A hearing aid that can read lips, even with a mask

Anicet Mbida 06:52, September 13, 2022

Innovation at the service of the hearing impaired this morning.

We have just developed an amazing hearing aid, since it is able to read lips, even when wearing a mask.

This can change everything for those who depend on conventional hearing aids.

I don't know if you know any.

But everyone will tell you: it's hell in the middle of a noisy crowd because they amplify all sounds without any distinction.

In a restaurant or a party, it quickly becomes unbearable.

A cacophony.

Impossible to follow any conversation (this is called the cocktail effect).

Well, this new generation of hearing aid is no longer going to amplify all random sounds.

She will read the lips of the person in front of her and only amplify her voice, as our brain naturally does.

But how does she read lips?

Through a mask, moreover?

Thanks to a radar that will work like a sonar to detect the smallest lip movements.

He will then transform them into primary sounds.

Then compare them to what is picked up by the microphone to easily isolate what was said.

Lip-reading systems already exist.

But they rely on glasses with a camera.

But you don't necessarily want to be constantly filmed by the person in front of you, even if they are hard of hearing.

Finally, a camera will not see anything behind a mask.

Radar waves easily pass through.

So it's both more efficient and more privacy-friendly.

But will it cost more?

No, precisely, since the radar in question is based on banal wifi waves.

Very widely used and rather inexpensive components.

We owe this technology to engineers at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

They are already in contact with several manufacturers of hearing aids.

And the first models could be industrialized next year.

Remember: more than seven million French people are hard of hearing.

However, many do not wear prostheses.

Often because they find them stigmatizing…or just plain uncomfortable.