Most agree that every person should have the opportunity to fully access the world around them and have the freedom to build lasting friendships and a happy and productive life regardless of physical disabiliy. Making it happen for the deaf-blind has been a long and frustrating journey. However, those attending this week's Tek Talk online event will learn from highly qualified presenter and trainer Greg Stilson, Humanware Product and Support Specialist, how his company has used its technological expertise to design a product that significantly opens their lines of communication.
The DeafBlind Communicator (DBC) offers the deaf-blind population a truly portible multifunctioning communication device. Consisting of a standard Humanware Braille Note with specific software installed, and a cell phone for a face to face companion, the communicator provides several ways for a deaf-blind user to communicate. Using the DB companion, the user can easily communicate in virtually any face to face environment with a sighted peer.
The built in modem enables the DBC to operate as a standard Braille TTY, and by using the DB companion's cell phone capability with a SIM card, the deaf-blind population can now utilize Short Message Service (SMS) technology.
For the more advanced user, with the use of a high speed internet connection, the DBC software incorporates an XMPP messaging client, which allows anyone with a Google Mail (gmail), account, to engage in an instant messaging conversation with other gmail users. Gmail is quickly becoming one of the largest web based e-mail providers and with its Google Talk PC client that is available to everyone, DBC users can carry on conversations with both people using a PC for messaging, or with other users of the DBC.
(Contact: Greg Stilson
Humanware Product and Support Specialist
Phone; 800.722.3393
Greg.stilson@humanware.com
TEK TALK PRESENTATION HOSTED BY
ROBERT ACOSTA OF ACCESSIBLE WORLD
February 2, 2009
ACOSTA: Ladies and gentlemen, we at Accessible World want to welcome you to our Tek Talk training session on February 2, 2009. I want to urge all of you if you can to stay around until after the questioning. I have a major announcement to make and to discuss with you. Thank you.
Realizing that this program is to provide needed information to our deaf-blind friends, Accessible World will provide a written transcript of the text of our speakers' presentation tonight, thanks to the assistance of a very dear friend. When we have the transcript on our website, we shall notify our deaf-blind friends and, of course, HumanWare, who is making the presentation.
Greg Stillson highlights HumanWare's DeafBlind Communicator that opens communication lines for the deaf-blind on Tek Talk. Most agree that every person should have the opportunity to fully access the world around them, and have the freedom to build lasting friendships and a happy and productive life regardless of physical disability. Making it happen for the deaf blind has been a long and frustrating journey; however, those attending this week's Tek Talk online event will learn from a highly qualified presenter and trainer, Mr. Greg Stillson, HumanWare's Product and Support Specialist, how his company has used its technological expertise to design a product that significantly opens their lines of communication. The DeafBlind Communicator (DBC) offers the deaf-blind population a truly portable, multifunctioning communication device, consisting of a standard HumanWare BrailleNote with specific software installed and a cell phone for a face-to-face companion, the communicator provides several ways for a deaf-blind user to communicate. Using the DB Companion, the user can easily communicate in virtually any face-to-face environment with a sighted peer. The built in modem enables the DBC to operate as a standard Braille TTY, and by using the DB Companion cell phone capability with a SIM card, the deaf-blind population can now utilize short message services (SMS) technology. For the more advanced user with the use of a high-speed Internet connection, the DBC software incorporates an XMPP messaging client, which allows anyone with a Google mail (gmail) account to engage in an Instant Messaging conversation with other gmail users. Gmail is quickly becoming one of the largest web-based email providers, and with its GoogleTalk PC Client that is available to everyone, DBC users can carry on conversations with both people using a PC for messaging or with other users of the DBC.
Ladies and Gentlemen I'm very happy to turn the microphone at this time over to the Vice President and Products Manager of HumanWare, Mr. Dominic Gagliano. Welcome Dominic, and he will introduce our speaker for this evening.
DOMINIC GAGLIANO: Thank you, Bob, and thank you everyone for joining us. It's been an exciting two months for us, when we first started shipping the DBC late in November. As many people may know, we worked diligently with Washington State Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH) in developing this product and meeting their specks. We've introduced it to the market. Greg has been very instrumental in beta testing and has assisted me in many presentations that we've done, and I'm very pleased to turn the program over to him, as he is the expert on this product and will answer your questions as well. Thank you.
GREG STILLSON: Thanks Dominic. Thank you Robert for everything that you said earlier. It was definitely a good introduction here.
Part of what I wanted to start off with here is just what I have on the text side of the screen. I have an outline of what I'm going to talk about, and it's all done with headings and so we'll just go through and I'll highlight on different parts of this. What I want to do is to break it up a little bit. I do want to have questions and such, and what I think I'm going to do is take some questions on individual sections, so that we keep it a little interactive. I know that you guys would love to listen to me talk for an hour, but…I'd like to hear your feedback as well and definitely want to answer your questions, and then we will, of course, have time for some overall questions at the end. So, if that's all right with everybody, I think we'll get started.
What I wanted to start off with is a little bit of history and some background on deaf-blind communication. As Robert said, it's been a long road, and it's been to the point where it's been a very frustrating situation for deaf-blind users. There are products out there that have been semisuccessful, and there have been products that really haven't fit the bill for what a deaf-blind person needs for effective communication. We did a lot of research with the Washington State Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing and we really did a lot of focus groups and wanted to make sure that we got as much good conversation out of that and then good influence by the deaf-blind community. We had a lot of focus groups and things like that and it really gave us an idea of what this population was looking for, and that's kind of where I wanted to start out.
The deaf-blind population has been using products that, because the last real successful and effective way of communication has been out for quite some time now. They are using products that, if you look at it, are around 15-20 years old almost, and these products are starting to fail, people are trying to keep them on life support in order to keep the communication up, because it's really, that they've found the last really good communicator available. These products are no longer serviced and things like that, and so that was basically the purpose for designing this product. It's time for an effective solution that really is multifunctioning, as the introduction talks about.
So enter in the DeafBlind Communicator. The DBC, as the description shows consists of a BrailleNote mPower, which is known for its ease of use and really, it's one of the most well known note takers out there. We figure that why reinvent the wheel if we've got a product that people can pick up and use with a minimal learning curve. We don't want this to be a difficult product to use. You want to be able to pick up the DeafBlind Communicator and have a conversation as soon as possible. IN this situation, we have the BrailleNote mPower. When it's shipped to the user of the product, it's coming in what's called Basic Mode. It has two modes, the Basic and Advance Modes. The Basic Mode completely consists of the DeafBlind Communicator. There are no other KeySoft applications. You're not dealing with email, Internet, any of that. All the user wants is to be able to have a conversation to be able to deal with straight up communication, and that's all they want to do. So that is the mode that it is shipped in. The user, once they feel ready, have the ability to switch into Advance Mode, as I will get into later on.
In conjunction with the BrailleNote mPower, we have the face-to-face DeafBlind Companion, which is a cell phone, but when it's shipped it's not shipped as a cell phone, it's shipped as a straight up Bluetooth companion. The reason being, if somebody doesn't want to use it for a cell phone capability, we don't want to force that obligation on them. So, when you get the device, it's shipped just as a Bluetooth companion. So, what the DeafBlind Communicator consists of when you're dealing with it is just a BrailleNote and this Bluetooth companion, which is a cell phone. The cell phone is one of those slide-out keyboards, so that the companion will be able to be used by the sighted person that is going to be in a face-to-face conversation. And, the majority of people now are familiar with text messaging and things like that, and so the reason we picked a cell phone is that we needed something that was going to be portable and easy to carry around and could be multifunctioning. Meaning, you would be able to have a conversation with a sighted person whether you're standing up or sitting down. There have been other products that you've practically needed a cart to lug around the whole communications and you can call that face-to-face if you have a mode of transportation to get it around. We wanted something that is portable, and then also something that is familiar. If you're a deaf-blind person and you're walking into a grocery store and you have to hand someone a monitor and a keyboard, they're not going to know what to do. They're going to become an instant technophobe and have no clue on what to do with this. So, when you're dealing with a face-to-face conversation, you want something that's going to be such a limited learning curve. Meaning, that I can hand it to anybody and within about 30 seconds they're going to be able to know what to do with it. And that's where the cell phone comes into play. Everybody sees cell phones. Yeah, this is a little bit more high tech cell phone, but what's nice is that when you start off the face-to-face conversation, there's a message right on the screen as soon as the deaf-blind person activates the mode that pops upon the screen and there is also an auditory message that comes out of the cell phone speaker phone that says, "Hello, I'm deaf and blind; please use this device to communicate with me." And, on the screen it shows a picture of the Enter key. It says, "Type your message and tap this key when complete." So, it walks the person through immediately how to do this and, like I said, usually when we've done trial runs with the device, it's been within 30 seconds of handing it to the sighted person and they understand what to do with it. And, in this situation, when I've gone out and handed it to people, and if they don't know how to do the texting; let's say you're standing in line or something like that. There's always some 15 or 17-year-old kid that's out there that's able to see this device and say, "Well you know I know how to do this." Actually I've had somebody behind me in line when I was doing this turn to the clerk and say, "Just let me see that once." And they were able to have the conversation. It's a universal technology that's really recognizable and that's what we were going for. So, with the face-to-face conversation, just to give you a role-play. With me as a deaf-blind person I can walk into any location. I can hand this device to a clerk or to whomever I'm dealing with, and as soon as I initiate the conversation from the BrailleNote side of things, the DeafBlind Communicator message pops up and we are instantly having a conversation. I will type a message to them, I'll press the Enter key, it will show up on the screen and make a little "bling" to draw their attention to it. They'll look at it, type a message back to me and it will show up on my Braille display on my BrailleNote. Essentially, that is face-to-face conversation. Any questions about face-to-face? I know I kind of flew through that.
ACOSTA: This is amazing! Are there any questions, please give your name and ask your question. Where you're from might be interesting. I've got a million questions, but I'm going to let you go first.
Q: Okay, Greg, so in other words, this is really between the deaf-blind person and the sighted world or community mainly, right? And, but this can really open the world to a deaf-blind person. He goes to the doctor, and the nurse gets this thing and it pops upon the screen with the messages and so forth. Is this basically what this DB Companion is all about?
A: Stillson: Yeah, absolutely. It really is incredible to see the reaction. It's so funny, because on a daily basis you and I and anybody else who has face-to-face conversations like this take it for granted so immediately. We can go in and say, you know what my stomach hurts or I need to buy this or something like that. We don't have to have an interpreter that knows tactile signing, and we don't have to have a translator available in that situation. To be able to go out and have a conversation with somebody and have that freedom is something that is just amazing to watch. Myself, included, I never realized the situation that people really saw, you know, you have to plan ahead so much when you're dealing with conversations that are face-to-face.
Q: Walt Kramer in Duluth Minnesota: Good evening Greg. I must have missed it. What is it like on the side of the deaf-blind person, when someone responds to what they are asking by typing into the screen and then pressing Enter? Are their options in terms of what kind of feedback the person gets…Braille or something else?
A: Stillson: Yes, being a deaf-blind person, you're only going to be using the Braille display. For training purposes we do have the ability to turn the speech on and things like that, but just going as a deaf-blind individual, you're only going to be using the Braille. And, what we did is, for those of you that are familiar with Instant Messaging and things like that, when the other party of the conversation is talking to you with Instant Messaging, you always have that little notification saying so-and-so is talking, letting you know that they are typing. Well, a deaf-blind person has no idea if the sighted person is typing or is staring at the DB phone in complete confusion. So, what we did, is every time that a key is touched on the phone, the far right Braille cell, the last Braille cell on the display will flicker telling you that there is communication coming from the other side, so that you are not, you know, just kind of standing there wondering if the person is talking to you. Just to let you know, when the product is shipped, we do have a tether that you attach to your belt, and the other end attaches to the phone, so that when you hand it to the sighted person, they're going to have to take you with them if they're going to walk off with the phone. So, it's not like the phone can just walk away.
Q: When you say that the last cell flickers, do you mean that some of the dots in the refreshable cell come up and that's how you know that's something is going on?
A: Yeah, correct. Every time a button is pressed, that cell will flash, with all eight dots in the cell.
Q: Hi Greg, this is Kevin Chou: I have a question. Will it run only on a PK, and also, I know it runs on the mPower for sure. Will it also run on an 18-cell or is it irrespective of how many cells the unit actually has?
A: Stillson: Nope, the DBC will run only on an mPower, and that runs on 18 or 32-cell. It doesn't matter the cell size. I'll get into that when I get into TTY conversations. Because the BrailleNote mPower has the built in telephone modem in order to connect it to a landline, this product only will work on the mPower.
Q: Hi, this is Rich: What about KeySoft versions, I assume 7.5 or greater?
A: Stillson: Yeah, correct, 7.5 or higher.
Q: Acosta: Back to Walt's issue. When I write/text, "How are you?" I gather, they're going to be able to read the words, right?
A: Stillson: Yes, correct. If I'm typing on my DBC and I say, "How are you" and press the Enter key. A message is going to pop up on that cell phone screen saying, actually they say, "How are you?" And, then the sighted person will then text back saying, "I'm great. How are you?" And, on the screen of the DB phone it will say, "You say, - "I'm fine. How are you?" On the BrailleNote side, your entire Braille display will flash twice, meaning that dots will pop up; all eight dots in every cell will pop up twice telling you that a new message has been received, and that you need to start reading it.
Q: Walt Kramer: Does it come out in what kind of Braille? Grade 2?
A: Stillson: Whatever the user wants. And as I'm typing I can type in Grade 2 and it will do back translation to standard text, or I can just type in computer Braille if I choose.
Q: Hi Greg, this is Cindy from Georgia: I have a cell phone running Talks, and I'm blind. Would there be any way that they could talk to me using the DB Communicator and then my own cell phone?
A: Stillson: No, unfortunately it's restricted to the model of the phone and to the software that we've put on this phone. It's specific software that's tied into that model, and that's why we sell the package as one deal.
Q: Acosta: Okay. If I have an mPower and I'm deaf-blind, can the cell phone be attached at a less price? We're going to get to price eventually, I know you mentioned modems, the Advance Mode, and such, but let me shut-up and let you answer it. If I have an mPower, is it easier to get the cell phone Companion connected to it at a cheaper price?
A: Stillson: As we move into price later on, I'm going to have Dominic discuss the pricing later on. He's the pricing guy and I'm the computer nerd guy, so we'll let him handle that. In response to your questions, yes we do sell the DBC in two ways. We can sell it as an all new stand-alone DBC that's purchased brand new for the people who are not BrailleNote users, or for those deaf-blind users who are BrailleNote users, we sell an upgrade kit that is separate software that you can install on your BrailleNote, and then you'll get just the phone and the rest of the accessories as well.
Q: Kelly Burma: I saw the release on Friday regarding KeySoft 8.0. What enhancements will be brought to the DeafBlind Communicator? One of the obvious enhancements will be KeyChat. Will KeyChat be compatible for AOL Instant Messenger users? I ask, as in my experience, the deaf community, in general, uses AOL Instant Messenger as there has historically been a relay service identified by a screen name.
A: Stillson: AS of right now, and I'll get into KeyChat later on when we talk about instant messaging in Advance Mode. But, with KeySoft 8, and this will work with KeySoft 7.5 or higher, so you will have the functionality if you decide to go into the advanced modes of KeySoft. You will have all of the functionality of KeySoft 8 once that's available. However, in regard to KeyChat, we're using a different version of the protocol that AOL uses, and as of right now, they are not compatible. We're using XMPP, which is the really up and coming protocol. GoogleTalk and gmail are taking it onboard and are really kind of running away with it right now, and there is communication right now between AOL and Google to combine the efforts and make the two talk, but as of right now, they are not compatible. There is constant communication between Google and AOL to get that going, and like I said, we'll go into that later. At this point I think we'll stay on track with the DBC and leave KeySoft 8 to a later time I think.
STILLSON: A couple other points about face-to-face, and we're going to kind of go into little offsprings of the face-to-face. There are a lot of situations where deaf-blind users are going to be in classrooms. They're going to be in lecture halls and things like that, and having an interpreter there. Signing is obviously very time consuming and very stressful on the interpreter. Interpreters have to switch off, I believe it's every 20 minutes, and so you have to have at least two interpreters there switching off. When you're dealing with a lecture hall, if you're dealing with a Deaf-blind Communicator, that person is not going to want to be texting the entire time on a little cell phone. So, we came up with a couple of solutions. When you are sold a DeafBlind Communicator, or when you purchase one, you will get a little keyboard that will plug into the USB port on the BrailleNote. And, for longer conversations it's going to be much easier to type on this keyboard for the interpreter or sighted person than it would be to text. So, you'll still use the DB Companion screen for your visual output, so that when the deaf-blind person types to the sighted person, the message that they're saying will come out on that screen, but rather than typing it on the text pad of the phone, the sighted person will be typing on a standard keyboard that's plugged into the BrailleNote's USB port, and those messages will also show up on the DB phone's screen, but they will also show up on the Braille display as well. So, you're dealing with much faster ability to type when you're using that kind of keyboard - It makes interpreting a lot easier than if you were going to text or do tactile signing. So, that's the first way of handling longer conversations. You also have the ability to do what's called PC face-to-face. Meaning that if you have a computer and you're near a laptop, let's say or whatever you're doing. You can plug in the BrailleNote with a serial cable into the PC and use a hyper terminal on XP machines or you can download a terminal program like, I think it's called Putty on Vista machines, and you will be able to basically have an Instant Message session back and forth with the deaf-blind user on a standard PC. So, the sighted person will type on the PC's keyboard. Their information will show up on the PC's screen, and then the deaf-blind person will also see their messages come through on the Braille display and the messages they type to the sighted person will pop up on the PC screen as well. So, you're basically having, like I said, a much easier conversation if you're going to be having a lengthy communication with that sighted person. Pc face-to-face will be used in lecture halls or if you're going to have a really lengthy conversation. And, the last real face-to-face solution that this offers is DBC-to-DBC. If you have two deaf-blind people in the same room, and they both have DeafBlind Communicators, we can use the Bluetooth capability, not to communicate with the cell phone anymore, but to actually communicate with the two BrailleNotes. If I'm a deaf-blind person sitting in a room with a friend of mine, I can actually search for their DBC unit and I can start having a conversation via Bluetooth if I'm within 30 feet of them. We can have conversations every time that they type a key on the keyboard that flickers on my Braille display, it will pulsate showing me they are communicating with me. AS soon as they hit the Enter key my display will flash telling me a message is available and I can respond to them. Having the capability to have a conversation between two deaf-blind people without having interpreters in the room is really incredible sometimes just to experience that happening. I've seen it when we've been showing the device and it's really exciting for the users. That's the rest of the face-to-face aspect of the DBC. Any questions before we go into TTY?
Q: Acosta: AS a blind person, I'm talking to a deaf-blind person. I realize the last way was really great for two deaf-blind people. But if as a blind person I'm talking to a deaf-blind friend, did you say that I could hear the speech through the cell phone? That I could hear them respond? Because I wouldn't have Braille in front of me. They would, and, I could type on the keyboard. I love that keyboard, by the way. But, they could write to me and it would respond in speech on the cell phone, am I correct on that?
A: Stillson: No. Actually, it's only going to show up in print because we designed it specifically for face-to-face communication with the sighted community. The beautiful thing about the DBC-to-DBC aspect is if I'm a trainer or if I'm a blind person who has a DBC (this is what I've used in presentations which just floors me every time I do it), I obviously don't know tactile signing, I'm a blind person myself and I'm doing demonstrations of this product, it's something that I would not be able to have a conversation with that deaf-blind person without an interpreter in the room. But, instead when I'm here, I have my DBC here that I'm presenting with and I will be able to talk with the deaf-blind person I'm presenting to through their DBC and we're able to have a conversation. They're able to ask me questions about the product. All I have to do is originally get them into the DBC-to-DBC mode and away we go; I'm able to have a conversation with them instantaneously.
Q: Gagliano: I hope you can hear me. I was going to add that in addition to the DBC-to-DBC, as Greg said, we could use the DBC-to-PC, and in that case a blind person could use a screen reader on the Pc with a Braille display or with speech output, or in many cases, a low vision person could use the PC with screen magnification using the PC or laptop to communicate to the person using the DBC. So, that's another means of communication. Another thing that we're doing is including an external USB keyboard, and that also plugs into the DBC, so if you are in an extended meeting or having a long conversation, rather than using the mobile phone, you can use this somewhat portable USB keyboard. It's about the same size as a laptop keyboard, so it makes communication a lot easier if you're having a longer conversation.
STILLSON: One part of the PC face-to-face that is often overlooked is, if you're having a conversation with a deaf person talking to a deaf-blind person, that PC face-to-face aspect is also really useful in that they'll be able to see exactly what the deaf-blind person is typing to them on the PC as well, so you're not just dealing with the blind person or the sighted person, but the deaf population can also be conversant with a deaf-blind person.
Q: Are you able to save the face-to-face conversations in a file in Advance Mode?
A: Stillson: I believe in both modes, both the Basic Mode and the Advanced Mode, the conversation can be saved and reviewed at a different time, so that's another valuable piece if you need to reference communication with a counselor, a doctor, or something like that. The keyboard is not foldable. We've looked at trying to support a Bluetooth keyboard, but we felt there were too many things going on and we wanted to have the Bluetooth connection from the phone to the DBC as reliable as possible without throwing in another Bluetooth device. But, the keyboard is actually about the same footprint as the BrailleNote, so it's very portable.
Q: What about if the mobile phone has a screen reader on it, such as Talks or MobileSpeak, then depending on how the program is designed, it may be able to hear what is on the screen?
A: Gagliano: I do want to repeat that we install our own communication software on the phone. When the phone turns on, this software takes control of the phone. You cannot close the communication application and use other applications on the phone. So, the phone is used strictly by a sighted person to do communication, and the phone does not have any other capability. Greg, correct me if I'm wrong on anything, please.
STILLSON: What Dominic said is absolutely correct. Regarding saving the conversation - often you're going to get a phone number or an address that's really important and you're going to want to save that information, and you can do that instantaneously. As soon as you close the conversation, it prompts you by asking if you want to close the conversation or save it, and you can just hit the save, and it will save it. Not only will it save it, but it puts a time and date stamp on it immediately so you know exactly when that conversation happened.
The next point that I want to talk about is TTY conversation, and this is one of the most important parts that we really looked at. We wanted to make this, like I said a multifunction, and when you're dealing with TTY conversations, you want an easy conversation. We didn't want people memorizing a lot of commands in order to do it. So, just like your standard KeySoft operating system, you're going to answer the KeyChat menu, and you'll hit the spacebar, and one of the options is TTY. As soon as you hit the Enter key on it, it prompts you for the phone number that you're going to call, and with the BrailleNote connected to an analog phone line in your house, you will be able to contact any relay service. You'll be able to contact another TTY, or if you have a friend who is using a DBC plugged into their phone line, you can contact them as well and have a TTY conversation, just as you would having a standard TTY conversation if it was just a deaf individual. So, as I said before, you'll see that pulsating cell on the far right side of the Braille display whenever there is communication coming in so that you, as the deaf-blind person waiting for a response, know that there is communication coming on the other end. One of the things we wanted was to make it as easy as possible and by doing that we included commonly used phrases, so if there is something you say a lot, especially in face-to-face conversation. If you say, "I would like" or "My name is so-and-so," you could actually save those commonly used phrases in a list and just pop them into your conversation whenever you wanted to use them to speed the process up. Now a lot of you are probably saying if you're deaf-blind how do you know when the telephone is ringing to pick it up with your TTY. The DB phone is used in conjunction with the BrailleNote in this situation as well. If you are within 30 feet of the BrailleNote, the phone will vibrate telling you that there is a call coming in. ON the Braille display there is going to be a message that says "incoming call" and the far right cell will pulsate telling you there is a call coming in. Let's say you're out or you are too far away from the BrailleNote or whatever, the BrailleNote will prompt the caller to leave a message if they're calling through relay, and the operator will be able to leave a message on the BrailleNote, and when you go back it will say "You've missed a phone call," and "You have x-number of messages," and you'll be able to read those messages and call those individuals back. As I said when you're placing a call, just so you know that call is going through, that far right cell will pulsate every time a hearing person would hear the phone ringing before the person picks it up - every time that happens that cell will pulsate letting you know there is a call going through. Our goal is to try to get as much interaction and as much tactile interaction at that point, so that there is no confusion on what process is going on at what time. So, TTY is as I said, one of the more straight forward aspects of this device, but it's also something that needs to be extremely reliable. And, that was something that we really put a lot of effort in and take a lot of pride in having the ability to have a really simple TTY conversation. Any questions about that?
ACOSTA: Any questions? If we see something on the screen we sing out here. We're just stunned. I think it's just amazing what you guys have done. This is just wonderful.
Q: Lynn Evans: Will it work with an IP phone (voice over IP)?
A: Stillson: AS of right now we wanted to make sure that the TTY analog line communication is working, so as of right now there is no available communication if you have data over that line. For instance, let's say, at my house I have DSL and so I have to have those little filters on my DSL line. We're doing some research on some IP solutions and things like that, and as we've talked about before, this is the first go around in this product, and so we're still taking advice from deaf-blind users and we're definitely taking that into account. As of right now, though, the main purpose was to get it working very steadily with that analog line.
Q: So with the TTY unit can you get with a regular person who doesn't have a TTY or just has a regular phone line?
A: Stillson: Yes, absolutely, and that's one of the things that I demonstrate the most is as a deaf-blind user I would call a relay service by typing in 711 as my phone number and I'd be able to call any hearing person through that relay operator. So, I would talk to that relay operator with my TTY. I would type to them, they would speak it to the hearing person, and the hearing person would then speak their message back to the operator, who would then speak it to me on the TTY.
GAGLIANO: The baud build rate that is used for the TTY is really slow and it's something that we've tested in the US, and it's actually a different rate in the UK, which we've been working with as well. So, you really are forced to use an analog line. If there is high-speed Internet or DSL it really interferes with the communication that's going directly to the TTY. As Greg said, the DBC can go directly to a TTY. We can use the TTY to call the DBC; the phone vibrates if you want to answer the phone. The BrailleNote in its TTY mode also has an answering machine, which is very nice. You can customize your message saying you're not available, and it will also let you know that you've missed calls. One of the other things that we tested and I'm not sure if Greg mentioned this. When we were at the Helen Keller National Center, we used NexTalk, I believe. It's a TTY program that actually runs on the PC, so even though you're dialing a phone number from the DBC it's actually going to someone's computer and that also worked very well. Greg do you want to talk about that a little bit, please?
STILLSON: That was pretty incredible. I was able to have a complete conversation with one of the instructors there at Helen Keller. She was on a PC using the NexTalk software, which I'm not very familiar with myself, but it's very popular in the deaf world. I was having a conversation completely with her and it worked flawlessly. I was able to see her messages when she was typing them. I was able to see there was communication. The flashing of the Braille cells still appeared, and I was able to talk back to her and she was able to get my messages perfectly, as well.
Q: Acosta: Do we see the day when say watching TV someone with a DBC, I'm sure I'm not a techy, can communicate with deaf-blind people who have DBC's in their homes or give description, or whatever. Do you see that ever happening?
STILLSON: If there is one thing I've learned in this industry, it's that anything is fairly possible. So, I can see down-the-road, depending on what kind of Internet streams are going to be used with TV and things like that, it's a possible. Anything is possible.
Q: Franklin Johnson: Dominic or either one of you'll: In a training situation where you have a blind person that's working with the deaf-blind person using a DBC, can you not turn the speech on and the typing keys on so that as they are typing it's responding and you get an audio response from the mPower as they enter the data so that you are able to communicate that way, too?
A: Stillson: Yes, Franklin, absolutely. You can elect to have the Braille display and the speech, and then you can turn the volume up to whatever you want it to be so that you can get that audio feedback if you are training that deaf-blind person.
ACOSTA: Okay, because I thought I asked a similar question. In other words, you would not use the cell phone, you'd just be training them and they'd turn their speech on with Braille and type and I'd be able to hear what they were writing. I know the DBC works with the deaf-blind and the sighted and the deaf-blind and the deaf, but that's one way to possibly get in there, especially if you're training someone I would imagine.
JOHNSON: I thought that's what you were asking, Bob, that's why I repeated it, to get that clarified.
STILLSON: Yes, Bob, if I was confused I do apologize. The cell phone itself will not communicate audibly to you. Well, you will get little dings telling you messages have been received, but it won't speak to you as to what the deaf-blind person is saying. In regard to Franklin's question, yes, you can turn the speech on the DBC unit and as they type you will be able to hear what they are saying to you. As Dominic mentioned, we do also have the PC face-to-face option as well for those blind users training deaf-blind people. We wanted to definitely keep our options open for any kind of trainer that was available.
Acosta: Yeah, and you are tethered to the person, being very close, and it wouldn't disturb everybody. I think it's great! It's another way to do it.
Q: Lynn Evans: Is there a video demo on your website of this product?
A: Stillson: You know, come to think of it, I don't think we do. Dominic, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a great idea and I may bring a video camera to my next presentation.
GAGLIANO: I just typed a message to Lynn right now that there is not a video demo of the DBC, but this is a good idea as we've been doing YouTube videos recently of many of the products like the stream, and the Breeze, etc., and I think this is a good idea. There is text information and all of the specifications on our website, but the video is a good idea to show it in action.
ACOSTA: Remember, you're doing very well, but we're recording for our transcriber, so it's good that you repeated your comments to Lynn. Good question and good answer. I think we need a video just to tell the world. This is great news! Any other questions before he moves on?
Q: John: I'm just trying to picture in my mind the size of all of these things that one has to carry along. Wouldn't it be kind of difficult?
A: Stillson: Well, when you think about it, the only things that are required for a face-to-face conversation is the BrailleNote and if you carry around a BrailleNote, you'll have it on your shoulder strap. And, in your pocket, you can have the DB Companion phone, which is the size of a standard cell phone. If you want to have the keyboard along, you can choose to do that, but if you're just going out to make a transaction or to the doctor's office or whatever, that's not a necessary requirement. So, in regard to a standard conversation, you're just having two pieces and they're both awfully portable. Much more portable than has previously been available.
A: Acosta: You can put the keyboard in your backpack, John with your lunch or something, but I know what you mean. It was a good question, a very good question. I can just see that interaction with the doctor or at the store. A deaf-blind guy has a chance to communicate. I think sighted guys are going to love this. You know, like everybody else, we all like to talk with each other, and I think it's great! Okay, Greg, unless there are other questions, do you want to move forward?
COMMENT: Laura: Suggestion to use www.teachertube.com , since YouTube is blocked by many school districts and Dominic said thanks for that suggestion.
COMMENT: Kelly Burma: The PC face-to-face is a great option for communications between a deaf-blind person and a blind person as many terminal programs are quite screen reader friendly.
STILLSON: I think we're going to go on to what is my favorite part to demonstrate of the DBC, and it really gives you that shock-and-awe factor. When you walk outside, if you're going to go out for the day, or if you are going to runs some errands or whatever, when I walk outside my door, my cell phone is connected to me. If I don't have it, I feel naked. It's something that has become such a constant accessory to everybody. And, a deaf-blind person, if you think about it, a cell phone does them virtually no good, because they are not able to hear conversation, they're not able to see any text messages or any of that. When you think about it, cell phones give you so much security. And if you're bored when waiting for the bus, you're able to waste time and have a conversation with somebody. I mean if you think about the amount of time that you spend on a cell phone and the freedom and flexibility it gives you, it's something that the deaf-blind population really can't take advantage of.
When the DB Companion is shipped to you it's not a cell phone essentially. It's a Bluetooth Companion so that face-to-face and TTY conversations can occur, but with a SIM card, if you have a GSM phone and you're dealing with AT&T or T-Mobile, if you get a SIM card from either one of those stores, if you put it on that cell phone - what we did is to turn our DB Companions into go-phones. I put x-number of dollars of text messages on that SIM card, and what I can do is with the BrailleNote connected to the DB phone via Bluetooth, if I want to text message Dominic, I can do that from my DBC unit now. From the KeyChat menu I can space down to start a new conversation. It will ask me whom I want to chat with and I can choose to select a contact from my contacts list or I can type in a phone number at that point. When I type in a phone number it will ask me if it's going to be a TTY or an SMS conversation. At that point, I can send a text message from my DBC unit. It will send out through the SIM card of the cell phone and Dominic can receive that text message on his cell phone. So for instance, let's say I'm waiting for my bus or I had a cab coming. Let's say the cab never showed up. What would you do normally? You'd call somebody and say, "Hey I'm stranded, can you come pick me up" or something like that. And, now a deaf-blind person can have that communication. They can text anybody with a cell phone and say they're stranded. As soon as Dominic receives my message, he can text me back and as soon as that cell phone SIM card receives that message, I will get a notification on my Braille display that says there is a message from Dominic that says, "Yes, I can come pick you up," or something along those lines. It's such a simple thing when you think about it, but when seeing it in action and seeing the reaction by deaf-blind people, it's incredible that this is now available to them.
Q: Acosta: So you have the SIM card, you send Dominic a message. He doesn't need a SIM card nor does he need any special thing. I mean I'm really not a techy here. Does he need anything if you call me? I don't know what I have. I think I have one, but could I just text you back and you'd get it?
A: Stillson: Absolutely. The beauty of this is that I can text any cell phone that is texting enabled, which virtually all of them are now, and it doesn't matter whether you have a SIM card or whether you're on Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile or whatever, as long as you can receive text, I can text to you using the SIM card that's inside my DB Companion, you can receive that text and text me back and we can have a text message conversation.
Q: Lynn: Is the keyboard foldable?
A: No, but it is the same size as the BrailleNote and a good typing keyboard.
Comment: Lynn Evans: I get my freedom and flexibility from my Stream.
A: Gagliano: You can actually use many USB keyboards, including those that roll up, so I would guess that a folding USB would work fine.
Q: Acosta: But a deaf-blind person down-the-road, could call the Police Department right in his town. He'd have to get a cell phone there, but you know, with a little education they could call him back. There could now be access to Paratransit. I can't list them all. I was at a restaurant the other day and a blind guy with his NFB cell phone, you know the whole thing cost $2,000, but he called the bus schedule. He said my bus will be here in 30 minutes. I said, "How do you know? Did you memorize it?" He said that, no, he had called and it texted back to him. And, that's what we want for the deaf-blind. I think this is so great.
STILLSON: Yeah, it's incredible. Let's say you want an answer to something really quick. I'll give you a real live situation. I do a lot of traveling around the country, and occasionally I'll be away from an Internet connection. I want to find out if my flight's on time. I don't want to go through the 7,000 menus that you have to go through to find out if your flight's on time if you call the number. What I can do is text message Google, and I can text message them my flight number. A real life situation that now is available to the deaf-blind population now. They can actually text message Google, ask a question, put in their flight number, and it will say yes it's on time or, no it's not. That's just a small example. As you said, you can text message. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think you can text message now emergency contacts and they'll be able to text you back or call you back.
ACOSTA: Okay, let's move forward. We're going to be getting into the price, because I want to hear this for our charitable organization. We've just got to give a grant to some deaf-blind person to help them.
Q: One other comment came in from Kelly: In the case of calling the police department, are there not TTY devices installed there that one could call with a cell phone?
STILLSON: I'm sure that 911 or something like that has a TTY capability, but what we're talking about right now is if you're not in your home and you're outside. I'm not familiar if you can text message a TTY contact or not, but we're just talking about straight up SMS conversations right now. And, I'll turn it over to Dominic for the pricing.
ACOSTA: Are we at that point already?
GAGLIANO: I just wanted to say, too, I think when we've had these emergencies on campus, you know, conveying messages to a large group of people, the text messaging has been a very effective way to communicate, and we certainly saw it in the last presidential election with our candidate and now 44th President, Barack Obama. They did quite an amazing media and communication through text messaging, so it's a very, very powerful tool. I remember meeting a woman in Louisiana, who said she could track down her son anywhere he was at anytime, so I'm sure her son will enjoy the communication from mom, through her DBC. Because it's based on the existing BrailleNote there are a number of deaf-blind people in our community that currently use the BrailleNote, and we offer an upgrade kit. The kit includes the DBC Companion phone with the software installed; it includes the keyboard, the tether, and the strap. We've done the documentation in Braille and also in print. The kit is available as an add-on then to the existing BrailleNote and the price on that is $2,495. We provide all the paring numbers and an installation guide. I actually had someone tell me that the installation of a DBC was easier than installing a KeySoft upgrade, because we include the SD card with the software on it, too. So, we've tried to make it as straight forward as possible. If you don't have a BrailleNote, then you can get the entire package: BrailleNote mPower DBC with either an 18-cell Braille display or a 32-cell display with a Braille keyboard or the QWERTY keyboard, and it also includes all of the accessories. So, in addition to working with our regular market, such as education and rehab, we're working closely with many of the TEDPA organizations, which stands for (Telecommunications Equipment Distribution Program or Project Agency), something like that. And, they are the organizations that many states have in providing TTY and phone application systems to people within their state. Many times an individual will pay a rate, if you have a landline coming into your home, and it will vary from state to state anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar for each line that comes in with a monthly surcharge that helps pay for TTY devices, and so it's a very exciting time as Greg said. There are many people that have TeleBrailles that have started to fail. The BraillePhone, which is no longer available, and communication has been crucial. We've had people ask us about new and more interesting technologies, but I think this is a very first step in getting things going, and if it is successful, then it will just continue to evolve into even more modern technology. So, at this point, Greg and I are happy to answer any of your questions, thank you.
ACOSTA: Pardon me, to make it real clear, the price for the upgrade for the first one, because I know a friend who has a BrailleNote. They can get that through their agency or buy one, but if you buy both, then is it the price of the mPower plus the $2,500 above it, just so we all know for the package?
GAGLIANO: Thanks for reminding me, Bob. I forgot about that. Again, the upgrade price is $2,495, and then on the 32-cell BrailleNote DBC it's $7,995, and the 18-cell is $6,195. So, you're adding about, I think $2,500 or so to the price of the existing BrailleNote. It seems like a lot of money, and of course it is. There is a lot of development that went into this and the phone is not a low cost phone, unfortunately, because of the screen and the keyboard. I do want to say I learned, (this is before my time), that the price of the TeleBraille, I believe, back in 1972 was $7,500. So, we're still dealing with expensive Braille technology and wanted to make sure that we had all of the support material with the product, as well.
ACOSTA: Thank you. Any other questions as we move to a conclusion here?
Q: Hi, Lillian from Philadelphia: I'm sorry I didn't hear the price. I had to leave the room for a minute, so could you please tell me how much the item is?
STILLSON: Yeah, hi Lillian. An upgrade kit is $2,495. The 18-cell new unit is $6,195, and a brand new 32-cell unit would be $7,995.
LILLIAN: Okay, thank you. I guess…you're talking like thousands, right, correct?
STILLSON: Yeah, that's correct. As Dominic had mentioned, it is expensive. It's very expensive Braille technology, but when you look at it in comparison to what the cost was, you know, 20 or 30 years ago, as he said, the TeleBraille went for about $7,500 and here in 2009 we're selling ours for $7,900. So, if you take inflation and such, whatever, that's the comparison that we've been going off from as much as we can. Something else I wanted to touch on real quickly, since we're running low on time, is as I said before, you can change the device into Advance Mode, so for those users who have been KeySoft users in the past and do want the complete flexibility of using KeySoft and the BrailleNote's functionality, you will be able to enable using an unlocking feature in the DBC. You'll be able to unlock all of the KeySoft features. So, not only will you have the DBC functionality of texting and TTY with face-to-face, but you'll also have the email, the Internet, and word processing - all of those features as well. And, along with the newly featured KeyChat as well. When you are dealing with the functionality of the unlocked BrailleNote, you also get some added features as well. Let's say you set an alarm, for instance, and you're using the planner. Now, in conjunction with the DB Companion phone, if the alarm is sounding, it's not going to do a deaf-blind person very much good, so what we did is we had the DB Companion phone. If you're within 30 feet of the BrailleNote when the alarm goes off it's going to vibrate for you to tell you that there is an alarm and you're missing an appointment. And so, just another one of the small things that is often overlooked, when you're dealing with a deaf-blind individual.
ACOSTA: I'm always 30 feet near my BrailleNote, so that's a given. You take it everywhere. Okay, any other final questions here, that's just great? Are there any microphone questions or any screen texting questions, please?
Q: Kelly asks when using Advance Mode is it possible to save the text of face-to-face, TTY, and SMS conversations in a file that can be later accessed by the word processor?
STILLSON: As I said before, it's the first go around, and as of right now we are dealing with the ability to just save your conversations and open them up in the DBC Operating Mode. So, as of right now we're dealing strictly with just reviewing a conversation.
ACOSTA: well, Kelly and Lynn, you guys here are two of the stars that have had some great questions, and that's great, I've learned so much.
On behalf of Accessible World, I want to say first, what a bold venture here on behalf of HumanWare. I'm ashamed to say; sometimes the deaf-blind are the forgotten minority. We know about them, we have deaf-blind friends, you know of the TellaTouch or something. I didn't hear about the TeleBraille, that shows you where I've been. And you say, gee that's nice, but this can open the world to a deaf-blind person. This is a giant stride, and I personally, along with Accessible World commend HumanWare for what its doing. You're ahead of everybody, as usual, and I want to thank you so much for being here tonight. And, of course, I don't know if you know, but Pat Price was deaf-blind through a great part of her life, and so she is very, she was very sensitive to the needs of the deaf-blind. This, I think, is important that we're talking about this right now, and that's why we went on with this program, because she really did everything to get this together, and just constantly said, "We've got to do more for the deaf-blind." So, thank you guys so much for being here.
Stillson: It's our pleasure, thank you for having us on.
GAGLIANO: Thank you very much, Bob, for the invitation to present the DBC, and Greg, thank you for doing a great job. There was one other question I'll read by Kelly: I'm also assuming that in Advance Mode you could use your contact list to make TTY and SMS calls, is this the case? And, I've responded in the text box; yes, there is also an address list that is the same as the BrailleNote, so you can use a contact list to make calls, TTY, or SMS. Thank you again, I think we had a really nice turnout, and thank you everyone for joining us.
ACOSTA: I wanted to add that whenever HumanWare comes we have, you know, 200-300 seats used. This shows that we need more educating, too, because we all have deaf-blind friends, and I thank those who came - spread the word. It's just great, and we're really glad you guys could be here.
ACOSTA: Well, ladies and gentlemen I think as much as we try, I think you know the word has gotten out, because Pat Price had so many friends. We lost Pat Price last night at 7:00 O'clock eastern time. Accessible World will be sending out very shortly an official statement. We wanted to hesitate, because we knew that you would find out. The blind grapevine is incredible, no matter what you do. But, we didn't want to put a damper on this show, because this was very dear to Pat's heart, and I could hear her saying, when I thought should we cancel it? And, I heard Pat say, "No, you go forward, you do not cancel it." She was a terrific lady. We're going to have a memorial next Monday here in Tek Talk. We'll probably need 500 seats; I'll alert Jim and the staff. We're going to have some of the leaders who knew Pat, but everyone will have a chance to comment. I want to make that clear. But there are certain people, like George Byes, the CEO of Talking Communities, and other people who knew Pat, and she knew so many, who want to speak. We will all speak. Pat suffered scoliosis of the spine. She suffered great pain, but Talking Communities, the computer, and the work she did extended her life. It saved her life. She had the world at her fingertips and loved every minute of it and loved you guys. And, we'll say more next week, but that's the story. We're going to have the memorial next Monday night. We're cancelling our February 9th one and moving it to the 16th, and I'll let the gentlemen know about that, but I want to talk to you first, and that will be next Monday night, right here in the Tek Talk room, and we will have a memorial. And, I want to tell you that Pat told me, "I don't like memorials," and I said, "Be quiet, if you go first we're going to have one." And, I'm sure she's chuckling upstairs, there. So, I'll let up here. My heart is broken. Accessible World will go forward. Her legacy will be remembered and carried on for a long, long time.
(Transcribed by Jo Ann Slayton.)