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Google's Live Transcribe and Sound Amplifier Aim To Help the Hard of Hearing (cnet.com)
Google wants to make Android phones powerful tools for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. From a report: On Monday, the search giant released two new services, Live Transcribe and Sound Amplifier, aimed at helping people who have trouble hearing communicate more easily. Live Transcribe does exactly what its name suggests -- it uses your phone's mic to automatically generate captions that appear on your screen. With Sound Amplifier, you can use your phone and a set of headphones to improve the clarity of the speech around you. To develop the new products, Google said it worked with Gallaudet University, the private school in Washington, DC for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
News for the hard of hearing.
Have gnu, will travel.
I would like to get a lot better auto generated subs n YouTube.
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
I applaud Google in their efforts here, but as a current iPhone user, I'm saddened to see it as something I can't/won't immediately be able to take advantage of. What frustrates me--as an Apple customer, as a "fan" of Apple's Accessibility work, and as one of those 466 million hard-of-hearing folks--is the difficulty I have personally had in getting Apple to understand hearing impairment, and to take it more seriously than they do. Apple seems to be of the mind that hearing impairment can be and is resolved with hearing aids, which to those in the know is absurd. Perhaps, though, Google's initiatives will help Apple see what additional work could be done to improve their ecosystem for hard-of-hearing users, not just the specific subset of the hearing-impaired population that can benefit from hearing aids.
Scott
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."
Well it depends. If Google cannot find a way to monetize it, it will just say locked up as an unused patent, in their R&D Department.
Then you get question on how well it will transcribe for you. Would it transcribe data well enough for a Hearing Impaired person to make sound legal decisions from its transcriptions.
Also depending on how Google monetizes it, there can be significant privacy and security concerns around it.
It seems by tone of your post, you have a hard time differentiating socialism from communism. Socialism welcomes a free market, however will get involved if something goes too far, or does more harm then good. Compared to Communism, which Government controls the business, in all aspects.
With the recent government shutdown, the the closing of the FDA. New types of Beer couldn't be released, and new drugs cannot be approved. In essence putting a hold on economic growth. Because the FDA, FCC, SCC... While not perfect, has the goal of doing more good then harm, and make sure free trade, doesn't devolve into snake oil sales.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I doubt it would be used for making legal decisions, even for people who can hear perfectly well we tend to write stuff down.
Visually impaired people already make extensive use of Google services like maps and text to speech so any privacy issues are probably well known by now. At least in Europe you can opt out of everything and run it all locally if you wish. The biggest issue they have is abuse from people who see them looking at their phones and assume that they are faking their disability.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Will this be used to better target ads to deaf people?
There are things that would require understand of the words before deicing to act. Not all legal decisions are contractual.
Lets use the old trope of the Miranda rights, yes the police doesn't need to give the speech, and you won't give a free pass just because they arrested you without it.
However if given, and Google Transcribe came up with something wrong, then use made your decision based on the bad transcription, how would that play out in court. "You have the right to remember sentences. Any thing for sale can be used used against you in a court of law..."
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Doesn't work for me and that accessibility button was right on top of the keyboard enter key so I turned it off.
To be stored forever and data-mined to the nines. Google does nothing for others, everything it does is just to make its elite even more filthy rich.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I have hearing loss and tinnitus in my right ear. A hearing aid was going to cost over $1,000 (after insurance reduced the cost) so I tried less expensive options first. White noise applications on a bluetooth headset reduced the ringing but blocked me from hearing through my right ear. I tried some "sound booster" apps but there was a delay. Not a big delay, but enough to be frustrating. Sort of like the stereotypical badly dubbed Japanese movie. {mouth moves} "How are {mouth stops moving} you doing?" Before anyone says that Bluetooth was to blame, I tried wired headphones as well and there was the same delay.
I finally broke down and got a hearing aid. It's helped my tinnitus and improved my hearing. Still, I'd love it if there were a method for boosting audio for those hard of hearing. It would make for a lot of options less expensive than a hearing aid.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Combine Live Transcribe with Google Glass for a real head's up "subtitle" experience. Also, put a small directional microphone on the Glass headset, so you can control who you are reading better. It would also be great if transcriptions of live events (e.g. theatre), or movies had some connection to the system as well so that people could have their own, private subtitles.
This is a system I'd pay for but would be extremely wary of getting for free from a marketing company. I'm assuming the paid service would be completely private of course with option for permanent automatic deletion of logs.
Sooo Google will never be compelled to disclose discussions / what they hear? Right, didn't think so. I cannot believe this will be taken as anything serious.
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What's funny is that this "shutdown" only shutdown around 7% of the government spending and "work" - the stuff you mention among it. No paychecks don't get paid - zero. No entitlements don't get paid - there'd be revolt. Sure, the part of the IRS that gives refunds is shut down (and I'm waiting myself), but not the part that collects your money, using force as necessary.
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Yes, shutting certain parts down - you'll notice that only the parts that sometimes deliver some sort of service (you forgot to mention parks and museums) - is all for show, no part that exercises power shuts down. And shutting down some things only creates problems the government caused in the first place - you used to be able to introduce a product etc without a permit at all (not that this was utopia, but...). New types of beer - now that hurts! No really, it does. WTF were we thinking letting them control that in the first place? Is the approval of new drugs that actually cure anything so frequent? If you know squat, you know that at most the new drugs are palliative and intended as an income stream for phrama, many are just tweaks of a molecule to extend a patent, and most have some fairly nasty side effects while not curing you. Iatrogenic deaths are at an all time high. I think government is doing it wrong.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
stuff like this has been around awhile, tinkering old-timers have been pairing existing tech since....monkeys?
That's more likely what they want to do: have 100% access to the conversations of deaf people.