Smart Glasses Allow Deaf People to See Real-Time Conversation Captions
XRAI Glass has launched a pioneering pair of augmented reality (AR) smart glasses that allow deaf people to see conversations in real-time.
The phone-tethered AR smart glasses, which the company say is the “first of its kind”, aims to enable the deaf community to engage in everyday conversations by instantly turning audio into captions that are displayed in front of the wearer’s eyes.
The software’s voice recognition can even identify who is speaking and the company hopes that the tech will develop to translate languages. It is planning to reach 70,000 people by the end of 2023.
Launched today, XRAI Glass posted a remarkable video of a deaf woman trying the glasses for the first time and her delightful reaction to seeing the technology in action. Diana, who uses sign language to communicate, is blown away by the text appearing on the glasses in front of her and says she is “honored.”
“We are so proud of the ability of this innovative technology to enrich the lives of people who are deaf and have hearing loss, so that they can maximize potential,” says Dan Scarfe, XRAI Glass CEO.
“Whether that means being able to have a conversation while continuing to make dinner or keeping a conversation going while walking with a friend.”
British company XRAI Glass partnered with Nreal to create consumer-ready AR glasses, and a public trial period now begins where the company “will continuously listen and learn from its users, expanding the AI capabilities and intuitive properties of the software to provide the very best service.”
Josh Feldman, 23, was born with profound hearing loss and has had hearing aids in both ears since he was 18 months old. He tested the glasses without having any idea what they were about to do, and described them as “quite extraordinary.”
“The impact of being able to not rely on looking at someone’s lips and being able to talk to them is clearly something which could be life-changing,’ Feldman tells the Mail Online.
The smart sunglasses will cost £400 ($483) to buy, visit the company’s website for purchase information.
Image credits: All photos by XRAI Glass.
