Microsoft Phone product

金子＠マイクロソフトさん
しばらくです。高岡です。
アメリカの中途失聴・難聴者のＭＬに以下のようなことを
見たのですが、どういうものでしょうか。
視覚障害者にも使えるような・・・
（参考）
TTYというのは、電話回線を使って、直接文字で同時双方向
交信するキーボード付きの文字電話です。従来は、TTYとい
う専用の電話だったのですが、今はパソコンが使われるよう
になっています。携帯用とかいろいろあります。
このTTYと声の電話を仲介するのが、アメリカのリレーサー
ビスです。ＡＤＡで規定されていますね。
アメリカの聴覚障害者は、このＴＴＹをモバイルで使用する
ようになりつつあります。日本ではスカイウォーカーが普及
していますが、双方向同時対話ではありません。
文中には、携帯電話が補聴器とマッチするように書かれてい
ますが、アメリカはアナログの携帯電話が多いので補聴器に
ノイズを与えることはないのですが、日本で普及しているの
はＰＨＳも含めてデジタルです。これが補聴器に削岩機の
様なノイズを与えるので、私たちは対策を電話機メーカーと
補聴器メーカーに求めています。
ＮＴＴドコモがイヤホンマイクジャックに接続する拡声用
アダプターを開発したので、今は使えるようになりました。
コードが邪魔といえば邪魔ですが。

tadashiTZN@xxxxxxx
高岡
----------------------------------
Yesterday I made a very happy discovery at the CTI Expo in San 
Jose.

The new Microsoft Phone product, which is an integrated cordless 
900 mhz
phone, voice modem and a software program, is capable of 
Baudot-TTY
communication.

If you want to call a TTY user, you can use your computer to do 
so
instead of needing to use a separate TTY machine.

If you yourself require a TTY for phone communication, your 
hearing
friends, family, and co-workers may be very, very interested in 
getting
this product so they can talk with you directly instead of going 
through
the relay service.  Or if you communicate a lot with deaf 
callers, you
may find this very convenient along with other features and 
worth the
$199 cost.

This product is also compatible with screenreaders, so blind 
consumers
could theoretically communicate directly with deaf callers.

The cordless phone itself has excellent hearing-aid 
compatibility and is
capable of great volume---it was actually a bit too loud for me 
at the
highest setting with my hearing aid.  (I forgot to test it 
without my
hearing aid.)  There is a headset jack on the phone but no LED 
display.
Calls are announced by voice and on the computer if you have 
Caller ID.
You can screen the call from the handset without picking up on 
the call,
I think, if you have the program set up as an answering system.

More info about the product is at http://www.microsoft.com/phone 
but
there isn't much info about the Baudot capability there.  It 
uses speech
recognition on the phone---you can tell it to call your boss, 
Mom, etc.
(if your computer is on).

The computer program is unfortunately is NOT capable of VCO 
transmission
at this time.  You can't switch back and forth between voice and 
TTY. 
You'd can switch from voice to TTY but not from TTY to voice.  
(However,
I imagine you could still use VCO using a regular TTY and the 
cordless
phone.)

I don't have the phone itself but quizzed one of the developers 
about it
at the exhibit hall.  So there are some things I don't know, like
whether you can save the TTY conversation to your computer, but I
imagine you can select, copy and paste into a separate text 
editor.

The TTY functions are very basic, so don't expect a lot of 
extras like
being able to send a saved message.  

Maybe you can ask your relatives to go in together on this phone 
as a
present for you!

There is a contest at the Microsoft Phone page, so if you enter 
each
week, you may win a free Microsoft Phone!

Dana Mulvany
dmulvany@xxxxxxx