October 2014 – A research team at Georgia Tech has created Google Glass speech-to-text software that facilitates conversations for users who are hard-of-hearing. The software allows people who are hard-of-hearing to wear Google Glass while another person speaks into a smartphone. The smartphone works with an Android transcription API, allowing the speech to be converted to text and displayed on Glass’ heads-up display.
The software was inspired by Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing Professor, Jim Foley. When asked about the software, Foley said, “This system allows wearers like me to focus on the speaker’s lips and facial gestures. If hard-of-hearing people understand the speech, the conversation can continue immediately without waiting for the caption. However, if I miss a word, I can glance at the transcription, get the word or two I need and get back into the conversation.”
The captioning software for Google Glass is available for download at MyGlass. For more information about the project, please click the here.
