of a live conversation with someone -- that's why our phones still ship with microphones and speakers, apparently. Of course, this is much more difficult when one of the parties is deaf or hard of hearing, which is where video relay services come in. With the help of a videophone or your computer's webcam, you can make a call with a live translator, who speaks your signed ramblings out loud to the hearing person on the other end. Of course you're usually stuck at a desk when doing this, but now ZVRS is going to be supporting calls made from the iPhone 4 over
FaceTime. It might not be quite as sexy as Apple's goosebump-raising
iPhone 4 commercial, since the phone obviously makes two-way sign language calls possible, but if the person on the other end doesn't have an iPhone 4 or doesn't know sign language, ZVRS seems like the next best thing. The new service will launch on July 26th. Check out a video of it in action after the break, the actual call starts at 2:25.
posted July 14th 2010 5:18PM
Amazing!
Getting elderly people to use this will be another thing though! My dad can't even use a VCR or turn a PC on!
Will there be any VRS (Video Relay Services) companies to develope apps for HTC Evo? How about apps for Person to Person cross different platforms?
Deaf people can sign with ONE HAND while holding a smartphone.
Netbooks have been doing this for a couple of years for the Deaf. A netbook's advantage is you can get a broadband card and use it anywhere pretty much. The iPhone's advantage is it's small, that's it. Not a revolution really.
VRS interpreters are varied in quality as well, I hope they put some good ones on the iPhone team at least. There's gonna be a lot of one-handed signing.
If it wasn't for the smile, I'd swear the girl was saying "talk to the hand"...
The deaf and hearing impaired community will ultimately prefer text messaging to a proprietary video chat system that requires a specific handset, carrier, and a wifi signal. This is gimmicky.
deaf reader
As a Deaf man, This is not breaking news. I have been using this through an IP Proxy through my Nexus. Yes its difficult at times to make phone calls with one hand and one camera, its very feasible. The only reason this is a big deal is because its the Iphone.
Sounds pretty cool whether you hate Apple or not (I do lol).
As a CODA and ITP student, both of my parents have videophones and what frustrates me about Facetime is the fact you can only use it over Wifi. My N900 can do this over 3G with no issues but I will say it would be nice for my parents to have that one other good option that could beat just texting someone.
You may not realized that this phone call was making a call to Carl Gustin, the past marketing officer of Apple and Kodak. Carl Gustin now sits on board of ZVRS company who make this video relay service call possible on iPhone 4.
Here is more information published in NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/07/12/12readwriteweb-iphone-4-to-get-first-mobile-video-relay-se-25490.html