Lip reading is difficult, and a large portion of the deaf community choose to not read lips. On the other hand, lip reading is a way for many deaf people to feel connected to a world that they often feel removed from. I have linked a powerful video where one such lip reader talks about the difficulty of lip reading but they pay-off she experiences by being able to interact and connect with anyone she wants.
Lip reading relies on being able to see the lips of the person speaking. When you are interacting with one person, this is not an issue, but what if you’re in a group setting? How do you keep track of who is talking and where to look?
Idea
Using 4 sound detector or microphones, detect the area in which sound is coming from. Alert the user of this change in sound by using a servo motor to point in the direction of the sound. This allows people who are hard of hearing to understand who is talking in a group setting and focus on the lips of the person speaking at hand.
Proof Of Concept
To demonstrate this idea, I decided to use 2 sound detectors and a servo motor. My interrupt is a switch which can be used to override the process if, for example, there are too many people talking or they do not need to use this device anymore.
Below is a breadboard view of my project.
I am having some issues after updating to Catalina, so videos will come soon!
