My Grandfather is 92 years old and has had constant ear problems for
over ten years. He has been to the finest ear specialists money can
buy and yet the problems persist. He is not a candidate for surgery due
to his age and other physical problems. He has had every conceivable
hearing aide on the market. Every week he has some technician that
comes to his house to "fix" the problem, yet no real solution has ever
been found. For the most part he is quite lucid especially considering
his age, and yet this continual problem has quite understandably
caused constant frustration both for him and my Grandmother. Long gone
are the days (when for no other reason than this hearing problem) when
my Grandparents have felt comfortable attending church, meetings,
going out with friends etc. He is constantly in a state of depression
knowing he is mentally with it, yet the hearing problem keeps him
isolated.

What I am seeking is an alternative to hearing aids, surgeries etc. My
feeling is that considering the advances in technology that there must
be a device which could circumvent this problem and while his hearing
wouldn't necessarily improve, his ability to communicate certainly
would. One thought I had (though I am technologically challenged) is
that maybe there would be a device that he could hang around his neck
that would recognize people's voices and take their words and convert
them to written text which he then could read and respond back to verbally. 

While this is a crude solution for a huge problem, our family's feeling is
that anything would be better than what he has today.

Please help us with every conceivable idea you can find, while keeping
in mind what his limitations are as listed above.

Thanks

The technology you envisioned became a reality just a few months ago. 
Although not quite as sophisticated as your vision, the new
iCommunicator advanced speech-to-text technology is the first of its
kind to enter the marketplace. It allows effective two-way
communication to occur in most natural environments using a laptop
computer.

" Version 3.1, developed by Interactive Solutions, Inc., is a leading
edge communication access technology. This very powerful tool provides
a multisensory, interactive communication solution for persons who are
deaf or hard of hearing and other persons who experience unique
communication challenges. The iCommunicator™ promotes independent
communication for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, and is
offered as an alternative, rather than a replacement, for sign
language interpreters."
http://www.myicommunicator.com/


With software called iCommunicator from Interactive Solutions, a
speaker talks into a wireless microphone  and the speech is
transmitted to the user's laptop computer (a Pentium 4-level processor
is required). The speech is converted into text,  and can also be
translated to sign language on the computer screen and transmitted to
a connected hearing aid or assisted-listening device. Users can type
back to the speaker or allow the computer to speak for them. The
result is a two-way communication device that allows anyone to sit
down with a deaf individual and have a two-way conversation in real
time, says Michael F. Dorety, executive vice president of business
development for Interactive Solutions. "This product creates a whole
different level of independence," he says, because it requires less
reliance on other people for communication.
Interactive Solutions
www.isi-icomm.com
iCommunicator software, wireless microphone and transmitter and
peripheral equipment -- retail price of $3,999
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB1033423870144086393,00.html

SARASOTA, Fla. and PEABODY, Mass., October 16, 2002 - ScanSoft, Inc.
(Nasdaq: SSFT), the leading supplier of imaging, speech and language
solutions, and Interactive Solutions, Inc. today introduced the
iCommunicator™ 3.0, a revolutionary product that converts speech into
video-based sign language in real-time. Developed by ISI, the patented
iCommunicator application uses ScanSoft® Dragon NaturallySpeaking® for
automatic speech recognition, and ScanSoft RealSpeak™ for converting
text into synthesized human speech.
http://www.scansoft.com/news/pressreleases/2002/20021016_icommunicator.asp


For telephone communication there is the technology known as TTY.
A Telecommunication Device for the Deaf (TDD) or TeleTypewriter (TTY)
offers one means of telephone communication for people who are deaf or
severely hearing impaired. A TDD looks like a small computer with a
standard keyboard and LCD display. The user places the handset of the
telephone on the TDD and then "talks" by typing messages on the
keyboard. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires companies that
offer telephone services to be connected to a relay service so that a
person using a TDD can communicate with them. This is extremely
important, because prior to the passage of the ADA, a person who used
a TDD could only communicate with others who also had TDDs. Now, TDD
users can use their phones in the same ways that hearing people use
their telephones.

A Text teletype (TTY) machine is a device used to make telephone calls
by people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. The TTY
produces a signal that is carried over regular phone lines to another
TTY which interprets those signals into readable display much like a
fax machine interprets its signals onto a printed page.
 
If you have a phone, you can use a TTY. The phone's handset is placed
onto the couplers of the TTY, and it is the phone's handset that is
used to transmit and receive the signals produced by the TTY. When
using a TTY, there must be another TTY on the other end of the
transmission for communication to take place.
 
Because relatively few people use TTY's, many deaf or hard of hearing
people use the Relay Service to communicate over the phone. The Relay
Service is provided by the phone company to allow TTY users access to
communication with non-TTY users.

You can learn more about TTY and find links to vendors at
http://www.abouttty.com/


A world of entertainment is available through the government sponsored
program Captioned Media
http://www.cfv.org/about.asp
The mission of the Captioned Media Program (CMP) is to provide all
persons who are deaf or hard of hearing awareness of and equal access
to communication and learning through the use of captioned educational
media and supportive collateral materials.
The CMP collection features over 4,000 English- and Spanish-language
videos, DVDs and other media including special-interest and
educational titl
 Deaf and hard of hearing persons, teachers, parents, and others may
borrow materials. There are no rental, registration, or postage fees.
Captioned Media Program 
National Association of the Deaf 
1447 E. Main Street 
Spartanbrug, SC 29307 
Voice: (800) 237-6213 
TTY: (800) 237-6819 
Fax: (800) 538-5636 
Email: info@cfv.org 
Web Page: http://www.cfv.org 
 
Here are some links to organizations focusing on the deaf:

ABLEDATA 
8401 Colesvilles Road, Suite 200 
Silver Spring, MD 20910
V (800)227-0216 
TTY: (301) 608-8912 
Fax: (301) 608-8958 
Email: ABLEDATA@macroint.com 
Web page: http://www.abledata.com 

Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf, Inc. 
3417 Volta Place NW
Washington, DC 20007 
Voice/ TTY: (202) 337-5520 
Fax: (202) 337-8314 
Email: agbell2@aol.com 
Web Page: http://www.agbell.org 


National Association of the Deaf 
814 Thayer Avenue, Suite 250 
Silver Spring, MD 20910-4500 
Voice: (301) 587-1788 
TTY: (301) 587-1789 
Fax: (301) 587-1791 
Email: nadinfo@nad.org 
Web Page: http://www.nad.org 


Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, Inc. (SHHH) 
7910 Wisconsin Ave Suite 1200 
Bethesda, MD 20814 
Voice: (301) 657-2249 
TTY: (301) 657-2249 
Fax: (301) 913-9413 
Email: national@shh.org 
Web Page: http://www.shhh.org 

Gallaudet College
http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/InfoToGo/418.html

Association of Late Deafened Adults
http://www.alda.org/

Late-Acquired Deafness
http://www.buttepublications.com/latedeaf.html

Medical Aspects of Hearing Loss
http://www.hearinglossweb.com/Medical/medical.htm

Late Deafened
http://deafness.about.com/cs/latedeafened/

Search strategy: deaf communication  and TTY, captioning, speech
recognition; late deafness

If you have questions about this response or require additional
information, please post a Request for Clarification before rating
this answer.


Nellie Bly
Google Answers Researcher

Hi,

Great answer, Nellie Bly. This question took me back to time spent
with my grandmother, who suffered from the same affliction. My sister
bought her a device that just amplified the sound. I'm sorry, I do not
know the name of it, but it wasn't expensive ($25 or less) and could
be found in any drug store. At one end of a wire was the mouth piece
that a person talked into and at the other end of the wire was a small
box where the sound came out of, sort of like listening to the radio.
She didn't have to hold it up to her ear like a phone, she just keep
it in her lap and turned up the sound. As I recall, it was a bit weird
getting used to talking into the thing, but my grandmother's face lit
up to be able to hear our voices again. I'm sorry that I can't give
you more details, but I'm sure if you ask at the pharmacy, they will
know what you are talking about.

Best of luck,
hummer