Last month at South by Southwest (SXSW), we came across a team of students from the University of Tokyo who were in Austin, Texas to demo their prototype glasses for people with unilateral hearing loss. Called “asEars”, these high-tech and stylish glasses consist of a tiny microphone in the upper rim on the side of the impaired ear. The microphone is connected to an integrated audio processing unit that helps detect what direction the sound is originating from and helps filter out noise. The sound is transmitted through a bone conduction transducer that is cleverly embedded in the temple closest to the working ear.
As I (Scott) suffer from single-sided deafness, I could definitely see the appeal of an assistive device that is not only smart, but looks and feels good to use. And certainly asEars could easily pass as a normal pair of glasses.
Though asEars is currently a student project, this hardworking team of collegians is actively looking for partners to help commercialize their device and help get them into production next year.
More info: asEars website…