Assume that you have a Total Conversation terminal!

You want to get in contact with a friend. You dial the number and wait for contact. An image of the person appears on the screen. The marker starts to blink in the text window and you may hear sounds from the speakers. "Wow, is this her father answering?" you think. You try to get in contact with each other, but he can't make signs, so he writes "Hi, nice to see you. Do you want to meet Linda or Sven?"

You write: "Hi! Yes, Linda please".

Linda appears in the video window on the screen. You and her have a fluent conversation in sign language and a lot of fun. What a relief to use sign language! But Linda asks for the address to a course on distance you have joined. The web address is difficult to spell with the sign alphabet so you write it instead and she catches it directly without any misunderstanding. She can use it from the text window through the "cut and paste" function and see the course content directly in the web browser or save the address in the computer.

Now your grandmother takes over the conversation.

Linda changes between speech and sign language with your grandmother and it works very well for her. Your grandmother talks to Linda and she understands her through lip reading. The text possibility is always available if they should not understand each other.

If you (assuming you are deaf) wnat to get in contact with a hearing person who only have a speech phone (he/she does not have a total conversation terminal!) you call the video relay service (exist in Sweden sincw some years). A sign language interpreter appears on your screen and you write the phone number you want to call. The interpreter notes the number and dials it on the speech phone to call the hearing person. The conversation between the deaf (you) and the hearing person proceeds smooth and easy with the assistance of the sign language interpreter.

A while later, you sense your vibrator receiver vibrate in your pants pocket. A new phone call is on its way. Of course you answer on your total conversation terminal. This time you get no picture in the video window of your screen (it is black) but you can read "Minitel" in a status window that tells you it is a textphone calling.

This time you are afraid you have to carry out the conversation in french, but the answer is in english:

"Hi, Lars. This is Peter, I am in Paris and borrowed a Minitel in a kiosk to ask you an urgent question. GA".

You take a breather and feel satisfied that you can continue to communicate in a language you are accustomed to.

Most of the times you use your total conversation terminal, you will be in contact with your friends who still use textphones.

You will always know which types of textphones they use. "EDT" means for example that the textphone is calling from for example Germany or Italy. "Baudot" if the textphone is calling from USA or Australia. If you have friends living in Sweden you will see "V.21", or maybe "V.18" in the status window. You always have the possibility to get in contact with most of the textphones in Sweden as well as the rest of the world with the help of your total conversation terminal.

There is lots of situations where you can use sign language, lip reading, text and speech simultaneously, or one at the time, depending on the situation and what language /way of communicate you prefer at the moment. All this when your friends move over to total conversation. And you still have the possibility to get in contact with those who use "clean" video phones (that is only speech and image, no text conversation) since total conversation is based on the videophone standard.

For those with a technical interest: ITU-T H.320 video telephony through ISDN and ITU-T H.323 or IETF SIP video telephony through ISDN or IP-net (Internet).

Many other ways of communication is handled easy by total conversation. Total conversation is ready. All elements are standardized, which means that different manufacturers can make total conversation phones that work well together. The first product has appeared. It arrived as a result of a project cooperation between SDR (Sveriges Dövas Riksförbund), Ericsson and Omnitor.

The first total conversation terminal is named Allan eC and Omnitor sells it.