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As President of Signtel Inc., Raanan Liebermann has spent more than 25 years creating and developing technology to assist people who are deaf, hearing impaired, hard of hearing, deaf-blind and deaf low vision. Heading the research and development and building awareness of tools enabling an underserved community is a source of pride and drive for the soft spoken physicist. Inventing technology to enable access which others often take for granted is at the core of his work and his mission of utilizing intelligent innovation to elevate independence for every person irrespective of ability propels his purpose.

Signtel’s Sign Language Public Address and Emergency System is a necessary innovative technology. It functions to help bridge between understanding an alert, a speech, an address and idiomatic language often utilized throughout its presentation. The ability to understand spoken and written speech often relies on processing language which is reliant on common idioms and phrases not directly translatable into sign language. People who use sign language to communicate therefore find themselves vulnerable to missing portions of what they see/hear as literal meanings of the words and phrases are not helpful in understanding. The resulting confusion begs for a solution as it interferes and causes misunderstanding where comprehension is paramount and necessary.

Like preceding patented innovations of Dr. Liebermann the patented technology behind Signtel’s Public Address and Emergency System is vital to this community of potential users. The product works through utilizing all the company’s Sign Language Interpreter Software features. Its ability to translate more than 30,000 words and more than 1400 idioms and phrases along with numerical systems of time, date and money brings a new level of access to understanding colloquial speech. Users communicate through either typing text or speech recognition and the system then translates the content into a sign language video. For people with hearing impairment this system helps alert and warn them in case of emergency in the same way as their hearing counterparts are alerted.

For more information about Signtel’s innovative technologies and their inventor:

About the eCane®: technology which enables navigation and communication for sight impaired persons while gauging proximity to physical objectives Please link article 22

About the accessible Touch Language®; public domain touch technology designed to use concepts in lieu of structural grammar to enable universal understanding Please link article 21

About the Signtel Interpreter®: the patented original innovative technology behind the company’s name and enabling speech to text Please link article 24

About a passion project evolving out of a personal interest and a scientific mind. Combined and woven into a desire to help others Please link article 23

About Dr. Liebermann and his Oxford Ph.D. origins toward a path of visionary patented technologies Please link article 26

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President and founder of Signtel Inc, Raanan Liebermann, is an Oxford educated physicist who envisioned software and technology possibilities before it became current and trendy to do so. Long before the start up world erupted globally and entrepreneurs evolved from wishful thinkers into success stories in what appeared to be almost an instant, Dr. Liebermann earned his Ph.D. at Oxford University and breathed possibility into a landscape of technology far before its time and long before the world would be ready to receive it.

After receiving his doctorate in astrophysics and taking on a professorship at Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife Brazil, Dr. Liebermann debated whether to accept a position at the esteemed Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in Southwestern US. Ultimately opting instead to come to the US and join Yale University in Connecticut he eventually leaned into designing breakthrough technology which would widen the scope of access in our lives.

A vision into future needs both business and personal would continue to fuel a unique understanding of ways people use day to day tools. Ultimately Dr. Liebermann would invent technologies whose software would harness efficiency and intelligence as he paved the road to today’s blossoming artificial intelligence infrastructure surrounding modern innovation. As his foresight and 27 patents showcase, life as we live it is often a base for improvement. What we do gives way to what we aspire toward and what we see in our minds eye often becomes a seed of ingenuity.

In early 1980 working along with engineers Wolf and Crowley, Dr. Liebermann designed and patented the world’s first dual processing laptop computer. Enabling two distinct operating systems to communicate for the first time, he called the compact and efficient laptop “Panda” for two reasons: Cute as a reference to its namesake and second because they eat Apples. The pun was intentional and an inside joke. This innovative laptop came to be through an instinctive understanding of needs not yet recognized and resolved; a world view that would continue to guide Dr. Liebermann’s inventive work.

As luck would have it, securing financing in early 1980 was not the world of today and not every financier is equally equipped to understand consumer behavior. As a now infamous response declared “Why would anyone need a laptop when there is a computer on every desk?” It is perhaps not coincidental that the professional world at the time was characterized by loyalty to firm and designing technology albeit necessary and game changing was a small ebb in the flow of an environment rewarding decades of loyal workers in one role companies.

The time at Oxford nurtured a core curiosity and an imagination which would translate passion to possibility. At a research university whose students are given ample room to find areas of exploration the innate wonder of what the future could hold found itself an eager student. As his work would pick up where his degree gave promise, Dr. Liebermann would find solutions to daily situations around which we are accustomed to navigate; giving them home in innovation previously unknown, often dismissed as wonder and very much ahead of their time.

To learn more about Dr. Liebermann’s innovative patented technologies:

About the eCane®: innovative technology which enables navigation and communication for sight impaired persons while gauging proximity to physical objectives Please link article 22

About the Sign Language Public Address and Emergency System®:pioneering technology to enable comprehensive understanding of speeches, presentations, alerts, addresses and idioms Please link article 25

About the accessible Touch Language®: public domain touch technology designed to use concepts in lieu of structural grammar to enable universal understanding Please link article 21

About the Signtel Interpreter ®: the patented original innovative technology behind the company’s name and enabling speech to text Please link article 24

About a passion project of Dr. Liebermann’s personal interest and scientific mind. Combined and woven into a desire to help others Please link article 23

After earning a Ph.D in astrophysics at the University of Oxford, Dr. Raanan Liebermann has continued to  contribute to the scientific community through breakthrough technology innovation. Raanan  Liebermann is the creator and founder of Signtel Inc., a Connecticut based tech company that designs  revolutionary technologies to assist people with hearing and visual impairments in daily life. Electronic  Canes with sensory perception to communication capabilities, television which blind persons can watch,  and a communication device for the deaf with the first simultaneous speech to text technology are  among the breadth of Dr. Liebermann’s inspired technology. 

Signtel Inc. is named for its base invention, the Signtel Interpreter®. Dr. Liebermann designed this  original software to transform the way deaf and hearing persons communicate. The software is a revolutionary innovative technology introduced to assist in situations where an ASL sign language  

interpreter is not available. It utilizes technology in lieu of a live interpreter to bring independent access  to the hearing impaired; introducing the ability to transcribe speech to text and vice versa in real time  for necessary mutual understanding. It presented the capacity of a new tool to bridge a communication  gap between hearing and hearing – challenged communities; easing an often cumbersome process  reliant on the teletypewriter (TTY). 

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 brought protection against discrimination of access. It brought awareness of the need for tools among public institutions to the forefront of daily life. It  became necessary for schools, hospitals and government offices to enable and accommodate access to  every person equally. Wheelchair accessible entrances and building elevators became a necessity. This  unprecedented act presented a gateway for progress; aiding underserved sections of society.  Technology as a tool for access became a center of new and inspired innovation. It enabled increased  resources such as the Signtel Interepreter® and gave momentum to the technological innovation which  ensued on its heels. 

At its core, Signtel and its inherent innovation is the brainchild of Dr. Liebermann and shares its essence  with its founder. Dr. Liebermann’s visionary technologies originate with an encompassing desire to use  his ability to create and design solutions for the underserved. The skill of creating pathways to societal  progress is born of his desire to improve quality of life and connect people to society and each other.  Like the Signtel Interpreter®, Dr. Liebermann’s technology is built on a foundation of his core belief: each person deserves equal access to resources and a standard of living reliant on choice and not on  sensory abilities.

To learn more about Raanan Liebermann’s innovative technology and professional endeavors: 

About the eCane: innovative technology which enables navigation and communication according to  proximity of literal objectives. 

About Touch Language: touch designed technology which uses concepts in lieu of grammar to navigate  around linguistic obstacles associated with sign language. 

About a passion project evolving out of a personal interest and a scientific mind. Combined and woven  into a desire to help others.

Raanan Liebermann has a respected presence in the North Haven, Connecticut, community with a background in technological innovation that improves lives. As president of Signtel, Inc., Raanan Liebermann guides a firm that has been preparing for market his developed leading edge products for those who are deaf, blind, as well as deaf and blind. Since 2000, Dr. Liebermann has overseen all aspects of operations, from ground-up development to supervising and managing operations encompassing more than 200 employees. Patented products created include the Electronic Cane, which enables communication and navigation for the blind and both the blind and deaf that does not require hearing or sight. Dr. Liebermann’s firm has also developed the patented Telephone for the Deaf and the patented TV that meets the needs of the deaf, blind, and deaf-blind. Incorporating artificial intelligence, an overarching system is the patented Emergency Alert Service. A new, freely available, Touch Language has also been created that does away with restrictive vocabulary and grammatical constructs. In addition to his business, Raanan Liebermann had created and oversaw the New Haven Police Stress Unit and the New Haven Police Hostage Negotiation team, and earned the Board of Police Commissioners commendation award for his efforts.