Richardson teen’s ‘Ref for the Deaf’ lets athletes feel officials’
\nsignals <\/p>\n
13-year-old’s invention allows athletes to feel signals from referees<\/p>\n
Sunday, January 6, 2008 <\/p>\n
By STACI HUPP \/ The Dallas Morning News <\/p>\n
shupp@dallasnews.com <\/p>\n
Celia Beron isn’t known for compassion on the soccer field. The wily
\neighth-grader from Richardson has a reputation for steals and blocked
\nkicks, and she has the trophy collection to prove it. <\/p>\n
These days, she’s capturing attention for a major assist to other
\nathletes, but she didn’t use her legs. She used her heart. <\/p>\n
Celia, 13, invented Ref for the Deaf, a special bracelet that
\nvibrates for deaf players who can’t hear the sound of a referee’s
\nwhistle or starter gun. <\/p>\n
With some help from Celia’s father and two graduate students from the
\nUniversity of Texas at Dallas, a good idea from a skinny girl with
\nbraces has the makings of a great product. <\/p>\n
Supporters see a demand from elementary school gymnasiums to the
\nSpecial Olympics and beyond. <\/p>\n
“The big vision is it would be phenomenal to have this widely used
\nacross all kinds of sports,” said Jonathan Hoak, 29, one of two UTD
\ngraduate students who turned Celia’s idea into a business model. <\/p>\n
That plan won the top prize at a UTD contest for new business ideas
\nin November. <\/p>\n
Now, the Berons and their university partners will test the idea in
\nthe real world. <\/p>\n
“You don’t have to have a Ph.D. to come up with a good idea,” said
\nJoe Picken, director of UTD’s Institute for Innovation and
\nEntrepreneurship, which sponsored the competition. “Most good ideas
\ncome from experience. Celia was involved in youth sports and saw a
\nproblem.” <\/p>\n
Uneven playing field <\/p>\n
No one tallies how many deaf athletes participate in high school,
\ncollege and professional sports. But about 10,000 of them belong to
\nthe USA Deaf Sports Federation, a national athletic association that
\nhooks up deaf and hearing-impaired Americans with international
\ncompetitions. <\/p>\n
Special Olympics officials counted an additional 135 deaf and
\nhearing-impaired athletes in the nonprofit organization’s national
\ngames in 2006. <\/p>\n
Celia was at soccer camp four years ago when she noticed that a
\nteammate’s hearing disability put her on an uneven playing field. <\/p>\n
“She kept playing after everyone else stopped,” said Celia, now an
\neighth-grader at Richardson North Junior High. “Every time a coach
\nblew his whistle to stop, we had to wave our arms in her face to get
\nher to stop.” <\/p>\n
The game ended, but Celia’s curiosity stuck. She first thought of Ref
\nfor the Deaf for a school project. <\/p>\n
Her concept pairs up a transmitter with a referee’s whistle or
\nstarter gun. When either of them goes off, the transmitter sends a
\nsignal to the receiver: a vibrating bracelet worn by a deaf athlete. <\/p>\n
Until now, deaf players have taken their cues mostly from referees,
\ncoaches and other players who can hear — and, in some cases, try to
\ndupe their hearing-impaired competition. <\/p>\n
Kevin Cook has seen the struggle firsthand. The former WNBA coach,
\nwho oversees an all-deaf women’s basketball team at Gallaudet
\nUniversity in Washington, D.C., described a pivotal moment in a
\nrecent game. <\/p>\n
“My player thought that a foul had been called, and so she stopped
\nplay. Play continued and there was a score” for the other team, Mr.
\nCook said. <\/p>\n
Ref for the Deaf could be the difference between a win or a loss for
\nhis team, which is in a competitive Division III conference. <\/p>\n
“As alert as my team is, I think something like this would be very
\nvaluable to them,” he said. <\/p>\n
Celia’s idea swept the Richardson school district’s annual invention
\ncontest when she was in fourth grade. <\/p>\n
Her father, Kurt, a UTD economics and public policy professor, saw
\nbigger potential and started poking around on the Internet. <\/p>\n
“Seeing these anecdotal stories around the world about athletes who
\nhad problems because of their hearing in competitive sports, it
\nsurprised me that this wasn’t already out there,” Dr. Beron said. “I
\nthought that it did have some commercial appeal.” <\/p>\n
Patented <\/p>\n
Celia’s father laid the groundwork for a patent, which Ref for the
\nDeaf earned last February. <\/p>\n
From there, Dr. Beron turned to a management professor at UTD who
\nhooked him up with Mr. Hoak and another graduate student, Timothy
\nGutschlag. <\/p>\n
“I wasn’t expecting it to get this big,” Celia said. “It’s cool.” <\/p>\n
It might have been easy to cut a little girl out of a business
\ncompetition, but the UTD students didn’t. <\/p>\n
Celia left school for a day this fall to help sell her idea to
\njudges, just as participants twice her age did. <\/p>\n
Celia and the UTD students also split their $10,000 in prize money
\nthree ways. <\/p>\n
“We’ve always given her complete and total credit for everything —
\nit’s her deal,” Mr. Hoak said. <\/p>\n
Next, Celia’s father and the UTD students will study their market
\noptions for Ref for the Deaf and start a business together. <\/p>\n
Celia, meanwhile, has more important things to think about:
\npracticing the trombone, getting through junior high and — most
\nimportant — soccer. <\/p>\n
REF FOR THE DEAF <\/p>\n
Inventor: Celia Beron, 13, of Richardson <\/p>\n
The concept: An alert system that enables deaf and hearing-impaired
\npeople to participate in athletics and other activities safely and
\nmore efficiently. The patented device provides vibration or lights
\nthat allow athletes to pick up referee whistles, starter guns or
\nother cues normally communicated through sound. <\/p>\n
The business plan: Two graduate students from the University of Texas
\nat Dallas teamed up with Celia Beron and her father, Kurt, to develop
\na business model. The four will work on a market study and then
\nlaunch a business together.<\/p>\n
Link:
\nhttp:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sharedcontent\/dws\/news\/localnews\/stories\/010708dnmetdeafidea.26769ae.html<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
BETTER IP RELAY – EVERYWHERE! i711.com makes all your relay calls better.
\nBetter web calls. Better wireless calls. Better AIM calls. Why settle for
\nordinary IP relay? Go beyond! Try http:\/\/www.i711.com for free today!<\/p>\n
NEW! Try out our Deaf Network of Texas Calendar! Go to
\nhttp:\/\/calendar.deafnetwork.com <\/p>\n
NOTE: deafnetwork.com does not endorse any of the products, vendors,
\nconsultants, or documentation referenced in this message or. Any mention of
\nvendors, products, or services is for informational purposes only.<\/p>\n
Powered by http:\/\/www.CrazyWebHosting.com<\/p>\n
If you do not want to receive any more newsletters,
\nhttp:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/list\/?p=unsubscribe&uid=23e6b0ac27edebd2b6f52f1354859234<\/p>\n
To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit
\nhttp:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/list\/?p=preferences&uid=23e6b0ac27edebd2b6f52f1354859234
\nForward a Message to Someone
\nhttp:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/list\/?p=forward&uid=23e6b0ac27edebd2b6f52f1354859234&mid=836<\/p>\n
—
\nPowered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com —<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Richardson teen’s ‘Ref for the Deaf’ lets athletes feel officials’ signals 13-year-old’s invention allows athletes to feel signals from referees Sunday, January 6, 2008 By STACI HUPP \/ The Dallas Morning News shupp@dallasnews.com Celia Beron isn’t known for compassion on…<\/p>\n