Did you know? Bell Labs worked on a sign language telephone in 1979

These days, the hearing impaired can send a text message to communicate via phone, but before technology advanced, they needed to employee interpreters for telephone conversations.

Back in 1979, AT&T had an idea to develop a sign language telephone so that the hearing impaired could still communicate in that fashion.

The video below examines the Bell Laboratory (at one time a division of AT&T) research project conducted by Kenneth Knowlton and Vivien Tarttar.

VIDEO

Video via AT&T archives

The Bell Labs team used 27 points of lights on an individual’s hands and face to allow the hearing impaired to use American Sign Language to communicate remotely. The goal of the project was to take images of the points of light at each end of the conversation so the images could be coded to the capacity of one telephone line, making it possible to conduct conversations in ASL over standard telephone lines.

Tarttar and Knowlton work on the ASL phone.

In 1981, Tarttar and Knowlton released their findings in the scientific journal Nature . The article detailed the methods and results of the project which included a transcript of a sign language conversation conducted using a television and their method. They ended the paper concluding that there is a possibility of developing a sign language telephone.

The system was never developed into a usable technology, but the work set the stage for future contributions to improving the accessibility of telecommunications, media and information technology for the deaf and hard of hearing communities and paved the way for AT&T to receive a TDI James C. Masters Promotion Award “for providing innovative products and services that address the needs of people who are deaf or hard of hearing.”