ATU627 – sComm with Jason Curry and Anna Hanson

Hello. My name is Jason Curry, CEO and co-founder of sComm. sComm is the engineer and manufacturer of the UbiDuo, and we are a 20-year-old company since inception of the idea born out of frustration that my dad came up with the idea of the UbiDuo to communicate with me because he does not know how to sign, and the rest is history. And this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson, with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana.

Welcome to episode 627 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on June 2nd, 2023. On today’s show, we are super excited to welcome Jason Curry and Anna Hansen on the show. Now they’re both from sComm. They’re going to tell us about the UbiDuo, UbiTerps, and their new app, Moozumo. Just so our listeners know, you will hear Anna most of the time. Anna will not only offer a little bit of information about sComm, but she’s also doing the interpreting for Jason today so that we’re able to communicate. We also welcome Amy Barry back to the show from BridgingApps with An App Worth Mentioning.

If you’d like a transcript of today’s show, it’s available at eastersealstech.com, and our transcripts are generously sponsored by InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC at indianarelay.com. If you’d ever like to reach us, we do love to hear from you. You can give us a call at (317) 721-7124 or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. As always, thank you for listening and let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

Visitors next up on the show, we’re very excited to welcome back Amy Barry from BridgingApps with An App Worth Mentioning. Take it Away, Amy.

This is Amy Barry with BridgingApps, and this is An App Worth Mentioning. This week’s featured app is called Proloquo4Text AAC. Proloquo4Text is a text-to-speech app for those who cannot rely on their voice to speak. The app is laid out on a single screen to reduce the effort of typing. The layout enables easy daily conversation and quick access to your most common phrases. Personalize it to your needs and preferences, whether that’s through choosing from the many voices available, or through customizing your screen layout.

We have used this app with a 15-year-old with autism. He previously used a simple text-to-speech app with keyboard only. Proloquo4Text allowed him to communicate at a much faster rate, reducing frustration. The app has many helpful features such as highlighting words or even sentences, saving frequently-used words and phrases to use as shortcuts, and the ability to pause and play, giving the user ultimate control in the rate of text changing to speech. Because it is text-based, this tool would be extremely useful for children and adults who are non-verbal, including those with diagnosis of autism, cerebral palsy, developmental disabilities, apraxia, ALS, MND, stroke, or TBI. Proloquo4Text AAC is currently available for iOS and is $119 in the Apple App store. For more information on this app and others like it, visit bridgingapps.org.

Listeners, I’ve been aware of sComm and the UbiDuo for many years. In my previous job in our employment division, we used one for communication well before I knew what all AT was or that I would someday be hosting a podcast about it. Well, today I’m lucky enough to welcome Jason Curry, co-founder and CEO of sComm, along with Anna Hansen, the Director of Business to Business Sales, onto the show, and we’re going to talk about the UbiDuo and some other very exciting solutions that they offer. Anna, Jason, welcome to the show.

Hello. Thank you for having us on your show. We’re very excited to share our latest information with you.

And I am very excited to hear all about it. And just to let our listeners know, today Anna is going to be doing interpreting for Jason, so you will hear Anna’s voice over the airwaves, but Jason will actually be doing the talking by signing. So just for your information, since you can’t can’t really see us here talking to each other, that is how everything is going to work. But before we get into talking about SComm and all the great things that it offers, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, Jason?

Again, thank you for having me on for this podcast. I was born deaf, since birth, and I grew up in Sedalia, Missouri, and I grew up in the mainstream school system and I was the first deaf graduate from Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia, and I was also the first deaf graduate from University of Central Missouri.

Nice! Very cool. Very cool. Well, and I know you mentioned this a little bit in the opening, but can you really tell us the story, Jason, of how sComm came to be, when it was started and why?

My dad had limited sign language while I was growing up, so he and I had limited communications. But when we had deep conversations, my dad always had my mom interpret for him and I. Then over the years, after I got out of college, I went through a lot of communication frustrations in the workplace with hearing employees and managers. So I was not able to move up the ladder like a hearing people. Then one day I went to Sedalia to visit my dad for breakfast to talk about real estate investments. But during our breakfast we got frustrated trying to communicate with each other and our sign language.

So my dad said to me, “I have an idea. Let’s go home.” So we left Perkins, which I remember vividly in March of 2002, about 20 years ago. So we got home and my dad had my mom interpret for him when he drew the idea of the UbiDuo on the whiteboard. And when I saw that drawing, I said, “Oh my God, that is going to transform interactions between deaf and hearing people in different face-to-face situations when the interpreter is not available. When the interpreter is available is only about, on average one to five percent of the time.” We went with the idea and we applied for a grant with National Institute of Health to engineer and build the very first UbiDuo 1. Then two years later, we got the award for 1.5 million to start up the company in May of 2005 in a 500-square foot office with two employees.

Well, and that’s a great way for it to get started, and you led me perfectly into my next question. Jason, tell our listeners what is the UbiDuo?

The UbiDuo, first, before explaining it, the UbiDuo is short for Ubi stands for ubiquitous, which means “everywhere.” Duo means two people everywhere. So it means two people can communicate everywhere. The UbiDuo is pronounced U-B Duo. The UbiDuo is a two-way communication device, standalone communication device with the only real-time split interface, which you flip the two halves open, and the two users turn the UbiDuo on and both halves automatically connect to each other with its own built-in wireless system up to 100 feet apart can communicate. Two users are able to type and talk at the same time.

Awesome. And I know that you guys are actually onto the UbiDuo 3 now, I think, when I originally had used it here at work to work with individuals, it might have been the one, it may have been the two, but can you tell us what’s new in the UbiDuo 3?

The UbiDuo 1 was on the market from January 2007 to March 2013. Then we introduced the UbiDuo 2 in March of 2013. It was on the market until August of 2020. Then we introduced the UbiDuo 3. The UbiDuo 1 was 6.5 pounds. The UbiDuo 2 was 4.8 pounds, and the UbiDuo 3 is 3.5 pounds. Easy to carry it everywhere.

Oh, super nice. And are there any new features or how, besides the weight and size, has it changed through those one, two, and three iterations?

The UbiDuo 3 is a touchscreen with all of the low-vision features like color, background, font, font size, and background colors. You can customize your screen, and the touchscreen has pinch and zoom, and the UbiDuo 3 also comes in four, pardon me, five different versions. There’s a regular UbiDuo 3 with its own built-in wireless, That’s its name, UbiDuo 3 Wired comes on the wired-only version, or agencies of FBI, CIA, NSA, agencies where they’re not allowed to have internet or WiFi.

Then we have the UbiDuo 3 TTS, which is text to speech one, where one side of the UbiDuo has text-to-speech built-in output, and the other unit is irregular, no audio output. Then we have the UbiDuo 3 text-to-speech 2. Both sides have the built-in speaker for the text-to-speech, which means you type and it talks out loud what you’re saying. Number five, I’m excited to share this, is the UbiDuo 3 Speech Generating Device, which is approved for Medicare and private insurance nationwide.

Oh, nice! That’s awesome. I love that it’s actually approved for insurance and everything else because that really makes a big difference crossing that. Jason, you mentioned a few of them, but just for our listeners who have never used the UbiDuo or seen it, what kind of situations, I suppose, is it most helpful in? And I know it’s face-to-face communication, but maybe what are some of the situations or the settings where you really see it used and where it can be really beneficial?

I will have Anna have the glory of sharing that.

Okay, so this is Anna talking now. From a business to business perspective, we work with all types of agencies through this country. For example, Department of Motor Vehicles through the country have done statewide roll-outs so that they have at least one Ubi in every office. We have cities, colleges, libraries, counties, hospitals, workforce centers, vocational rehabilitation, corporate America, VR … I think I may have mentioned that already. Department of Corrections throughout the US, every branch of the federal government, whether it is for employees or for offices that have front-facing encounters for the public, it ensures that there is 100% communication access at any time for people that are deaf and hear-

And Jason is saying “and for the hearing.” And that is the most important because it is just as frustrating for the hearing person at that counter or whatever environment when there’s the communication barrier. Right? People we want to connect and it change lives. This is Jason.

And we have the UbiDuo in every United States social security administration office at the front desk. So the hearing staff can communicate with deaf clients who walk in for social security assistance, and they’re able to sit down immediately and start a meeting with no barriers.

Nice. And a lot of the places you mentioned, I can see not just the convenience of being able to assist with conversation, but also the privacy that you get from it of not having to go through an interpreter, have them there when you’re sharing things with the doctor or with social security or anything like that. So I’m sure it’s very helpful in those situations.

That is correct. And I want to summarize the five different communication options that provide 100% communication access. Number one, UbiDuo for everyday face-to-face interactions between deaf and hearing people in any environment. Video relay service, for phone communications, video remote interpreting, which is like onsite interpreter on video for meetings, like a staff meeting. And then there’s onsite interpreter that are two to four hours, and then cart captioning, real-time captioning service, those five.

Excellent, excellent. And while I have you here, I know that you also have a couple of newer programs and other things that sComm is doing. Could you tell us a little bit about UbiTerps?

We are going to announce UbiTerps VRI service on May 13th, or May 16th, excuse me, which is our video remote interpreting service, which we will provide to all customers who need interpreting services in addition to the UbiDuo, so they can have 100% communication access. We’re very excited to share that. We just announced three weeks ago the very first real-time text app worldwide on the iPhone and Android called Moozumo, and it allows you and another user to talk with each other at the same time. Totally different from texting back and forth.

And you already stole my next question from me, Jason, but that’s perfectly fine. That’s good because that’s what I wanted to get into. So as you said, it’s very much different than texting. What is the big difference between using, and I’m probably going to mispronounce it, but the Moozumo app, and just a standard texting on the cell phone. What’s the big major difference between the two?

I want to paint a picture for you. When you do an audio call with another hearing person, you talk at the same time until you hang up, right?

Yes, yes.

So next is deaf people, when they’re making a video phone or FaceTime call to each other, are able to talk at the same time until they hang up, right?

True, true.

Now, the problem with regular texting is you type a statement and then click send, and then the other user gets your message, but you have to wait for them to respond, right?

True.

But we built the very first real-time text, or cellular phone calls, where both users have to have the Moozumo app on their phone, and I’m able to call a friend or family member who has Moozumo, and it rings. I ring them until they answer, and when they accept my Moozumo incoming call and they click accept, both ends become real-time split screen, and we’re able to type and read at the exact same time, and be 100% engaged until we hang up. Just like an audio call for hearing, just like a video phone call for deaf.

Nice. And that sounds great. I know as someone who does text sometimes with individuals, just because it’s their preferred way of communicating, there’s always the, oh, I guess the lag that they ask you a question, you’re typing up your response, and during that time three more questions come up and you’re still answering the first one or something else. So you’re right, it’s not a two-way communication on a regular text message. So that really does get rid of that issue.

And if you and another user are talking about a topic, texting back and forth, it could take you hours or days or weeks to finish that topic. But with Moozumo, we’re the same topic. You’d be finished in about five or 10 minutes and then hang up.

Oh, definitely. Yeah. Oh, it makes text messaging look like, I don’t know, voicemails, I guess, where you just call, leave a message, someone calls you back, and back and forth.

Yes, yes.

It kind of makes it seem-

We started the Moozumo project about three years ago, and we have a team of IT engineers who are building it. It’s live now and available to the public, and Moozumo is the very first of its kind worldwide.

That is awesome. To get just a little bit more information about Moozumo, so I’m having a conversation and the conversation ends. Is that information stored somewhere on a server or somewhere else, or does it just go away?

No, the best part of Moozumo is that no conversations are saved on the servers. The Moozumo server is 100% bold, and when you hang up, the conversation is gone. And if you want to save the conversation with the permission, and that is on our premium subscription, there is a save feature, but the other user has to approve it, and then the conversation will be saved to your phone, not on the Moozumo server.

Nice. That is great, especially in the time of so many data leaks and other stuff out there. It’s nice to know that those private conversations get to stay that way.

One more thing. We’re very excited to tell you that Moozumo is on the way to becoming the first real-time automatic speech recognition relay service with FCC.

Really? Oh, now that will be cool. Now, while we’ve got a little bit of time left, sComm has been around for a couple of decades now, so I’m sure you probably have a ton of these. Jason, can you tell me a story about somebody who’s maybe life was changed or really who the UbiDuo or something else that sComm has done really opened up the world to them, or maybe a user case that really sticks out to you?

We have thousands of UbiDuo stories all over the world, but my favorite story is of Scott Walker, who was one of the very first UbiDuo users back in 2007, one of the very first early adopters. He had worked for the post office for 30 years and he had zero communications. He was stuck in the same job on the mail assembly line. Then when he asked for the UbiDuo 1, first generation, then he started using the UbiDuo in his weekly meetings with his boss. Then over time, in that relationship with 100% barrier-free communication access on his job, his boss, after two years of using the UbiDuo, promoted to the front desk clerk in the front lobby and put the UbiDuo on the front desk to communicate with all the hearing people, customers who walked into the front desk to send a mail or to order stamps. And he did that for 10 years and he was going to become very first postal master of the Milwaukee Post office. But sadly, he unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack one month before he started that job as the first deaf postal master.

Well, that is a sad end to a great story, though. I love that it was able to not just open up communication for him, but really open up a whole world of opportunity that, well, we all know probably should have been there before. But I’m glad that the UbiDuo was able to open up that door and be able to get him where he needed to be. Jason, as we got just a second here left, how can our listeners find out more about sComm, about the UbiDuo, and about all the other great things that you all offer?

You can learn more about sComm at www.scomm, that’s S-C-O-M-M dot com, and we also have social media pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube under sComm, which is on the bottom of our sComm website. All of those social media links and pages will be there.

Excellent, and we will put links to that over in the show notes. Well, Jason, thank you so much for coming on this show today and for telling us all about sComm. Anna, thank you for coming on and telling us some and being able to interpret so that Jason and I could communicate today and really bring this information out to our listeners. Thank you both so very much.

Thank you so much for having us on your show.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAProject. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation, or InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC at relayindiana.com.

A special thanks to Nicole Prietto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show is produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our supporting partners, or this host. This was your Assistive Technology Update, and I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.