Prototype Design of Alert Device for Hearing Impaired Users

Sounds are essential pressure waves which keep humans informed about the events around them. Users with hearing impairment have difficulties in recognition of the sounds that are vital in their day-to-day life. This research paper discusses a paper prototype design of Alert Device for hearing impaired users within their work environment at home. This prototype of Alert Device is designed based on a detailed literature survey as well as peer Android application review. The device design focuses on recognition of sounds in the home environment such as detection of the doorbell, crying of a baby, fire alarm, motion detection alarm and phone ringing at home. It also includes features such as self-training of sound, Panic/SOS button and sound log. The proposed proto-type will reduce the dependency of hearing impaired users on other family members around them within the work environment at home and will improve their daily life activities through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). How to cite this book chapter: Kularia, P., Bhutkar, G., Jadhav, S. and Jadhav, D. 2020. Prototype Design of Alert Device for Hearing Impaired Users. In: Loizides, F., Winckler, M., Chatterjee, U., Abdelnour-Nocera, J. and Parmaxi, A. (eds.) Human Computer Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Adjunct Proceedings from the INTERACT 2019 Workshops. Pp. 133–138. Cardiff: Cardiff University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18573/ book3.p. License: CC-BY 4.0. 134 Human Computer Interaction and Emerging Technologies


Introduction
The world human population has reached to about 7.7 billion by February 2019. According to WHO, around 466 million people worldwide have a hearing disability, of which 131 million are from South Asia [10]. It is estimated that over 900 million people all around the world will have a hearing disability by 2050, and South Asia will have a significant effect of this with an increment of about 2% making upto 267 million hearing disabled people [13].
A study by Gudyanga shows that the inability to detect any sounds in the surroundings leads to social, emotional and behavioural problems [4]. Also, hearing impaired user rely on sign language or lip-reading to understand speech sound. But, in the case of non-speech sounds, the users with hearing disability face numerous troubles in a home environment [3]. The major problems include difficulty in communication with friends/family, lack of awareness about surrounding work environment, inability to handle dangers and emergencies, and behavioural issues like loneliness or depression.
Hearing disability is based on the grade of impairment [12] which is summarized in Table 1. There are different kinds of devices available for hearing impaired users such as Assistive Devices, Augmentative Devices and Alert Devices [8]. The study of these devices reveals that there are only a few costly Alert Devices that are available as compared to Assistive and Augmentative devices. Due to this, the hearing impaired user always needs an interpreter to know about the events happing around him/her even in home environment. Thus, to make hearing impaired user self-sufficient regarding detection of Non-Speech Sound related events around; there is a need of a Universal Alert Device. This device should be portable and should detect all the desired Non-Speech Sounds for hearing impaired users. This research paper provides an overview of the investigation process and a related paper prototype design of the Alert Device for hearing impaired users within their work environment at home. The next section discusses an extensive literature review which tends to focus first on Alert Devices and then on Non-Speech Sounds.

Literature Review
A literature review on the Alert Devices and related Non-Speech Sounds has been comprehensive. This section discusses a few research articles which mainly focus on Alert Devices and related Non-Speech Sounds, which have helped in the initial process of prototype designing. These articles mainly include conference papers, journal papers and a patent published from 2004 till 2018. Most of these articles involve studies with a prototype design, real-world products, and mobile applications. The following sub-section discusses articles on Alert Devices first, and then about articles related to Non-Speech Sounds. Table 2 depicts details of different features and aspects present in the Alert Devices discussed in related research articles [1][2][5][6][7]. The abbreviation NA in Table 2 stands for data Not Available. Major features are selected after the rigorous study of these research articles, which are -use of display unit (other than smartphone), use of vibrations, self-training of sound, Panic/SOS button and sound log. The important observations from data in Table 2 are provided as follows:

Articles on Alert Devices
• The smartphone is the most preferred device for primary display.

Literature Review on Non-Speech Sounds
The different sounds which Alert Devices of different research studies are able to detect include door knock, landline/phone, doorbell, loud noise, fire/smoke alarm, intruder alarm, motion detection alarm, baby cry and opening/ closing of the door [1][2][5][6][7]. As per data researched, 80% (4 out of 5) of the Alert Devices are able to detect door knock. 60% (3 out of 5) of the Alert Devices are able to identify sound of landline/phone, doorbell, loud noise, fire/smoke alarm, intruder alarm and motion detection alarm, less than 50% of the Alert Devices are able to detect baby sound and door opening/ closing.

Android Application Review
A systematic review has been conducted for currently available leading Android apps related to alerts and sound detection used mainly by hearing impaired users. Applications reviewed include Baby Monitor 3G, Flash Alert Call & SMS, Sentechtor, Sound Detector and Visualfy [9,11,[14][15][16]. Different features and details observed in these selected apps which are used mainly by hearing impaired users include a visual information, flash, alert from different mobile apps, vibration, sounds log, self-training of sound and Panic/SOS button. Important observations of these apps are provided below: • Most of the apps (4 out of 5) provide alert using mobile display and also store sounds log which makes it is easy to understand the alert generated. • Most of the apps (3 out of 5) have provided a vibration feature for better focus on alert and Panic/SOS button for making emergency contacts. • Only two apps give alert from different applications and also provide self-training of sound. • Flash feature is provided in only one app and it is an essential feature for deaf.

Paper Prototype Design for Alert Device
The prototype will be developed with the consideration of the home environment as a work environment for the hearing impaired users. These users can benefit from this device immensely by detecting everyday essential sounds as well as certain very important non-speech sounds like opening/closing of the door, fire alarm, intruder alarm and movement detection that are crucial for safety and security at home.
The proposed prototype of Alert Device consists of four main blocks which are Sensors, Sound Detection Unit, Communication Unit and Output Unit, designed to be utilized within work environment at home. The hardware components/design will be completed at later stage. Apart from the prototype design of Alert Device, design of Smartphone Application is also proposed which consists of Alert Detection, Training of Sound and Sound Log. In Alert Detection, user can have live detection of the sounds with options of doorbell, crying of baby, fire alarm, phone ringing, motion-detection alarm and sound log. User can also customize the pattern and intensity of vibration for individual sound.

Conclusion
A paper prototype for this Alert Device is designed based on allied literature review as well as Android app review. The prototype design includes a few functionalities which can support users from slightly to profound impairment within work environment at home. It has features such as detection of various sounds, self-training of sound, Panic/SOS button, and sound log. Thus, the proposed Alert Device is designed with the primary intention of helping hearing impaired users to detect sounds occurring at home environment. The development of the proposed Alert Device will reduce the dependency of hearing impaired users on other family members at home and will improve their work engagement through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In the future, the proposed Alert Device will be developed with an initial focus to make a Universal Alert Device, which will be portable and able to recognize all the desired Non-Speech Sounds.