The deaf need to communicate with the mainstream hearing world in their employment, as consumers of goods and services, and in their social interactions. While this need has been generally recognized, technology in this area has been lacking. The Phase I R&D has produced TTY/TDD emulation software which will allow, for the first time, standard modems to communicate with the Baudot TTY's used by the deaf. In the Phase II, this technology, and NXi's network technology, will be used to address the needs of the deaf or speech impaired in communicating with the hearing in both a home and office environment. A hearing person will be able to conveniently call a deaf person, or vice versa, at home or office directly and a relay service will be conferenced into the call as needed. Call set up will be easier, and either party will be able to talk or type at any time to comment or interrupt leading to more natural conversations. The proposed R&D will add software support for the hardware developed in the Phase I, and the TTY emulation software will be ported to the 'WinCE' operating system, producing a new class of very portable 'TTY.'
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