Here's an amazing invention I just stumbled upon.
The tldr, students from the Stanford University have developed a special pair of glasses that transcribes speech in real-time for deaf people! Well, not actually glasses but more like a small add on that can be attached onto a glass frame.
The device is called...TranscribeGlass and imo the result is mind blowing
Just check this video
TranscribeGlass is an affordable and comfortable wearable assistive technology device for d/Deaf, Hard of Hearing (HoH), elderly, and other people who want to improve their comprehension of spoken communication using captions. It projects closed captions from a variety of sources on to a heads-up display in the user’s field of vision in near-real-time, thereby greatly enhancing their ability to understand what is being said.
Although not yet available for final production there is an open beta for early adopters
TranscribeGlass Beta is the first limited release of TranscribeGlass and will be made available to early adopters who reserve the device on the website (https://www.transcribeglass.com/reserve) and agree to provide feedback as testers. They do not/should not expect the beta version of the product to be perfect.
No final price has been announced yet
The price for the final version of TranscribeGlass is not fixed yet
The website also hints there is a fee for the beta, so no freebies for testers either but I guess it will be discounted 😅
Still, the final price is intended to be quite affordable at just 55 $$
According to the website, the glasses can also be used to transcribe text from tv, cinema and other sources.
And no, you don't need to change your good ol glasses
Yes, you should be able to use TranscribeGlass even if you wear glasses. TranscribeGlass is designed to clip on to the most commonly used spectacle frame temples.
Btw, English is not the only supported language:
Any language that Google's speech-to-text supports that uses Roman/Latin alphabets is supported by TranscribeGlass Beta.
I guess more will be added as development continue.
You also need a smart phone with the transcribeglass app, with both iOS and Android being supported.
The device is the brain child of Madhav Lavakare who now is only 21 years old and has been working on the concept for about 5 years. Reportedly, he came up with the idea after a deaf friend dropped out of school because he couldn’t afford accessibility solutions, so he decided to come up with an effective yet affordable solution!
All in all, great and very useful concept :)
Here's a link to the official website (where the quotes are from) and a link to their twitter if you want to learn more about the product!