Inventors and App Developers: Steal This Reader’s Idea for Closed Captioning Everyday Speech
Hello, David Pogue:
I enjoy all your columns and videos (especially your marriage proposal).
But here is a suggestion for a new product. Given the emerging interest in wearable technology, how about some sort of glasses that convert human speech to closed captioning? It would be a great boon to those of us with hearing deficits. Given the status of closed captioning on TV and movies, I think this is possible.
Given enough motivation and resources, I believe such a device could be developed that would be reliable, efficient and maybe even affordable (decent hearing aids now cost in the thousands of dollars). And believe me: Hearing aids are a great device but not a total solution!
—Ben
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Hi Ben!
That’s a great idea. All the pieces are already in place. We have text-to-speech conversion in our phones (Siri, for example), and we have glasses that can display the result (Google Glass). I’m sure it won’t be long before someone writes an app for Glass that combines the two — real-time transcription of what somebody is saying to you, displayed on a tiny screen before your eyes.
On the other hand, speech recognition today offers nowhere near the accuracy of closed captioning. Especially not in a noisy situation where the speaker is several feet away, like a restaurant — which is precisely where your invention would probably be the most useful!
Still, technology is always improving, and your idea is a good one. Or, put another way: I hear you!
—DP
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