Automatic voice relay with open source Kiara

One way for Deaf people to communicate with hearing people over the telephone is to use a voice relay. The service is often provided with a human relay operator that relays text into voice, and vice versa, on behalf of the Deaf and hearing users. In developed countries, voice relay is frequently subsidised by governments or service providers. There is no such service in South Africa. We have built several automatic voice relay systems for a disadvantaged Deaf community in Cape Town. This paper describes how we augmented a general-purpose communication system for voice relay. Kiara is a fully open source Instant Messaging, voice and video over Internet Protocol communication system based on the Session Initiation Protocol. We integrated automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies into Kiara to provide real-time automatic voice relay for relayed communication. As it stands, Kiara can also be used for standard voice and video relay with a human operator.Telkom, Cisco, THRIP, SANPADDepartment of HE and Training approved lis

Kiara: an open source SIP system to support Deaf telephony

This paper describes Kiara, an open source SIPbased communication system that provides the building blocks to enable Deaf relay services. We have implemented a prototype that provides real-time text, voice and video to a variety of end user devices over a variety of networks. The work-in-progress concerns the addition of relay services for the Deaf.Telkom, Cisco, THRIP, SANPA

Messenger Visual, a pictogram-based instant messaging service for individuals with cognitive disability

Along history disabled individuals have suffered from social exclusion due to the limitations posed by their condition. For instance, deaf people are not able to watch television programs because of their sensory limitation. Despite this situation has improved thanks to the efforts in adapting the different services —today the majority of television programs offer subtitles or simultaneous translation to sign language—, the arrival of the Internet, as well as the rest of the information and communication technologies, poses new risks to the inclusion of disabled individuals. Taking into account the present digital exclusion situation of disabled individuals this project presents Messenger Visual, an Instant Messaging service based on pictograms for individuals with cognitive disability. Messenger Visual is composed of two different parts. On the one hand, the Instant Messaging service has been designed considering the requirements of communication based on pictograms. On the other hand, the Instant Messaging client has been designed taking into account the user interface usability requirements of individuals with cognitive disability. Finally, the project presents the methodology that we have used to evaluate Messenger Visual with a group of individuals with cognitive disability, as well as the results we have obtained. The evaluation process has lasted for six months and one-hour fortnightly sessions have been held with two groups of individuals from Fundació El Maresme with different cognitive disability profiles. These sessions have allowed us to gain better understanding of the user interface accessibility requirements, as well as to know how individuals with cognitive disability communicate using pictograms

Messenger Visual, a pictogram-based instant messaging service for individuals with cognitive disability

Along history disabled individuals have suffered from social exclusion due to the limitations posed by their condition. For instance, deaf people are not able to watch television programs because of their sensory limitation. Despite this situation has improved thanks to the efforts in adapting the different services —today the majority of television programs offer subtitles or simultaneous translation to sign language—, the arrival of the Internet, as well as the rest of the information and communication technologies, poses new risks to the inclusion of disabled individuals. Taking into account the present digital exclusion situation of disabled individuals this project presents Messenger Visual, an Instant Messaging service based on pictograms for individuals with cognitive disability. Messenger Visual is composed of two different parts. On the one hand, the Instant Messaging service has been designed considering the requirements of communication based on pictograms. On the other hand, the Instant Messaging client has been designed taking into account the user interface usability requirements of individuals with cognitive disability. Finally, the project presents the methodology that we have used to evaluate Messenger Visual with a group of individuals with cognitive disability, as well as the results we have obtained. The evaluation process has lasted for six months and one-hour fortnightly sessions have been held with two groups of individuals from Fundació El Maresme with different cognitive disability profiles. These sessions have allowed us to gain better understanding of the user interface accessibility requirements, as well as to know how individuals with cognitive disability communicate using pictograms

Softbridge: a socially aware framework for communication bridges over digital divides

Computer scientists must align social and technical factors for communication technologies in developing regions yet lack a framework to do so. The novel Softbridge framework comprises several components to address this gap. The Softbridge stack abstraction supplements the established Open Systems Interconnect model with a collection of technical layers clustered around 'people' issues. The Softbridge stack aligns the technological design of communication systems with awareness of social factors characteristic of developing regions. In a similar fashion, a new evaluation abstraction called Quality of Communication augments traditional Quality of Service by considering socio-cultural factors of a user's perception of system performance. The conceptualisation of these new abstractions was driven by long-term experimental interventions within two South African digital divides. One field study concerned communication bridges for socio-economically disadvantaged Deaf users. The second field study concerned a wireless telehealth system between rural nurses and doctors. The application domains were quite different yet yielded similarities that informed the Softbridge and Quality of Communication abstractions. The third Softbridge component is an iterative socially aware software engineering method that includes action research. This method was used to guide cyclical interventions with target communities to solve community problems with communication technologies. The Softbridge framework components are recursive products of this iterative approach, emerging via critical reflection on the design, evaluation and methodological processes of the respective field studies. Quantitative and qualitative data were triangulated on a series of communication prototypes for each field study with usage metrics, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and observation in the field. Action research journals documented the overall process to achieve post-positivist recoverability rather than positivistic replicability. Analysis of the results from both field studies was iteratively synthesised to develop the Softbridge framework and consider its implications. The most significant finding is that awareness of social issues helps explain why users might not accept a technically sound communication system. It was found that when facilitated effectively by intermediaries, the Softbridge framework enables unintended uses of experimental artefacts that empower users to appropriate communication technologies on their own. Thus, the Softbridge framework helps to align technical and socio-cultural factors

Video Relay Interpreting Services in Victoria

This project was prepared for the Victorian Deaf Society in Victoria, Australia to investigate the human experiences surrounding Video Relay Interpreting and the current awareness of the service in Victoria. An analysis of the benefits and problems faced by VRI users in the U.S. and the U.K. in conjunction with the needs and expectations of the Victorian deaf community provided the Victorian Deaf Society with information to help implement VRI into the community

Modeling and Analysis of Next Generation 9-1-1 Emergency Medical Dispatch Protocols

Emergency Medical Dispatch Protocols are guidelines that a 9-1-1 dispatcher uses to evaluate the nature of emergency, resources to send and the nature of help provided to the 9-1-1 caller. The current Dispatch Protocols are based on voice only call. But the Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) architecture will allow multimedia emergency calls. In this thesis I analyze and model the Emergency Medical Dispatch Protocols for NG9-1-1 architecture. I have identified various technical aspects to improve the NG9-1-1 Dispatch Protocols. The devices (smartphone) at the caller end have advanced to a point where they can be used to send and receive video, pictures and text. There are sensors embedded in them that can be used for initial diagnosis of the injured person. There is a need to improve the human computer (smartphone) interface to take advantage of technology so that callers can easily make use of various features available to them. The dispatchers at the 9-1-1 call center can make use of these new protocols to improve the quality and the response time. They will have capability of multiple media streams to interact with the caller and the first responders.The specific contributions in this thesis include developing applications that use smartphone sensors. The CPR application uses the smartphone to help administer effective CPR even if the person is not trained. The application makes the CPR process closed loop, i.e., the person who administers the CPR as well as the 9-1-1 operator receive feedback and prompt from the application about the correctness of the CPR. The breathing application analyzes the quality of breathing of the affected person and automatically sends the information to the 9-1-1 operator. In order to improve the Human Computer Interface at the caller and the operator end, I have analyzed Fitts law and extended it so that it can be used to improve the instructions given to a caller. In emergency situations, the caller may be physically or cognitively impaired. This may happen either because the caller is the injured person, or because the caller is a close relative or friend of the injured person. Using EEG waves, I have analyzed and developed a mathematical model of a person's cognitive impairment. Finally, I have developed a mathematical model of the response time of a 9-1-1 call and analyzed the factors that can be improved to reduce the response time. In this regard, another application, I have developed, allows the 9-1-1 operator to remotely control the media features of a caller's smartphone. This is needed in case the caller is unable to operate the multimedia features of the smartphone. For example, the caller may not know how to zoom in the smartphone camera.All these building blocks come together in the development of an efficient NG9-1-1 Emergency Medical Dispatch protocols. I have provided a sample of these protocols, using the existing Emergency Dispatch Protocols used in the state of New Jersey. The new protocols will have fewer questions and more visual prompts to evaluate the nature of the emergency

Suggested approach for establishing a rehabilitation engineering information service for the state of California

An ever expanding body of rehabilitation engineering technology is developing in this country, but it rarely reaches the people for whom it is intended. The increasing concern of state and federal departments of rehabilitation for this technology lag was the stimulus for a series of problem-solving workshops held in California during 1977. As a result of the workshops, the recommendation emerged that the California Department of Rehabilitation take the lead in the development of a coordinated delivery system that would eventually serve the entire state and be a model for similar systems across the nation