Israel's largest mobile phone operator Cellcom and Israeli start-up
SpeechView have launched a worldwide patented software that will allow the
deaf and hard of hearing to communicate through mobile phones.
The product LipCcell is a software installed in the user's computer and
connected with a cable to a cell phone. When the deaf user gets a call, the
software translates the voice on the other side of the line into a three
dimensional animated face on the computer, whose lips move in real time
synch with the voice allowing the receiver to lip read.
The software can be used initially only with a computer or laptop, said
SpeechView chief executive Tzvika Nayman, though future developments will
allow the software to be installed on personal digital assistants.
Under the agreement, Cellcom will be the sole distributor of the kits in
Israel with its revenues deriving from the calls, Cellcom deputy chief
executive Oren Most told Reuters.
The kits, including a CD and cable, will cost $125.
Some basic training, included in the instruction manual of the CD, is needed
to better interpret the lip nuances of the animated figure, Neyman said,
with the software also using color on the animated figure's nose or cheeks
to differentiate between sounds that are confusingly similar.
"The additional signs added to the animated figure raise the level of
identification from 35 to 85 percent," he said.
Nayman said he knows of no such technology in the world, and added that
SpeechView was in touch with mobile phone operators in Great Britain,
Belgium and the Netherlands to further distribute the product.
"There is no language limitation," Nayman said, adding that all phonemic
languages can be translated by the software.
The technology was created by Nachshon Margaliot, an information systems
specialist, who stumbled upon the need for the product while working with a
hard of hearing colleague.
