New Sprint service transcribes conversation to web in real time

Make smart financial decisions with DailyFinance

New Sprint service transcribes conversation to web in real time

by Chris Ziegler, posted Mar 5th 2008 at 2:51PM

Sprint is rolling out WebCapTel, an extension of its existing CapTel service that shows hard-of-hearing callers what the person on the other end is saying in real time -- but this time around, special equipment isn't needed. As its name implies, WebCapTel works through any web browser using any phone, turning the call into text quickly enough so that callers are able to respond naturally and with their own voice. Pretty darned cool; in fact, we think we're going to give it a try ourselves to see how it does. It's available now for calls within the US, and even better, it's free.

Filed under: Software, Sprint

Tags: access, accessible, deaf, hard of hearing, HardOfHearing, sprint, webcaptel

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

vote up

vote down

Report

Neutral

Ari Moshe @ Mar 5th 2008 4:03PM

Currently does not work. The activation email gives a link but the link reads

https://www.sprintcaptel.com/activate.asp?h=WebCaptel registration is full. Please check again at a later date.

vote up

vote down

Report

Highest Ranked

Norris Shelton @ Mar 5th 2008 4:13PM

The 3-letter agencies are tweaking the implementation.

vote up

vote down

Report

Neutral

Codey H. @ Mar 5th 2008 6:40PM

Wow, I have to say I am impressed with Sprint offering this, and free at that.

vote up

vote down

Report

Neutral

Jeremy W @ Mar 5th 2008 8:48PM

You guys realize that there is an actual person doing the transcription, don't you?

vote up

vote down

Report

Neutral

Michael S @ Mar 9th 2008 12:59AM

Ohhhhh.... that's why Sprint's customer care is so bad. Those people are actually multitasking, transcribing a call on one line while they do their best to not resolve your problem on the other line.

vote up

vote down

Report

Neutral

Jeremy W @ Mar 6th 2008 1:10AM

It's not two separate lines, though. They're actually wearing stereo headphones. So they hear the call they have to transcribe in one ear, and they hear you calling to complain about their crappy service in their other ear.

Resources

Sections

Manufacturers

Carriers - US

Carriers - Overseas

Carriers - Canada

Platforms

Network

Joystiq

Download Squad

TUAW

BloggingStocks

Urlesque

Autoblog