Device for hearing by touch is on its way
February 28, 2009
According to the researchers, the devices they are working on will particularly be an important tool for hearing impaired people who generally rely on lip reading. For those who can’t afford cochlear implants, the device will be a boon.
Ted Moallem, a graduate student said: ‘Most hearing impaired people will not have access to that kind of technology in our life time. Tactile devices can be several times cheaper than cochlear implants.” Researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology( MIT) are working on developing a new generation of tactile devices, which will translate sound waves into vibrations so that people with hearing impairment may feel them by their skin, and thereby read lips more accurately.
Moallem is working together with Charlotte Reed, a senior research scientist in MIT’s Research Lab of Electronics for developing a soft-ware programme that can be compatible with current smart phones, allowing such devices to be transformed into unobtrusive tactile aids for the hearing impaired.
The devices that have at least two vibrations ranges, one for high-frequency sounds and one for low-frequency sounds are being tested by the researchers. Several studies taken up reveal that human ear can perceive frequencies up to 20,000 hertz, but for touch receptors in the skin, optimal frequency are below 500 hertz.
Reed’s study conducted 20 years ago showed that the deaf-blind subjects could successfully understand speech with the Tadoma Technique method.
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