The FCC is currently investigating closed caption radio for the hard of
hearing. WGBO and NPR are working on this project. Any thoughts? Is
it pretty easy for stations to convert their sound stream into
captioning. I wonder if anyone knows what kind of changes in receivers
we would need. The newer radios already type song titles and station
id's.

Thanks.

" ) writes:
The FCC is currently investigating closed caption radio for the hard of
hearing. WGBO and NPR are working on this project. Any thoughts? Is
it pretty easy for stations to convert their sound stream into
captioning. I wonder if anyone knows what kind of changes in receivers
we would need. The newer radios already type song titles and station
id's.

There was a time when subcarriers on FM stations was used for text. I can't
remember how experimental it was, but there were even experiments on using
it to deliver computer programs.

Like a lot of things, doing it is likelier easier than implementing it.
First they have to figure out a standard, convince companies to sell
such radios (or adaptors). Even if the radios can be dumb, and a nearby
computer used for the decoding, it will still require a radio with an output
jack to feed the computer.

And of course, someone will have to do the translation to text. That will
require funding.

Michael

So what's next, Braille Radio for the blind and deaf?

FC


Michael Black wrote:
" ) writes:
The FCC is currently investigating closed caption radio for the hard of
hearing. WGBO and NPR are working on this project. Any thoughts? Is
it pretty easy for stations to convert their sound stream into
captioning. I wonder if anyone knows what kind of changes in receivers
we would need. The newer radios already type song titles and station
id's.

There was a time when subcarriers on FM stations was used for text. I can't
remember how experimental it was, but there were even experiments on using
it to deliver computer programs.

Like a lot of things, doing it is likelier easier than implementing it.
First they have to figure out a standard, convince companies to sell
such radios (or adaptors). Even if the radios can be dumb, and a nearby
computer used for the decoding, it will still require a radio with an output
jack to feed the computer.

And of course, someone will have to do the translation to text. That will
require funding.

Michael

Michael Black wrote:


And of course, someone will have to do the translation to text. That will
require funding.


Or speech to text software ...



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wrote:
The FCC is currently investigating closed caption radio for the hard of
hearing. WGBO and NPR are working on this project. Any thoughts? Is
it pretty easy for stations to convert their sound stream into
captioning.

Actually, I think this would be the hard part. Most radio programming
isn't scripted; you'd pretty much have to have a "court reporter"
following the discussion & typing up the conversation. The situation
where two or more people are speaking at the same time is not well handled.

There is now speech recognition equipment available for captioning
television programming but it's VERY new. Still, that might be a
solution. It would be cost-prohibitive for most stations.

I wonder if anyone knows what kind of changes in receivers
we would need. The newer radios already type song titles and station
id's.

"RDS". On FM stations subcarriers could deliver enough data bandwidth
to easily handle this. (I don't think the RDS system has enough room in
the RT field but you could use a different subcarrier for the
captioning. )

AM stations don't have this capability. IBOC-AM stations do have a
small program-associated-data field but I doubt it can handle much more
than the station's call letters.

--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

wrote:
The FCC is currently investigating closed caption radio for the hard of
hearing. WGBO and NPR are working on this project. Any thoughts? Is
it pretty easy for stations to convert their sound stream into
captioning. I wonder if anyone knows what kind of changes in receivers
we would need. The newer radios already type song titles and station
id's.

Thanks.

What a great idea. I wouls imagine a radio with sub-carrier capability
would do the trick. The problem will be converting audio accurately to
text. Many of the services that convert text for TV programs can be
highly inaccurate and sometimes just stop all together. But it is
better than nothing. An automated solution would be ideal - here's
hoping.