Real Time Low Cost Wearable Aid for Deaf Mute

The aim of this project is to develop an aid for the people who are hearing impaired or mute. The purpose of this aid, is to make it easier for people with these conditions to communicate with other people. In Pakistan, there aren?t many devices available for people with impairments or they are avai

Project Title

Real Time Low Cost Wearable Aid for Deaf Mute

Project Area of Specialization

Wearables and Implantable

Project Summary

The aim of this project is to develop an aid for the people who are hearing impaired or mute. The purpose of this aid, is to make it easier for people with these conditions to communicate with other people. In Pakistan, there aren’t many devices available for people with impairments or they are available at high price which is unaffordable for the majority of population. This aid will transform sign language to audio signals understandable to other people and also made deaf hearable to the normal people conversation. In most of the cases both of these disabilities exist in a single person. So a person with both of these disabilities will have no problem communicating with anyone since this aid will be using bone conduction technology to transmit audio signals through the temporal bone. This aid will use hardware tools such as a camera, speakers, mic and Bluetooth etc. According to our research the aid that is available for deaf and mute people is very expensive and unaffordable for people who are labelled as lower-middle class and below. Considering this a huge barrier for people with these deficiencies to be unable to afford proper aid for themselves, we have come up with an idea which will solve the issue in terms of price as well as performance. Usually hearing aids are fitted on one ear which basically means that the person can hear from one side only, we have overcome that problem with introducing bone conduction modules on both side which will ensure that sound is transmitted from both sides hence making it much more comfortable for the user listen from either side. Our aim is to make the aid comfortable and affordable.

Project Objectives

The research includes devising possible improvements in prototype to make it product that could aid muteness and deafness parallel in real time.
The project includes development of hardware to make it wearable and comfortable to use for customer which include advancement in technology and devices. High tech devices that would be able to handle large data of Sign language and high speed processing to make the aid work in real time.
The project includes development of software to aid muteness which enclose image processing and machine learning.

Project Implementation Method

In the First phase, we have developed an aid to assist people who face deficiency of hearing which is commonly known as Deafness. By using bone modules which works on the bone conduction phenomena, we will bypass the ear canal and the ear drum to target the temporal bone using bone modules which will vibrate on specific frequencies depending on the input audio signal. The bone modules will take input audio signal from the raspberry pi microprocessor which either gets input from the mic or from the mobile device which will be connected via Bluetooth.

In the Second phase, we have developed a system in which a raspberry pi camera will be used for hand gesture recognition. In this system, the hand gesture input recognized by the camera will be fed to the raspberry pi which will compare the input picture with its stored database. The stored sentence associated to each gesture will be spoken out from the speaker. In this way a person who is mute will be assisted to communicate with other people normally using the combination of bone conduction and hand gesture recognition.

Benefits of the Project

Deaf-Mute people would be targeted. It was estimated that 2.49% of the population is disabled (National Policy for Persons with Disabilities, 2002). Of this disabled population, 7.40% are deaf. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the general prevalence of disability is 10% (taken from http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/JEE/PDF-Files/Article No. 3_V22_2_12.pdf)

The targeted Market would be the Deaf and mute of various ages. This product will also be able to aid senior citizens who face hearing deficiency with age. With the advancement, product could be launched in different countries after the successful implementation in Pakistan and Asia specially those who are into the education system. To the best of our knowledge, no single aid is available to deal with deafness and muteness side by side. Some of the technologies include invasive and non-invasive hearing aids (ear amplifiers) available in the market. It can only amplify the sound for those whose ear drums are functional but fail to aid where ear drums are non-functional, it requires a surgery.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

After developing the final product, we will make it public and ready to use in the market through advertisements and social media. As we have seen successful trials in government institutes for special education and by receiving letters of recognition from them, our product would help us to obtain government certificates that will provide a green signal in future. This product with its tagline “Aid for Deaf-Mute (Both)” can be supplied to special schools and clinics like Gung Mahal and government schools for special education. We will also arrange training sessions for them on how to use our product. Mostly new technology or product is difficult to adopt because people feel unsafe to use anything new in the market. With the help of advertisements and training sessions we would help the customers to adopt to our product easily. cFor those people who can’t afford the product, we will collaborate with government and NGOs to offer a special subsidy for them. This way market size could be increased irrespective of the financial status. To market our product more efficiently, we will join hands with medical institutes to promote our product in the local market as well as in special schools.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Type of Industry

Medical , Telecommunication

Technologies

Wearables and Implantables

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Reduced Inequality

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com