These Smart Glasses Can Translate Text Into Audio For You, Will Be A Big Help For The Blind Too
The device is curently being crowdfunded without any proof of concept just yet.
A Japanese company is building a pair of smart glasses that can convert written words you see into audio feedback. The aim is to help people with dyslexia or other reading difficulties.
The project is currently being crowdfunded on Japan¡¯s version of Kickstarter. The company is hoping to raise $93,500 to sell each pair for $47 (about Rs 3,050).
The Oton Glass, as the device is named look like regular (if a little dorky) glasses that have two tiny cameras embedded in the front (one facing out and one towards your face) and earpieces on the inner frames. Half of the lenses of those cameras are mirrors that reflect the user¡¯s eye so that the inner-facing camera can track your eye movements and blinks.
The way it works is that users can blink at a bit of text to click a picture of it, which is then transmitted to a dedicated Raspberry Pi cloud system, analyzed, and converted into spoken words that play through the earpiece. Supposedly, if the device isn¡¯t able to read the words you¡¯ve sent along, a remote worker would be available to troubleshoot.
It¡¯s a lot like Google Translate in functionality, except here the feature has been built to seem more natural, as opposed to pulling out your phone and swiping through lines of text in the app.
Of course, there¡¯s not guarantee yet how well the tech works, or even if it does at all. The company has raised about $11,573 through crowdfunding so far, so hopefully the good people backing it aren¡¯t throwing their cash away.
