Suhyun Kim, a Pratt Institute student has developed a mobile phone for those who are hard of hearing - the Visual Sound Mobile Phone. This gadget has the ability to convert voice into text and vice-versa.

It is an attractive looking device, which has a scroll structure. It opens out like one too. There are two cylindrical rod-like structures on either ends. When opened out, the rolled display within, unfolds. This display is a touch-sensitive one. During a call, whatever is spoken by the person on the other end, is converted to text and displayed on the screen. The user of the Visual Sound Phone can text in whatever he wants to say on the screen. This will be converted to speech for the other person to hear. A really novel and useful idea!

Yanko Design points out that such kind of communication does cause delays, to allow the texting and text-to-voice and voice-to-text conversions, but it does provide a solution for the deaf to communicate with a phone. Not just the deaf, even the dumb* can use this mobile phone for communicating with people far flung.

Dumb* - In this context, strictly refers to people who are unable to speak, maybe due to deafness.

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