Field study of a tactile sound awareness device for deaf users

Abstract

Sound can provide important information about the environment, human activity, and situational cues but can be inaccessible to deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) people. In this paper, we explore a wearable tactile technology to provide sound feedback to DHH people. After implementing a wrist-worn tactile prototype, we performed a four-week field study with 12 DHH people. Participants reported that our device increased awareness of sounds by conveying actionable cues (e.g., appliance alerts) and 'experiential' sound information (e.g., bird chirp patterns).