Don’t forget that DeafGadgets has a Twitter feed and a Facebook page!
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mVideoPlayer is a free Android app that plays many different video formats and displays subtitle (.srt) files rather well. The interface is very clean and users have a lot of control over the subtitle size, position, font, and timing.
mVideoPlayer supports the following subtitle files: .srt, .ssa, .ass, .mpl, .smi, .txt, and .sub sami. There is also built-in subtitle search powered by OpenSubtitles.org, and users can download and pair a subtitle with a video in less than 10 seconds. This app supports many video formats but not .mov.
Behind the cut is a slide show of screen shots – take a look.
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A recent conversation with an acquaintance from an internet community I frequent prompted me to write this post. He’s not deaf, but he works from home in a basement with headphones on, and often misses the doorbell being rung. He asked the community if it was possible to somehow have his doorbell alert him via Growl on OSX, and I thought this was a really great idea, so I’m throwing it out here. I did a lot of Googling, but didn’t come up with a solution. With the level of technical, hacker, and Burning Man expertise that can be drawn upon here, I am sure someone reading this can put something together.
Alert systems for the deaf are often expensive and bulky. Generally, the basic concept is that one has several central transmitters in various rooms of the house that are hooked up to a lamp. Extra transmitters hooked up to the doorbell, smoke alarm, motion detector, baby monitor, and intruder alarm send wireless signals to the central transmitters, and they will cause the lamps they are hooked into to flash, and in some cases, a bed to vibrate. In some cases, doorbell and smoke alarm systems have to be hard-wired and installed by a professional electrician. There are pager-sized accessories that one can attach to their belt that will send vibrations when a signal is received, but to me, that’s the equivalent of buying a kitchen unitasker like an avocado slicer. Why have extra gadgets? Why not hack the gadgets we currently have?
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My TMobile Sidekick LX finally bit the dust so I got a new Epic 4G yesterday and switched from TMobile to Sprint after 8 years with TMobile. It was an easy decision because Sprint offers deaf-friendly data-only plans and a larger selection of phones.
First impressions of the Epic: love it! My only “complaints” are, the visual alerts aren’t as prominent, and the battery doesn’t last very long (and yes, I have Advanced Task Killer.) A friend mentioned external battery packs, so I’ll look into that.
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Captioning blooper found on an unknown TV network – someone passed this along to me but doesn’t know which TV station it is.
Ed note: Snopes says it’s Los Angeles news station KABC-TV. Thanks Pete.
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Jaman is an online movie site that specializes in indie, art house, and foreign films. Full-length feature movies can be downloaded to watch on your computer or television (no iPod or iPhone capability, yet) and cost $1.99 to rent and $4.99 to purchase. There are over 1,000 titles to choose from, and being that a lot of these selections are foreign, there are films available that come with English subtitles.
I am hoping that Jaman will show other movie download companies that subtitles/captions on downloads do work. Dear iTunes and Netflix: hint, hint.
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In November, Emirates Airlines became the first major airline to offer closed captions on inflight entertainment. All seats in all classes of the airline are equipped with their iCE (Information Communication Entertainment) system, which offers over 600 channels and other snazzy features, such as viewing the aircraft’s external cameras, and sending SMS or email from your seat. Passengers now have the option to turn on closed captions when viewing movies or television programs, and the captions are offered in up to 12 languages. Panasonic Avionics‘ eX2 technology is what is driving the closed captions.
I hope we’ll be seeing this in more airlines soon.
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Ed. note: I updated this post at 14:35 PST on Monday, Feb 11, 2008 to add more information of each candidate’s voting record on accessibility & deaf tech issues, and upgraded McCain’s grade from “F” to “D-” based on his voting record.
This post over on Daily Kos by “slinkerwink” describes how Barack Obama is the only candidate with consistently captioned videos. That got me thinking, and I did some research: a report card grading each presidential candidate on their accessibility to the deaf.
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Wired recently found my post on Deaf Bunny and did an article covering them. Then Penny Arcade picked it up and turned it into a comic. I think it’s funny.
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I was reluctant to post this because it’s been all over the deaf blogosphere, but just in case my readers haven’t seen it yet, this is a very funny commercial that aired during last week’s Super Bowl. Thank you, Pepsi! More info on the video here.
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