Archive for October, 2007
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I discovered over the weekend while playing Portal on a friend’s orange box that it has closed captions AND subtitles, and the handheld controller vibrates during certain events, such as firing the gun or impacting.
Previously:
Subtitles needed in video games
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Editor’s Note: In this post I’ve got a link that is tagged with “(NSFW).” This means Not Safe For Work viewing, due to adult content.
I just discovered DeafBunny (NSFW), a deaf-owned adult entertainment company that films porn using deaf actors that communicate with each other in American Sign Language. There are even subtitles if your sign isn’t very good. Looks like they only have one movie so far – Naughty Deaf Roommates.
My first thought: “Huh, so that’s what they talk about in porn.” Interesting idea. I hope they keep it up.
Previously:
Sex-tech merges with deaf-friendly: a quiet vibrator
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GotVoice is a service that converts voicemails to text and sends them to you via email or text messages. It’s a paid service, but very useful if you’re deaf and need to be in contact with hearing people who don’t do Relay services, email or text messages.
Previously:
Jott – getting the hearing & deaf in touch via voice-to-SMS
Spinvox: voicemail to text service
Text transcripts on LiveJournal voice posts
SimulScribe – voice mail transcribing service
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ViewCast‘s new Niagara SCX Pro captures and encodes streaming video for handheld/mobile devices. They included closed captioning technology for XML in this product.
Previously:
Showtime’s new mobile video service – is it deaf-friendly?
Mobile TV
iTunes and closed captioning
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Alessio Cartocci of the web accessibility work group Webmultimediale in Italy has developed an Internet video player with switchable multilingual subtitles and a resizeable sign language window that is superimposed over the player. Here’s a screenshot:
The player uses a SMIL file to synchronize the video, audio, and captioning text files.
Previously:
Subtitles for DivX movies
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Blinkx is an Internet search engine for video (and audio) content. It’s unique from other video search engines in that it uses speech-to-text technology, advanced video analytics, and reads text transcripts (including closed captioned files) to find videos. An useful feature for deafies: type “captions” in the search field and it will find captioned videos on the Internet.
Previously:
QuickTime – now with closed captioning
iTunes and closed captioning
Closed captioning on movie trailers
AOL is testing captioning on online videos
CaptionKeeper – captions from TV to the Web
Project ReadOn – free web captions
Closed Captioning for Flash
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In May of this year (yes, I’m a little behind, sorry) Apple updated their QuickTime media to include support for closed captioning. This is very good – the road to bringing captions to the online world has been filled with potholes, and Apple’s recent update has helped make the road a little bit smoother. There is still a long way to go, however. TV episodes and movies downloaded through iTunes still lack captions, although they have no reason to now.
The update includes separate versions for OSX and Windows.
Previously:
iTunes and closed captioning
Closed captioning on movie trailers
Casting Words transcripting services
Speche Communications: real time text streaming
Jott’s potential to transcribe podcasts is unrealized
Earize Text Streaming for Internet Radio
Podcast transcripts for the deaf
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Currently, television stations broadcast in analog television. In February 2009, all television stations will start broadcasting in digital television (DTV.) People who continue to use analog television sets after February 2009 will have to get an analog-to-digital converter box so they can continue to watch TV. There are concerns that closed captions will not transfer through analog-to-digital converters, and the NAD is working closely with the appropriate departments to ensure that this doesn’t happen.
Previously:
AOL is testing captioning on online videos
CaptionKeeper – captions from TV to the Web
Project ReadOn – free web captions
Closed Captioning for Flash
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Via Kotaku:
Kotaku reader A_Zombie contacted us about an email to industry trade association Entertainment Software Association (ESA). He contacted them regarding the lack of subtitles in gaming. Not sure if ESA is the place to go with this concern as the ESA is the industry’s “voice.” Regardless, here’s the letter:
Dear Sir or Ma’aam,I am a deaf 20 year old that loves to play videogames. I’ve been playing videogames ever since I first played the Atari 2600 with my father as a young child. Back then, games were not as complex as they are today. Sometimes, as a deaf gamer, I struggle with many mission based games such as Quake 4, Star Wars: Rouge Squadron Rouge Leader, Perfect Dark 0, Need for Speed: Carbon, X2: Wolverine’s Revenge and many others. The reason for the frustration is for the lack of subtitles in the above mentioned titles. Quake 4 is a perfect example of my frustrations of what I am supposed to do next because the mission objectives and ways to beat certain bosses were given over the intercom and it was mostly garbled. Perfect Dark 0 was frustrating for me because I had no idea what was going on with the story. At one point I was fighting in buildings shooting at mobsters and all of a sudden I’m fighting a midget skinless Chinese dude with a sword in some alternate dimension. That did not make sense for me at all because… who was that Chinese dude?
He’s got a point. If you know the right person to give this letter to, please do. Thanks!
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Via IBM’s press release:
HURSLEY, UK - 12 Sep 2007: IBM (
NYSE: IBM) has developed an ingenious system called SiSi (Say It Sign It) that automatically converts the spoken word into British Sign Language (BSL) which is then signed by an animated digital character or avatar. SiSi brings together a number of computer technologies. A speech recognition module converts the spoken word into text, which SiSi then interprets into gestures, that are used to animate an avatar which signs in BSL. Upon development this system would see a signing avatar ‘pop up’ in the corner of the display screen in use — whether that be a laptop, personal computer, TV, meeting-room display or auditorium screen. Users would be able select the size and appearance of the avatar.
This type of solution has the potential in the future to enable a person giving a presentation in business or education to have a digital character projected behind them signing what they are saying. This would complement the existing provision, allowing for situations where a sign language interpreter is not available in person.
Previously:
CART
Voicewriting
