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STEM 2

Course Description

As the second part of the STEM course at Mass Academy, taught by Dr. Crowthers, Mass Academy juniors in teams of four or five undertake an assistive technology project. This project is intended to help local communities with certain types of impairments. For this project, Rishit, Medhansh, Saketh, and I have decided to create a product that helps people with auditory impairments comprehend the direction from which sound is coming toward them in a conversation.

Problem and Design Approach

One of the most important constraints that people with auditory impairments face is the inability to properly verbally communicate with other individuals. A major factor preventing them from this method of effective communication is that they are often unaware of people talking to them from directions outside their field of vision, in addition to the obvious constraint of being unable to hear voices. In the current market, some glasses offer speech-to-text captioning, allowing auditorily impaired individuals to interact with people within their eyesight; however, these glasses are very expensive, often exceeding a price of $1,000. As a result, we decided to create a device that provides not only speech-to-text captioning but also a directional cue through a lens, which can be attached to any pair of glasses, and do so at a much lower cost than what the market currently offers.

Engineering Process and Solution

Photo of Prototype

As part of our engineering process, we began by creating four CAD models for the three initial design ideas created alongside a combination of two design ideas that we decided to continue with. Thereafter, we printed out our final CAD model, consisting of our storage units, which are crucial to ensuring the structural and mechanical integrity of the product when testing it. Initially, the storage units were going to be bolted into the side of the glass frames, however, due to the weight imbalance induced discomfort that would cause for the user, the design was modified to include a headband around the back of the head, that would be bolted into to contain the storage units. Not only does this increase comfort levels, but it also improves the aesthetic quality of the product, as the storage units are largely hidden in a face-to-face conversation. This was also confirmed by our client at the Center of Living and Working in Worcester, Massachusetts. The client also encouraged us to cut down on the excessive wiring mess that had resulted from the different components, leading to the utilization of a breadboard, to increase organization. The prototype, which was presented at the Assistive Technology Fair, can also be seen in the picture to the left.

Poster