Smart glasses provide real-time subtitles for deaf, hard-of-hearing community

A UK-based tech company has developed smart glasses designed to assist the deaf and hard-of-hearing community by showing live subtitles of conversations directly on the lenses.

According to Martin Javier’s report on “24 Oras,” Friday, the device called Xrai Glass uses artificial intelligence and augmented reality to capture live audio from the surroundings, transcribe it into text in real time, and display the subtitles on the user’s glasses.

Xrai Glass founder Jack Bloomfield said that the technology allows users to immediately see the words being spoken around them.

“For those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or perhaps struggle to engage with the conversations around them, they can simply put on a pair of smart glasses and immediately see the words being said around them,” Bloomfield said.

Bloomfield added that the idea was inspired by his grandfather.

“Despite earning some of the world's best hearing aids, he was still struggling to engage with the conversations around him. It wasn't until that evening that he put captions on the TV and everyone saw that he was instantly engaged. And that's very much where the lightbulb moment came from.”

In addition to assisting those with hearing loss, Xrai Glass also helps address language barriers through automatic language recognition and real-time translation in more than 300 languages.

—Carby Rose Basina/CDC, GMA Integrated News