Technology grows for the hard of hearing

In today’s society, almost every person owns a mobile phone. But for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, cell phones have largely limited them to text messaging only. Providers like T-mobile have long created data only plans on all their phones with keyboards to cater to this market. But technology is stepping it up!

Cornell researchers have created a cell phone that allows deaf people to communicate in sign language. For deaf people, this is more than a matter of convenience, but rather “untethered communication in their native language.”

The phones use videoconferencing to allow communication in a live feed, unlike regular cell phones where video messages have to taken and then sent. They have been designed to maximize battery life and are optimized to transmit clearly, be user-friendly and use minimum bandwidth.

Facial expressions are extremely important in ASL because it provides a lot of added information. Researchers made sure to make it clearest in the face and hands for this reason.
This is will offer deaf and hard of hearing people the ability to choose how they would like to communicate with others without limitations.

See the article here