RoboHear device:advanced haptic technology that allows deaf to understand speech

Project Summary AbstractIn the USthere areM adults with hearing difficultiesand overM are profoundly deafi eunable to hear speech or participate in a normal conversationGloballyM people have disabling hearing lossDeafness can be debilitating and greatly affects an individual s socialeducational and occupational prospectsCurrentlythe major medical treatment for deafness is a cochlear ear implantThis surgical implant procedure is extremely costly$to $and is also ineffective for some deaf peopleCertainlyin third world and developing countries as well as in poorer rural areas of the UScochlear implants are not a practical optionA need exists for a low cost device that the deaf can use to understand speechFauxsee and its university collaborators propose development of a new technology for bringing speech understanding to the deafOur proposed approach uses high performance speech recognition technology to convert perceived speech into haptictouchresponsesWe utilize the latest in haptic technology embedded in a pair of glasses to provide haptic encodings of the phonemes in perceived speechWe call this new technology RoboHearbecause it makes speech recognition possible without requiring an aural pathway for speech processing in the deaf userRoboHeardevice converts speech into haptic sensationsThe deaf user then decodes these haptic sensations as individual phonemes and can then understand the speechRoboHeardevice takes advantage of new technology developed for smart cellular phones to provide a method for the deaf to interact with the hearing worldAt the completion of the Phase I effort we will have completed the basic hardware and software design of the RoboHearproductWe will conduct initial training using a small group of both hearing and deaf volunteers and evaluate the efficacy to the approach in recognizing speech and encoding the phonemes of that speech as haptic stimuli felt in the stems of a special pair of glassesWe will establish the feasibility of the basic approach in Phase IIn Phase IIwe will conduct more extensive formal training in the use of the device and evaluate a larger deaf population in a formal test programIn Phase IIwe will also determine how RoboHeardevice can be used to teach deaf users to speak using the haptic feedback provided by the haptic devicesRoboHeardevice promises to benefit not only the deaf community but also those who suffer from both deafness and blindnessFirst generation RoboHearfunctions are packaged inside special glasses frames that contain either clear or prescription lensesWe anticipate that the RoboHearproductwhen in full productionwill sell for less than $This price compares favorably with the cost of conventional hearing aids that are of little use to the profoundly deaf Project NarrativeDeafness can be debilitating and greatly affects an individual s socialeducational and occupational prospects but for many it is not practical nor affordable to receive cochlear implantsFauxsee proposes using speech recognition technology to convert speech into haptictouchresponses embedded in a pair of glasses we call RoboHearand make speech recognition possible without engaging the ears for speech processing in the deaf userRoboHearfunctions are packaged inside special glasses frames that contain either clear or prescription lensesIn full production the target price for the RoboHearproduct is $or less which provides a more affordable hearing alternative to expensive cochlear implants