How a Pair of Smart Glasses Can Foster Greater Social Inclusion for Individuals with Hearing Impairment

08/01/2025
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Karan Pillai from Team redbluegold tests out a prototype of SilentGuide, a pair of smart glasses that takes in spoken words from an individual’s surroundings and transcribes them into subtitles.

 

Most of us take the normal function of our five senses for granted. More often than not, it takes a personal encounter with someone who has experienced a loss of their sensory function to truly understand how it is like to be unable to participate actively in social conversations. In Singapore, one in 11 people between the ages of 18 to 74 grapple with hearing loss. The prevalence of self-reported hearing loss is also on the rise, increasing from 1.3% in 2013 to 9.2% in 2023, indicating that more needs to be done to help the growing hearing impaired community bridge existing communication gaps to create a more inclusive society.

 

For Team redbluegold from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), the winning team of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2024 competition, tools that enable individuals with hearing impairment to understand and participate in social interactions should be affordable and accessible to the majority of people who need it. Inspired by an encounter with a classmate with hearing impairment who struggled to maintain a two-way conversation in a noisy classroom, yet lacked access to an affordable solution to overcome his challenges, the team set out to develop a solution that is comfortable to wear, convenient to use and low in cost.

 

Following several iterations, the team developed SilentGuide – a pair of smart glasses that processes spoken words directed at an individual and transcribes them into subtitles, helping users with hearing impairment understand and actively take part in social conversations. Designed to function independently without an Internet connection, SilentGuide is able to offer timely support to users wherever they go.

 

“Individuals with hearing impairment are often not able to take in or understand spoken words from the people they are conversing with effectively. As a result, many of them feel isolated in social settings because they cannot participate meaningfully in them. Our hope is that SilentGuide can change all that. We want to help individuals with hearing impairment pick up spoken words easily and understand them in real-time. This way, they can participate more meaningfully in social conversations and be more integrated into our society,” said Karan Pillai from Team redbluegold.

 

(Clockwise from top left) An earlier prototype for SilentGuide, a student trying out SilentGuide, and the 3D printing process while developing the prototype

 

Housed within an easily portable and lightweight frame, SilentGuide utilises an I2S Microphone to capture spoken words and transmits the information to a Raspberry Pi 4.  The captured audio is then processed using the Vosk speech recognition toolkit and transcribed into subtitles for on an integrated I2C OLED Screen for the user to read. This empowers users with the ability to understand conversations as it happens, in real-time.

 

With the convenience and affordability it offers, the solution has the potential to improve communication and social integration for many of the 500,000 individuals with hearing loss in Singapore, helping them lead more connected and fulfilling lives.

 

Team redbluegold’s Aiden Lim receiving the grand prize from Dennis Jang, President, Samsung Electronics Singapore (2024)

 

“We want to make use of technology in a way that overcomes existing barriers for individuals with hearing impairment, to help create a more connected and inclusive society. By using augmented reality technology to put spoken words right in front of their eyes, this heightens their awareness of social conversations and makes them feel more included,” said Aiden Lim from Team redbluegold. “The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2024 competition gave us the platform and the drive to create our solution. Not only did it bring out the boldness in us to present our idea to an experienced panel of judges, it also showed us that with imagination and determination, we can play a part in helping shape a better future for communities that matter,” added Aiden.

 

Dennis Jang, President of Samsung Electronics Singapore (2024) and a member of the Solve for Tomorrow 2024 judging panel, remarked, “I am inspired by the creativity, imagination and heart showcased by our youths at this year’s Solve for Tomorrow competition. Their ideas not only reflect a deep passion for creating a better Singapore, they also demonstrate that with boldness and imagination, our youths can truly transform our community and the world.”

 

 

 

About Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Singapore

 

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Singapore is an annual competition designed to ignite the passion for championing social change among youths. Into its eight edition this year, the competition received 75 entries from over 240 secondary school students, who contributed ideas for social change focusing on five key areas – Environmental Sustainability; Health, Sports and Wellness; Inclusive Harmonious Society; Learning and Education; and Singapore’s Digital Future.

 

Over the course of the competition, participating teams are encouraged to think deeply about pressing issues in the society, and dream big to come up with new solutions to address them through technology and innovation. The competition provides a platform for students to develop interdisciplinary skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving, as well as expand their Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) knowledge. The goal of the competition is to enable youths to unleash their fullest potential while preparing them for the future workforce.

 

Finalist and winning teams at the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2024 grand finale

 

For more information about Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, visit the website.

 

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