Need For Language Aids

The need for language aids is pervasive in today’s world as, for example, 36 million people nationwide live with hearing deficits and confront extraordinary difficulty participating in spoken interaction (Kochkin, 2005; NIDCD, 2008). While many individuals rely on lipreading, cued speech, cochlear implants, or hearing aids to help them perceive spoken language, none of these restore communication completely. Our goal is to develop technology to enhance common face-to-face conversation for the millions of individuals who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, or have other language and speech challenges. Importantly, our technology improves on previous speech aids by enabling nearly complete understanding of face-to-face spoken conversation in a widely accessible device.