Good news for people with hearing disability is that Sony UK is developing a pair of glasses to display subtitles though they’re actually on the screen. Fortunately with advanced technology, the subtitles on glasses won’t seem too pressing but feels like they’re together. The glasses are expected to be launched in UK next year, and we bet many people are looking forward to that just as we do.
For people with hearing problems, the Beyond Silence digital piano is the best thing they may get to help them listen to music. Put forward merely as a concept now, the music instrument is built with a diaphragm that creates stronger vibrations and music waves, and therefore the piano would let hearing-impaired people listen to music by feeling the wave and vibration of each tune from the resonance board. I’m quite looking forward to see this piano commercialized and hopefully people with hearing problems will soon be brought to the world of music. [Read the rest of this entry...]
Do scanners merely turn printed text into digital format? Apparently the answer is no, as the ‘BookReader’ launched by Cerritos, CA-based manufacturer Plustek Technology Inc also reads the book for you. Mainly aiming at visually impaired users who still want to read books, the device not only uses the optical character recognition software to convert printed books or documents into digital formats, but adopts the text-to-speech recognition software to translate them into audio files. So simply put a book page on the scanner, press the button and then you can listen to the page. That’s cool!
The device could scan in three different modes: plain text, a grayscale PDF scan and a color scan.
Good news for people who are deaf in one ear! SoundBite System solves your hearing problems by transmitting sound via the teeth. It consists of two parts, one unit worn behind the ear to receive the sound and the other in the mouth to transmit sound to the inner ear. And you may have guessed right, the system is simply based on the ‘bone conduction’ principle. [Read the rest of this entry...]
Conventional fire alarms work effectively to warn people of the danger by sounding an alarm. But that means nothing to hearing-impaired people as they could hear nothing. So what could wake up hearing-impaired people in time? The unusual fire alarm designed by Kobe-based fire extinguisher company- Air Water Safety Service and the Tokyo-based Bioventure Seems looks like a practical solution. It is based on hearing impaired people’s keen sense of smell and warns them by releasing wasabi stench. The new fire alarm also works effectively, for example, one 8 in x 3 in unit could alarm people within an area of up to 50 square feet in less than three minutes. The smelly fire alarm is bit of expensive at present, each costing about $560. But a reasonable price of $225 will be possible after further improvements.
Amazing! Have you ever seen any kind of dancing shoes that assist hearing-disordered girls to realize their dancing dreams? Dubbed ‘Music Toucher’, the new dancing shoes are especially designed to achieve the unbelievable function. By translating music beats into vibration of the dancing shoes, it helps those girls to show their beautiful dances perfectly even if they’re in a silent world.
