Alexander Graham Bell Phone Invention Inspired Video Phone Idea.

The latest (seemingly) inside gag (for the Deaf community that is) by ConvoRelay's latest advertisement that caters mostly to Deaf people was brought to attention by Tayler in his vlog saying it was the "best ad" he'd ever seen.  However, this ad could also be seen as an inside joke familiar mostly by those in the Deaf community and not in the hearing community. The ad is placed on the walk way at a relatively new subway stop location (New York Ave / Florida Ave/ Gallaudet University) that is close to Gallaudet University about 3 to 4 blocks away.

The ad, as a unintended consequence, possibly, could be seen as a double-entredre ad by those familiar with the name and its relationship with the culturally deaf community.

The first message could be seen as a poke at the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing organization by those who designed the ad. Maybe not.  But if it is then it's a poke that reveals a long standing temper tantrum from some people in the culturally deaf community who are against the AGBell hearing loss organization. The ad, ironically so, is placed on the floor where the name "Alexander Graham Bell"  can be walked all over by dirty shoes at a subway station near Gallaudet University, a hotbed of students who are against AGBell in more ways than one. Maybe that wasn't the intention of the ad designer (who designed it, btw?) but the ad is indeed on that floor and the name "Alexander Graham Bell" is on it saying, "You can hang up on Alexander Graham Bell" and it is located at a subway stop next (near) to Gallaudet University.

Makes ya wonder.

Just food for thoughts here.

The second message in that ad is the acknowledgment of the telephone technology which was a communication barrier for many deaf people. Although we need to remember the TTY technology of the 1980s and onward on how it has helped people with hearing loss to scale that communication barrier..... somewhat.

But here's the thing.

What Alexander Graham Bell invented was a blessing for us all, deaf, hard of hearing or hearing. His phone invention has inspired thousands of would be inventers to invent new and wonderful communication technology for us down the road. In fact, the telephone technology has inspired inventers of what a video phone would look like back even in 1910 as seen in a drawing below.

And even earlier, a few years after Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone in 1876, drew inspiration from Thomas Edison in a conceptual drawing that was done in 1878 describing Edison's Telephonoscope and how it could "transmits light as well as sound." He was smart and savvy enough to see the potential of Alexander Graham Bell's own telephone technology and the possibilities it could hold well into the future. He had the right idea in mind of what we now know as the video phone or "VP" for short as we know it today.  Alexander predicted that "the day would come when the man at the telephone would be able to see the distant person to whom he was speaking." (see here and here).  That day has already arrived....some 120 years later. Who knew it would take that long for it to be commercially viable and used by millions of people? 

As for the ConvoRelay ad and the inside joke? Was there any double entredre intended? I wonder. If so, then it'd be getting kinda thin by now, dotcha think? It may be clever, maybe unintentional (who knows?), but only to those who are intimately familiar with AGBell Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing organization and the tiff that the Deaf community have against them. Even though the organization supports and recognizes the various uses of communication technology of every kind that can help deaf and hard of hearing people have communication access.

Like it or not, every time you use your cell phone or video phone you have Alexander Graham Bell to thank every time you answer that relay call or use your video phone. Where would communication technology be today if it had not been for AGBell? Maybe that's irony in of itself, wouldn't ya say?