Just imagine having the options to have subtitles in everyday conversations. Subtitles, or captions have become part of our movie-watching lifestyle these days. And it’s not just for foreign-language films either. While some people find it distracting, others prefer to watch movies – and even YouTube videos with the subtitles permanently on. While this is a nice-to-have option for the majority of people, for the hearing-impaired it is essential for understanding what’s going on. So just imagine the difference it would make if they had this as an option in everyday, live conversations. That is exactly what a developer at Meta is busy testing.
Deaf People Will Benefit Most From Live Subtitles In Conversation
Live subtitles would make life a whole lot easier for the hearing impaired, most of whom feel the extra strain in these times where masks have become ubiquitous. Masks make lip-reading impossible and also obscure facial expressions and other cues that hearing people taking for granted, like tone and cadence. Meta developer Paul Mealy recently posted a test video on his Twitter, which got the internet very excited. It’s an augmented reality tool that could be a game-changer for people who are hard of hearing. Mealy employed real-time live-captioning technology that uses Augmented Reality (AR) to display captions over the person speaking. The captions, which are displayed in the lenses of a wearable device, like smart spectacles – can even follow the speaker around and work in crowded spaces, which is brilliant. By simply focusing on the identified speaker’s voice, the algorithm will caption only their voice.
Live Subtitles Could Become An Integral Part Of Our Future
Mealy says the prototype for the live subtitles uses directional microphones, where speech is recorded and converted to live text and attached to the person speaking via body tracking. It can work on hand-held devices, but is meant to work best with hands-free wearables, like Microsoft’s HaloLens and I’m sure any future smart specs or Virtual Reality visors. The technology is similar to another bit of software that was being tested a few years ago – the translation AR. The idea was that you would speak your own language to a foreigner, and the App would instantly translate it to the other person’s language – and vice versa. That was one of the nice-to-haves, whereas this is a wonderful and practical application of modern technology, opening up a whole new world of contacts and engagement. Mealy’s invention doesn’t have a name yet. And it’s not clear when it will become available or what it will cost, but when it does, it will undoubtedly give deaf people much more freedom to navigate hearing spaces. Click Here For The Video Of Mealy Testing His New Tech:
