A Wearable Device of 360° Speech Tracking and Enhancement for Hearing Loss Students in Class

Abstract

This research proposed a new wearable device with a microphone array and camera speech tracking and enhancement over a full range of 360° of a specific speaker. The proposed sensing method combined computer vision (CV) and voice techniques to track the speech target in a flexible manner. The device could scan the specific speech source over 360° and reduces the noise due to the interference, thus enhancing the autoscan hearing-impaired process; this helps students with hearing loss to concentrate more easily during the learning process in the class. The experimental results indicated that the proposed method could locate the noise source far from the target by more than 30°, regardless of whether the CV detected the human face or not. The measured positioning accuracy is greater than 83% within a range of 360°, and the speech could be enhanced by at least 5.2 dB. The proposed wearable design for schoolchildren with speech recording also has the potential to be a tool for a review class.