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posted by janrinok on Monday December 19 2016, @02:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the shouting-is-not-the-answer dept.

The Federal Communications Commission last week approved one of the most important advances in communications technology for deaf and hard of hearing people in decades, in one of the agency's final acts under the leadership of outgoing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

In a move that's being hailed by accessibility advocates and leaders in the deaf and hard of hearing community as a historic step forward, the five-member FCC unanimously adopted rules to facilitate the transition from outdated, analog teletype (TTY) devices to a new, internet-based, real-time text messaging standard (RTT) compatible with the latest smart phones.

As a result of the FCC's action, the nation's wireless carriers and device manufacturers will be required to support RTT functionality, which allows real-time text messaging—without the need to hit "send"—in which the recipient can instantly see letters, characters and words as they are being typed.

[...] This innovation will facilitate more natural, conversation-friendly communication for deaf and hard of hearing people—without the need for separate, specialized hardware. It will also allow 911 operators to receive incomplete messages during an emergency, potentially saving lives. RTT technology is expected to be inter-operable across wireless networks and devices, creating the potential for unprecedented ease of communication between deaf and hearing people.


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 19 2016, @03:50PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 19 2016, @03:50PM (#443166)

    without the need to hit "send"

    Why? I mean why is this being promoted as the change?

    I remember phone tty as being 45 baud radio teletype and was motivated to enough to google verify it still is with one as a 1400 hz tone and zero as 1800 hz tone (aka a 400 hz "shift"). Plenty of ham radio audio interfaces for rtty already operate in vox mode and yes you can start and stop on character boundaries. You might have some fun with LTRS/FIGS shifting.

    I could swear there was another (older?) standard where 1400 Hz was mark and silence was space.

    Anyway I'd expect something more interesting as a 2.0 like stealing Olivia from the ham radio guys for immense higher speed and lower SNR and better error rates, or something like the AMTOR/SITOR modes or making the audio interface between the tty and phone work at 16 KHz for local station to station use. But instead they're pushing that the technology can do something it could always do via a simple UI change on existing transmitters, essentially it ships with VOX mode on rather than flip a switch from T/R modes...

    I wonder how long until the new standard is used for pranks and spam. Probably before its used by actual deaf people. Aside from deaf people who do pranks and spam of course.

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