Otter Live Captions Application - Does It Work Well?

Posted by mmyatt01757 @mmyatt01757, Jul 14, 2019

I want to try Otter live captions application on my iPhone for a public meeting - town Board of Selectmen. It 'listens' to the room and types the words. It is similar to CaptionCall or Captel telephones, but it is listening to the room. Does anyone have experience with Otter? If it works adequately (90% accuracy?) I would need to project my iPhone screen onto a larger screen for hard-of-hearing people to read. Any ideas? Thank you in advance.

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Hi, @mmyatt01757 - Helping not only yourself but others who are hard of hearing in a public meeting like you are looking at doing seems like a worthy goal.

I'd like to tag some others in the hearing loss group, like @joangela @mtnyankee @contentandwell @marijaneb who may be familiar with apps like Otter that listen to spoken words and transcribe them into notes. @mikepa has talked about apps like this and may have some input on this, as well.

Is the board open to you using this technology for the meeting? Have you tried out any other apps like this before, @mmyatt01757?

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Thank you @lisalucier and others tagged in your response. I am hard-of-hearing, HLAA advocate, chapter leader, and working to bring hearing assistive technology in my town. We have made some progress, but frankly, no one uses it. We have a loop at the Senior Center reception and an extensive FM system at town hall. A citizen is particularly concerned about an upcoming meeting in August. I am in Massachusetts and will request CART via our state web site, https://www.mass.gov/orgs/massachusetts-commission-for-the-deaf-and-hard-of-hearing

I suspect no one will 'pick up' on our request for a CART stenographer. Hopefulle someone will! If no, I want to bring in SOMETHING. Next week I will be going to our Board of Selectmen's meeting and I will bring in my iPhone and see how Otter works. Tonight or tomorrow, I will be asking permission. Also, Otter seems to have wierd privacy caveats. I am not too concerned because it is a legally open meeting, but I will play by the rules.

Any advice that someone can offer - please offer!! Thank you to all, Margaret Myatt in Milford, MA. (M to the fourth)

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@lisalucier

Hi, @mmyatt01757 - Helping not only yourself but others who are hard of hearing in a public meeting like you are looking at doing seems like a worthy goal.

I'd like to tag some others in the hearing loss group, like @joangela @mtnyankee @contentandwell @marijaneb who may be familiar with apps like Otter that listen to spoken words and transcribe them into notes. @mikepa has talked about apps like this and may have some input on this, as well.

Is the board open to you using this technology for the meeting? Have you tried out any other apps like this before, @mmyatt01757?

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@mmyatt01757 My chapter is looking into using AVA as an alternative to CART due to how expensive CART is getting. I have used it myself on my phone at a meeting and it was ok but I think I needed to be more centered with the audience to pick top everything. We will look into Otter and report back if we see it as an option.

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I just went to an organized book club at the Senior Center (Not a girlie 'wine-at-night' book club) and first ran AVA and then Otter. Otter far out-performed Ava.

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@mmyatt01757 Thank you, that is good to know as we have our Chapter meeting tomorrow. How large of a room were you in and number of people?

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@mikepa

@mmyatt01757 Thank you, that is good to know as we have our Chapter meeting tomorrow. How large of a room were you in and number of people?

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There were about 12 people around an oblong conference table and I placed my iphone in the middle . Otter picked up well. But you will need to connect the iphone to a projecter. Someone posted reply here about the type of connection to get. and now that post is missing????? @lisalucier what happened to that post?

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@mmyatt01757

There were about 12 people around an oblong conference table and I placed my iphone in the middle . Otter picked up well. But you will need to connect the iphone to a projecter. Someone posted reply here about the type of connection to get. and now that post is missing????? @lisalucier what happened to that post?

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How did you stop the screen going off- still was recording
And I had 6 people at a cafe
As for projecting - they have device to project from wall from the lite projector attached to lhone

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@mmyatt01757

There were about 12 people around an oblong conference table and I placed my iphone in the middle . Otter picked up well. But you will need to connect the iphone to a projecter. Someone posted reply here about the type of connection to get. and now that post is missing????? @lisalucier what happened to that post?

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Are you using premium- $99 a year
Or the free version- I use free version

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I am using free for now but if the town uses it, they will buy premium

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Thing is there is a big difference I think between the free capacity and prwminum. Trying to contract the company for input and all. Unlike InnoCaption, there is no access

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