Shinji Naka 20232024

Development of a new form of hearing aid that projects remote sign language interpretation video and subtitles onto see-through AR glasses

We want to deliver "voices" to the hearing impaired.
Some may think, "Why now?"
In fact, many people with hearing loss can hear "sounds" such as horns and sirens to a certain extent even when they wear hearing aids, but they cannot hear the essential "voices". This is not due to the performance of the hearing aid, but due to a problem with the auditory nerve, inner ear, and brain, and is a problem that has not been solved for 150 years since the development of hearing aids, and it is presumed that it will be difficult to solve completely in the future.
Furthermore, the most common way to communicate with the hearing impaired is through written communication and subtitles, but for deaf people whose first language is sign language, the grammar of Japanese and sign language is completely different, so they have difficulty understanding long sentences, and there is also the issue that it is difficult to accurately grasp the meaning of a sentence.
So, based on the concept of "listen" with a hearing aid and "voice" with AR glasses, I devised a new type of hearing aid that converts the content of a conversation into a sign language interpretation video or subtitles in real time and projects either one of them on a see-through AR glass.
When this becomes a reality, it will be a revolutionary breakthrough in communication for the deaf around the world.

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