Abstract:
According to a survey quoted in the HULT prize 2017 case study, more than 600 Million people are suffering from hearing impairment of various degrees globally [1]. Out of those 600 Million, 360 Million people are those who are born without the ability to speak or hear [2]. This makes up more than 5% of the total world population but the shortfall is so extreme that each year only 10 Million products are sold in this domain [1].
This is a wearable device that works as a replacement to customary headphones. It allows the hearing impaired people to regain their sense of sound who have lost their ability of hearing through some accident, incident or are just born this way. Apart from that, it also helps people in being more socially aware of their surroundings while they are listening to music on their phones through their headphones.
The idea of “Off-ear hearing” is employed in this project through the concept of bone conduction. It allows the user’s ear canal to remain free and completely unblocked while he/she uses the headphones. The device bypasses the ear canal and delivers sound directly to the brain. In addition, the concept of “3D Sound Reception” is used through which sound is recorded all around the user using strategic positioning of microphones and transferred to the brain using the bone conduction mechanism in real time.
An application to accompany the device has also been developed based on android technology .This app provides an interface for the user to access device.
