A ML-powered wristband designed to help people with hearing loss ‘feel’ their environment.
Tacticall
People with hearing loss often choose not to wear hearing aids at home due to reasons such as discomfort, the need for frequent charging, or simply not perceiving it as necessary when alone. However, this can lead to missed alert sounds like doorbells, phone rings, or even fire alarms, which may cause inconvenience for the individual and concern among their friends and family.
The objective of this project is to develop a comfortable, intuitive device that provides an alternative sensory pathway for those who prefer not to wear hearing aids at home. This device aims to ensure that individuals can receive important notifications promptly, effectively, and with ease.
brief
Users were able to reliably distinguish at least four vibration patterns around their wrist after just five minutes of training. This suggests that mapping each pattern to a specific type of information is a feasible way to deliver simple tactile notifications.
Male
22
South-Asian
Neurotypical
Female
23
East-Asian
Neurodivergent
Female
28
Southeast-Asian
Neurotypical
Female
28
Caucasian
Neurotypical
*performance might vary for neurodivergent users
Prototype Testing
Record 3 samples
Assign with pattern
All set
Only 3-5 samples per sound are required to train the model, due to the nature of transfer learning.
sound 1
sound 1
Customize your sounds
Home notification sounds are mapped into different vibration pattern
Fire alarm
Door bell
Home appliance
Phone ring
How does it work?
“I don’t like to wear hearing-aids at home, but I always miss my delivery as I can’t hear the door bell ringing.”
— Female with moditary hearing lost, age 58
Paul Bach-y-Rita, Science News Online 1 Sept, 2001; vol. 169, no. 9
“You don’t see with the eyes. You see with the brain.”
Paul Bach-y-Rita’s 1964 system used skin vibrations to deliver camera images, demonstrating that touch can substitute vision in perceiving visual information.
Sensory substitution
Espressif ESP32-S3
350 mAh Lipo battery
Coin-type ERM vibration motor
DRV2605L haptic driver
And notify user with a haptic wristband
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