Video relay service provider adapting the iPhone's FaceTime app for the Deaf community

From San Antonio Technology Examiner:

Since its release, Apple's Facetime feature for the iPhone 4, has been the word on the lips of many people recently. But beyond showing off haircuts and braces, the service is creating a lot of buzz in another community entirely: the deaf.

ZVRS, a video relay service provider, has announced what is said to be the world's first mobile video relay service using Apple's FaceTime app - a move that is likely to make the iPhone 4 the smartphone

of choice for the deaf community. For the first time, deaf and hearing-impaired callers will be able to communicate not only with each other, but also with hearing individuals while they're on the go.

While the technology behind a VRS is relatively simple, until now the service required its users to have a laptop or desktop computer with a webcam. For those of you unfamiliar with a VRS, the company gives a succinct explanation:

"VRS allows deaf and hard of hearing individuals to have telephone conversations with hearing people. Using a videophone with real-time video connection, an interpreter "relays" the conversation between the two parties: voicing what the deaf person is signing to the hearing caller and translating the spoken words into American Sign Language for the deaf/hard of hearing caller to see."

According to Tamara Suiter-Ocuto, a deaf iPhone user, the iPhone 4, with its face-to-face chat capability, has already made a big splash among deaf users.

"Having FaceTime on iPhone 4 is a huge thing in the deaf community, because its the very first time any deaf individual can make a phone call to another deaf individual on their phones," she wrote in an email. "Before, we only could communicate with each other using email, text or IM."

The way it works is completely innovative to modern technology. The communication barrier has now been broken.

While FaceTime will offer a much more mobile experience than any previous offering for deaf users, it does have the limitation of only operating over Wi-Fi networks and not over AT&T's 3G. ZVRS is working around this and seeing how far the limits can be pushed on this application.

Details on the upcoming service are a bit light, but we know that it will launch on July 26, the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. For more information, you can sign up on the company's mailing list.