The difficulties of the deaf are beyond the loss of hearing
itself, and underline a more general problem of lack of communication.
Help in reducing the gap between the deaf and the hearing world should
be enforced. Automatic recognition of speech in conversation, conferences
and telephone calls, with their translation into PC screen messages,
could be a powerful help for the deaf.
Although voice to text recognition packages are marketed primarily as
a means for allowing people in businesses to create documents without
using the keyboard, it is an application that holds great advantages
for the hearing impaired, blind, physically handicapped and elderly.
At present, hardware, software and services producers of voice to text
products hesitate to invest more, since the users' needs are not translated
into technical specifications and are sometimes not even known. On the
other hand, the Associations of the disabled have a limited overview
of possible technical new solutions and rarely have the opportunity
to participate in the feasibility studies of new projects. Both look
for Positive Actions, which might be of specific use to them and an
important reference for others.
The VOICE Project proposes not only the promotion of new technologies
in the field of voice to text recognition, but also to stimulate and
increase the use of new, widely diffused technologies, namely the Internet.
The objective of the project is that of uniting, by means of an Internet
VOICE Forum, Associations, companies, universities, schools, public
administrations and anyone else interested in voice recognition that
could benefit from such research. The Forum will become an intermediary
between the different concerned groups and will help in developing demonstrators
which will have an important impact, in disseminating information in
a highly fragmented world and in defining new aspects of standard products.
All the phases of the project will be developed with continuous and
tight participation of the users who will be helped in discussing their
needs with the industry and services providers. Two national meetings
and two European workshops will be organised for this reason and will
be equipped of live subtitling for the deaf, invited to the conference.
A demonstrator developed for an easier use of available voice to text
recognition systems will also be presented. The results will be disseminated
by reports and other documents, in printed form and also made available
via the VOICE Forum on the Internet.
The Associations of the deaf are considered both as the most interested
and critical users' group for all the possible applications in this
area, thus ensuring better products for all users. JRC-ISIS, as an impartial
European R&D centre, is in an ideal position to facilitate the dissemination
of information and understanding of user-requirements.
