Noisy environments pose a challenge to deaf people, particularly when they’re trying to discern what a specific person within such a setting is saying. AirCaps glasses are designed to help, by providing real-time captioning to the wearer.
The glasses were invented by Cornell University computer science student Nirbhay Narang, who is now commercializing the technology via spinoff company AirCaps. Looking much like a set of traditional thick-framed eyeglasses, they’re linked via Bluetooth to an app on the user’s handheld iPhone – an Android app is in the works.
As the phone’s mic picks up the voice of a chosen person located close to the user, an AI-based speech-to-text algorithm converts their spoken words to text which is relayed back to the glasses. That text is projected onto the inside the lenses, where the wearer can read it. The text is also displayed on the phone’s screen, as a backup.
AirCaps
According to the company, the app currently recognizes languages such as English, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, German and Portuguese. Technical terms, slang, or other words not currently in its vocabulary can be manually added by users.
The AirCaps glasses are currently only available to US buyers, via the company website. They’re being offered at an introductory price of US$699, which is $100 off the planned retail price – prescription lenses are sold separately for $150. They should ship in six to eight weeks.
AirCaps
It is worth noting that additional costs are required in order to actually use the things.
Buyers can opt for a $49 monthly plan which allows them to utilize the speech-to-text system offline, or they can pay $2 an hour to use it via an online server as needed.
Potential customers might also want to check out the similar TranscribeGlass glasses, although they have yet to reach production. The speech-captioning Voicee glasses, which were announced two years ago, failed to meet their crowdfunding goal.
Sources: AirCaps, Cornell University
