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NPR Labs is Working on Emergency Alerts for the Deaf (Video)

When we think about NPR (National Public Radio) most of us think of A Prairie Home Companion or another favorite radio show. But NPR also has a research component, NPR Labs, that they say "is the nation's only not-for-profit broadcast technology research and development center." The video (below) is an interview with NPR person Maryfran Tyler about their pilot program designed "to demonstrate the delivery of emergency alerts to people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing in the Gulf Coast states through local public radio stations and the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS®)." NPR also says, "This is the first effort to deliver real-time accessibility-targeted emergency messages, such as weather alerts, via radio broadcast texts."

20 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Prairie home companion. by jandrese · · Score: 2

    I can understand how you might not like Garrison Keillor, he has a very Midwestern sensibility that doesn't try to appeal to everybody. It's harder for me to understand how you can hate Wait Wait Don't Tell Me though. That show is a gem.

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
  2. And then it gets defunded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sweet! Now the Republicans have another thing about NPR at they can point and derp on about how much precious, taxpayer-funded taxpayer money from job creators is being "wasted"! Sounds like another week worth of material for the Daily Show and another eight or so years of talking points for slack-jawed yokels to parrot!

    1. Re:And then it gets defunded by sjames · · Score: 2

      Probably because the cell networks fall over the instant an emergency comes up so they want something a bit more professionally maintained with better range like a radio station to relay the signal.

      It's probably fairly cheap compared to getting the telcos to cooperate.

  3. My first thought was... by roc97007 · · Score: 2

    ...Garrett Morris repeating the alert, only louder.

    But this generation wouldn't get it.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  4. Try a little harder next time. by westlake · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is this thing called television. The deaf can readily get emergency information from it today.

    Works only when your TV set is on.

    Weather radios have a stand-by mode and battery back-up power.

    1. Re:Try a little harder next time. by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      So we need weather TVs that work on battery power or have those cool cranks.

  5. um no by Charliemopps · · Score: 2, Insightful

    First off, "A Prairie Home Companion" isn't anyones favorite show... it's a leftist talk show with skits featuring horrible acting, which I wouldn't mind as I do like SNL but I give SNL a pass because it's funny, where as, Prairie Home Companion is about as un-funny as anything I've ever heard. Sadly, most of the shows surrounding it on Sundays are awesome and some of my favorite radio... so I have to spend part of the day enjoying the radio, then screech in horror as I race to turn it off as soon as I hear Garrison Keillors voice, then wait for the show to go off before I switch back.

    Secondly, Deaf people don't listen to the radio you morons. I've had several deaf friends over the years and none of them owned a radio that I knew of. They watch TV with subtitles and TV solved the whole "Deaf people alerts" problem long ago by putting the alerts in TEXT on the TV. I believe they even have a little flashy light thing that you can hook up via SAP to alert them should they be in another room.

    1. Re:um no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      ...as an educated skeptical person...

      NPR has been shown to be the most neutral outlet in the US.

      I don't listen to NPR or have a dog in this fight at all. But how on earth can you call yourself an "educated skeptical person" and write drivel like "shown to be the most neutral"? Who compiled the metric? Is this on the same Left--Right axis as the one you agree with? For that matter, how can you rank a series of sentences as "Left" or "Right" in any kind of objective fashion at all? I can assure you that for any sentence and any position on a leftist-rightist ranking you choose, I can find somebody who disagrees with the ranking.

    2. Re:um no by Roblimo · · Score: 2

      A lot of people don't seem to have picked up on the fact that the NPR Labs emergency device picks up both radio broadcasts and satellite transmissions. That means it will work even when the power is out and the cellular towers stop working.

      After Hurricane Charlie in Florida my wife and I drove from Orlando to Bradenton via side roads, and there was no cellular service and half the radio stations were off the air. And even if the cell towers work, the systems get overloaded during emergencies because everybody's Aunt Mabel calls to check on Barnaby, Suzanne, and Little Emil, so you're better off with an emergency radio than a cell phone.

      Old Sailor's Motto: "Prepare for the worst days and the good days will take care of themselves."
             

  6. Next time, submit this in ALL CAPS by sandbagger · · Score: 2

    You guys are slipping.

    Seriously, the work on broadcasting done by some of the national broadcasters has been amazing. If you are ever bored, go dig through the R&D archives of the Radiophonic workshop of the BBC. Fascinating stuff. In particular, the British Sound with lots of PRAT.

    --
    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
  7. Re:NPR association fail by alexander_686 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is a very fine distinction.

    Public radio are a bunch of independent radio stations. They order programing from a variety of sources. The big one is NPR. Minnesota Public Radio set up American Public Radio as an alternative source of programming the public stations could buy. One could argue it was to get a bigger cut of the fees for PHC.

    But the point is that you have 2 different corporations producing content for public radio. They are not that different.

  8. Maybe something more obvious by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

    Like something small, personal, visual, that can provide vibrations and video that is always on....Like a Smartphone.

  9. Re:Prairie home companion. by geekoid · · Score: 2, Informative

    Many people like Car Talk, about 1.4% of the US listen to them.
    Would it kill you not to be an ass? I mean, it's fine you don't like them, but man you sound like an asshole. Frankly, the Internet has enough of those already.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  10. You know what would've been nice... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just as a one-off, you might have subtitled the video.

    Just sayin'.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  11. Re:Radio broadcast texts? by CanHasDIY · · Score: 2

    I don't know anyone who even has one of these emergency radios.

    I presume you don't live in Tornado Alley.

    They practically hand those things out at birth around here.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  12. Not hard to do, they already exist... by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My grandmother had a Weather radio that when it went off it would flash a red strobe so that she could see that there was an alert. she then could call the operator with her TTD and ask them what the alert was. Newer ones should be able to decode the data stream burst that has the same voice alert as text and display it on a scrolling screen.

    Everything is already in place for it, The problem is no manufacturers care at all about the Deaf so they dont make an EAS radio for them.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  13. Re:Prairie home companion. by Ksevio · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's just that I don't understand how anyone under 70 can listen to PHC and not want to drive into oncoming traffic.

    It sounds like you aren't getting enough Catchup. Catchup contains natural mellowing agents that keep you from making irrational driving decisions and enjoy the small things in life.

  14. Re:Prairie home companion. by Roblimo · · Score: 2

    My first wife was a Minnesota farmgirl who said, "Prairie Home Companion? If I wanted to hear people like that I would have stayed on the farm instead of leaving."

  15. Conservative Media Coverage by billstewart · · Score: 2

    Oh, Right-WIng Media will happily spend 20 minutes of in-depth coverage on the Left's War On Christmas, or how clean Clean Coal is.

    I did once fill out a survey on "where do you get your news" - I checked the "Conservative talk radio" box, and filled in the "Station" box with KQED, which is my local public radio station. It's Establishment Media, which is conservative, as opposed to crazy right-wing media.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  16. I did some work on this a while back. by gfm · · Score: 2

    A couple years ago when I was working at chumby I worked with Rich Rarey at NPR Labs and wrote the code to get the braille device talking to the display device you see at 6:35 (which is an Insignia Infocast, Best Buy's OEM version of the Chumby 8) and also wrote an ActionScript extension module in C++ to allow them to write to the braille printing device and get input from it (via a custom USB protocol) within a Flash/ActionScript3 app, which is what their closed caption software was written in.

    Pretty cool project -- glad to see they are still working on this and extending it.