XRAI Glass Wants to Subtitle Life for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Users

https://www.wired.com/story/xrai-glass-caption-ar-glasses-first-look/


Following a conversation can be a challenge for the deaf and hard of hearing. But what if you could pop on a pair of glasses and have subtitles appear in real time? That’s the promise of a newly released app called XRAI Glass. It works with augmented reality glasses called Nreal Air (sold separately by a different company) to subtitle conversations. 

The XRAI name (pronounced x-ray) refers to XR, as in mixed reality, and AI, as in artificial intelligence, says Mitchell Feldman, the company’s chief marketing officer. I met with the team for a demo. The glasses need to be plugged into a smartphone to work, which means you also need the XRAI Glass app (currently available for Android only). 

When I put the glasses on, I can see text floating in the center of my vision. As Feldman continues to talk, it quickly clear I’m reading a pretty accurate transcription of what he’s saying. At first, it looks cut off, like the scrolling text at the beginning of a Star Wars movie just before it fades, but after a few adjustments with the glasses, I can see our speech clearly, and we chat for a while. There is a slight delay as the text appears. When I start to speak, there is an even longer delay before different sentences are attributed to speakers—this speaker attribution is called diarization, and it happens in the cloud.

XRAI via Simon Hill

XRAI doesn’t just transcribe in real time; it also saves a searchable transcript of each conversation. Feldman demonstrates this by giving me a spiel about himself and then saying to XRAI, “Tell me about Mitchell,” prompting it to replay his speech. Each transcription is also viewable on your phone. Speech is encrypted and uploaded to the cloud to be processed, then it’s immediately deleted—XRAI staff cannot view it; the user just gets the transcript back. “We can’t access it even if we wanted to,” says Dan Scarfe, chief executive officer at XRAI. “We designed ourselves out of the flow of data deliberately.” You can try to use it on device exclusively, but the experience is less accurate. 

via Wired Top Stories https://www.wired.com

December 21, 2022 at 07:09AM

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