2024

Design Awards Silver Winner - Central Academy of Fine Arts、Tsinghua University、University of Science and Technology Beijing、Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

E-sync:AR Glasses for Hearing Impaired People

Entrant

Central Academy of Fine Arts、Tsinghua University、University of Science and Technology Beijing、Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

Category

Head-Mounted Displays - Smart Glasses

Client's Name

Country / Region:

China

E-sync is a pair of AR smart glasses designed for people hearing impaired people, primarily aimed at improving their ability to recognize speech emotions and effectively convey their own feelings in interpersonal communication. Due to their severe hearing loss, hearing impaired people face limitations in perceiving auditory cues such as tone and thus have a significantly lower level of emotional understanding compared to hearing people. Additionally, their frequency of social interactions is much lower than that of hearing people, leading to potential misunderstandings regarding social norms and mainstream culture. In terms of expression, they primarily rely on sign language, written text, and online platforms to communicate with people, which limits the emotional expression in their communication. Furthermore, many individuals with hearing impairments are influenced by sign language expression forms, often expressing only brief and straightforward keywords, making it difficult to convey their true emotions and attitudes accurately. Consequently, it may cause some people to feel somewhat offended or awkward, resulting in misunderstandings and inconvenience in certain situations.

In the context of generative language models and the progress of AI hardware technology, E-sync utilizes AI intelligent hardware integrated into the product to analyze the speech information of the hearing population, generating visual information such as text and icons, which is then presented to the user through augmented reality technology on the lenses of the glasses. Additionally, the product scans sign language gestures through a camera and translates them into corresponding phrases. Based on the user's social occasions (such as home, office, or social gatherings) and physiological signals related to personal emotions, AI processes and outputs complete sentences through the speaker, thereby creating a closed-loop communication process. With the assistance of AI hardware, to some extent the device can mitigate unnecessary misunderstandings and conflicts arising from cognitive differences, thus optimizing the communication experience for both parties in social life.The product comes with an accompanying app that serves as a customizable platform for users to adjust language processing, enabling them to fine-tune product usage conveniently and naturally in real-time.

Credits

Wenfei Li
Central Academy of Fine Arts
Siqi Wang
Tsinghua University
Wenbing Du
University of Science and Technology Beijing
Yihuan Ma
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Yiyu Qi
Central Academy of Fine Arts
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