What? No comment on the new blog banner? I’m crushed. You didn’t notice I finally got rid of the words, “hearing impairment.” I can say DEAF without anyone gasping and falling down.

:sniffle:

Moving on.

My first love is the science fiction genre so I’m naturally drawn to things that talk about future technology. My boss, Courtney Lopez sent this video to me. It’s subtitled, too.

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Although the video talks about media as it relates to how we receive information, it made me think about technology for the deaf as it relates to the New Media. In the newspaper industry, the other word for Internet is New Media, and some of us see it as the next evolution of news. We’re just not exactly sure how it’s going to look in the next 5-10 years. Will it be virtual by then?

I’m not talking about Matrix’s virtual world. Plugs in the brain make my brain cringe. (sorry, brain!) I’m talking about computers that have virtual interfaces.

There’s already a virtual keyboard out (see Think Geek’s Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard). Just a couple steps further, and we may be seeing virtual computer screens similar to the one actor Tom Cruise uses in the 2002 Minority Report movie.

If virtual monitors can be packaged in a tiny format like a smart phone or a Padd (you win intarweb cookies if you guessed Star Trek) and it projects a virtual screen that’s big enough for you to look at comfortably, we might be seeing deaf people signing to a future version of Video Relay Services via a virtual screen anywhere, any place, any time.

Will we be seeing virtual newspapers perused like the old newspaper in cafes? With blogs showing up as part of the newspaper? How will this virtual interface be accessed by the deaf? The blind?

Ah, sweet techno dreams.

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