The document discusses the development of real-time text communication technologies to provide an alternative to voice calls for those who are deaf or have speech impairments. It describes how SMS and instant messaging were early solutions for mobile text communication but lacked interactivity. The AEGIS project worked to develop real-time text (RTT) capabilities based on standards to allow more natural, bidirectional conversational text on mobile devices. Testing was positive though some users found the initial two-window interface confusing. Future versions aimed to improve the interface and expand modalities.

1. Real-time Text Communication:
Making It Real
(Jon Azpiroz, Karel Van Isacker)
Presented by Karel Van Isacker (EPR)

2. The background
● Voice communication
● Not possible for everyone
● Alternative manners (BSL over MSN, in
the past ICQ, now AOL IM)
● But what about mobiles?
● Quest for alternatives to traditional
voice telephony that could be accessible
across desktop and mobile
communications devices.

3. The vehicle
● FP7 AEGIS project
● Project title:
– Open Accessibility Everywhere:
Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards
● Starting date: 1 September 2008
● Duration: 48 Months
● Integrated Project (IP) within the ICT
programme of FP7

4. The directions
● FP7 AEGIS project
● Desktop accessibility
– odt2Braille, odt2Daisy, Symbol support, …
● Web applications accessibility
– ARIA, …
● Mobile accessibility
– Tecla (mobile switch), …, and RTT
● Available on iPhone/Android market,
SourceForge, …

5. How?

6. Background Of Text Communications
● ICT pushed
● the device for the deaf (TDD) or
teletypewriter (TTY) (1964) (also used
for people with speech impairments)
● Problem: different textphone standards,
need for landline

7. Background Of Text Communications
● ICT pushed
● Short Message Service (SMS) (1984)
● First SMS message sent over the
Vodafone GSM network (UK) on 3
December 1992, from a personal
computer to an Orbitel 901 handset.
Text was "Merry Christmas".
● Commercialised in 1993 (Nokia only
handset manufacturer whose total GSM
phone line supported user-sending of
SMS text messages).

8. Background Of Text Communications
● Some SMS numbers
● 2010: 6.1 trillion SMS text messages
were sent. 192,192 SMS per second.
● SMS industry worth over $81 billion
globally as of 2006.

9. Background Of Text Communications
● Advantages of SMS
● Used by the hearing impaired
community.
● Text-based, easy to use, affordable and
mobile.
● Vibrating function of the handset alerts
the user about a message.

10. Background Of Text Communications
● Disadvantages of SMS
● Unreliable system
● No guarantee that an SMS message will
get to its destination or will get to its
destination quickly
– Delay messages for minutes, days or even
lose them completely.
– Most common cause of delivery failure is
due to destination busy, memory full or
destination out of service.
– Limited interactivity

11. Increase interactivity
● Instant Messaging (IM) for mobile
devices
● More interactivity as users can exchange
messages faster and more efficiently.
● IM Messages are cheaper than SMS.
● Problem: lack of standardisation
(BlackBerry, MSN, Google, AOL, Yahoo,
ICQ, FaceBook, WhatsApp,…)
– Few IM clients work with different networks
(Pidgin for Win, InstantBird for Linux)

12. Increase interactivity
● Instant Messaging (IM) for mobile
devices
● Deaf users like IM for its interactivity,
the possibility for both parties to type at
the same time and the ability to display
emotions through the use of emoticons.
● However, IM is not as interactive as
voice communications.
– delays in the conversations
– they cannot interrupt each other

13. Real-time Text
● Real-time text (RTT) is conversational
text that is sent and received on a
character by character basis.
● A more natural, bi-directional flow of
conversation takes place.
● Pioneered by ICQ in 1996.
● Based on standards (SIP +
RFC4103) for interoperability

14. Real-time Text brought to the mobile
● Based on J2ME
● Wide availability of the application is
one of the most important
requirements.
● Roughly 78% of the mobile phones sold
in 2010 were inexpensive feature
phones that run the Java Micro Edition
(Java ME) environment.
● Application will be compatible in mobile
devices with different OS such as
Symbian or BlackBerry.

15. Real-time Text brought to the mobile
● Functionality
● User should login with a
user name and password to
start using the applications.
● Once registered, the
application provides three
main functionalities: make /
receive real-time text calls,
see the call logs and
manage the RTT contacts.

16. Real-time Text brought to the mobile
● Functionality
● Select existing contact or type directly
the RTT address of the other user.

17. Real-time Text brought to the mobile
● Functionality
● Once the call is
accepted by the other
user
– 2 text boxes appear
– upper one show what
the remote user is
typing
– lower box shows what
user of device is
typing.

18. Real-time Text brought to the mobile
● User testing
● Spain, Belgium, Sweden, and the United
Kingdom
● 26 users with hearing impairments
● 11 experts and 11 tutors
● Feedback overall positive, and desire to
have this functionality directly
embedded in IM they use now
● But: 2 window conversation is new

19. Real-time Text brought to the mobile
● Next version (by August 2012)
● Chat based user interface (both
conversations shown in same screen).
● New modalities of communication.
● Character-by-character, versus word-by-
word.
● New client will be developed for LWUIT
Java devices. This will make RTT
compatible with touch screen devices.

20. Any questions?
● Jon Azpiroz
● Fundación Vodafone España
● Spain
● jon.azpiroz@vodafone.com
● Karel Van Isacker
● European Platform of Rehabilitation
● Belgium
● karel@phoenixkm.eu