"The concept itself is a creative one and hopefully its release will not be too delayed."

This is the term coined by Ultratec, Inc., to describe a service that they expect to be available sometime in the first quarter of 2001. What it is supposod to do is provide users with virtually instant written access to a verbatim account of what a talker says. It does this by employing the recent advances in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), coupled with an "Instant Captioning Device" that the company has developed.

To access the captions, a user presses a button on the instant captioning device. This automatically dials the captioning service center. At the center, a captionist listens to the conversation taking place at the user's location through the device's built-in microphone. The captionist repeats what she or he has heard into a speech recognition program that converts the message into written text. This text is then instantly transmitted back to the instant captioning device, either by a cell phone or landline connection. From the device, the signal is projected to the screen of a laptop computer or large TV monitor. According to the company, there is very little lag time between the original spoken message and the written version, unlike "real-time" captioning in which there may be a three or four second delay between the spoken utterance and its written version.

An important key to this development is the use of ASR with trained operators. To use the ASR program effectively requires that it be calibrated to the acoustics of a person's speech and for a talker to speak fairly fluently and without vocalized intrusive sounds (like "um") or hesitations.

The advantage of trained operators is that they can fluently repeat a talker's speech and make instant corrections when errors appear on the screen. The human brain, coupled to an advanced ASR program, make for a powerful combination. I recently spoke to two middle managers whose livelihoods were being jeopardized because of the difficulty they experienced during staff meetings. This device, coupled to a conference microphone, could make all the difference to them.

According to the company, the device is now undergoing consumer testing. No doubt they will first have to iron out some bugs before it is released to the market. None of these developments seem to go as originally planned (and hoped). Still, the concept itself is a creative one and hopefully its release will not be too delayed.

More information can be obtained from www.instantcaptioning.com.

From Hearing Loss, March/April, 2001. This column is supported, in part, by GRANT #133E980010 from the U.S. Department of Education, NIDRR, to the Lexington Center. Mention of products or companies by the author does not Indicate SHHH endorsement, nor should exclusion suggest disapproval. Since everyone's communication problems and needs vary, SHHH suggests consulting with your hearing health professional.