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President: Prof. Dr. Hendrik Fehr (D).
Vice President: Dr. Gilles Cogna (F), Dr. Martina Junius (D) Mr. Finbarr Mc Sweeny Project "Voice" of the ISIS/Ispra Dear Mr. Mc Sweeny First at all I would like to congratulate you for the appointment as Director General of the JRC and I wish you good luck in the development of this important DG. During a recent stay at Ispra I met Dr. Pirelli from the ISIS-Institute who demonstrated me the "voice" project. It so happened that I have a deaf child, using a Cochlear Implant (CI) and that I am president of the European Association of Cochlear Implant Users EURO-CIU, englobing now 18 European countries. At the last week's general assembly of EURO-CIU in Barcelona, I circulated the voice project description. The assembly was very impressed about this project. Indeed, the hearing impaired people need urgently this kind of device. The up till now existing voice recognition systems are not as powerful as the model I was shown by Dr. Pirelli. The deaf and heard of hearing society need more sub-tiling in European TV broadcastings. Sub-title is better understandable than sign-language interpretation. Apart from this utility as instrument for transmission of a speaker's voice the project could serve as mode for telecommunication e.g. between hearing impaired persons and their relatives, friends or colleagues. Unfortunately these new technologies are sometimes not tested by the end-users. EURO-CIU would like to let you know that we would appreciate if this project will be further developed and get soon into the market. EURO-CIU also suggest, that extensive tests are made. Given our large European wide network with hearing-impaired persons, it might be of interest for the project, that we join you for the test phase as partner or to suggest you individual and competent potential deaf users. We would appreciate very much, if you could inform
EURO-CIU about the future of this project. |
