Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/12/84; site iddic.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!ihnp4!zehntel!tektronix!orca!iddic!richr From: richr@iddic.UUCP (Rich Rodgers) Newsgroups: net.singles,net.consumers Subject: Re: Re: Commercial ventures Message-ID: <1866@iddic.UUCP> Date: Fri, 30-Nov-84 13:34:44 EST Article-I.D.: iddic.1866 Posted: Fri Nov 30 13:34:44 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 2-Dec-84 04:46:07 EST References: <940@teddy.UUCP> Reply-To: richr@iddic.UUCP (Rich Rodgers) Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR Lines: 25 Summary: In article <940@teddy.UUCP> mlf@teddy.UUCP (Matt L. Fichtenbaum) writes: > My own idea for an indispensible consumer product takes note of the fact >that many TV programs are now being broadcast "closed captioned." These >send character codes for the subtitles during the picture blanking interval. >This means that the receiver has the subtitle text in machine-readable form >(the decoder then generates the video for the characters). > > Now, hardware to synthesize speech is available and, because of the >prevalence of LSI chips, becoming cheaper and cheaper. One could take the >character codes corresponding to the subtitles, process them into words >with a microprocessor, and convert the resulting words into speech. Said >another way, one could build a little box to speak the subtitles! > > That way, even blind people could watch TV! > > Matt Are you serious????? Subtitles take away most of the sounds. Blind people can already hear a normal television, so would not need this technical marvel of yours. Why am I here, what am I doing?