Accessibility devices at CES 2021 reflect the growing focus on inclusive technology

This story is part of CES, where our editors will present the latest news and the hottest gadgets from CES 2021 entirely virtual.

The products in CES that generate more buzz are typically TVs, computers and phones, but there is also an abundance of important and innovative technologies aimed at improving the daily lives of users who do not receive as much attention. This includes a range of products focused primarily on accessibility, from hearing aids to braille keyboards and applications that guide visually impaired users.

O COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how critical many of these products are. Technology has played a crucial role in keeping people connected for tasks like remote learning, work and hangouts, but the needs of people with disabilities, who make up 15% of the global population, are often overlooked.

Fortunately, it is an issue that is gaining more and more attention as companies not only realize the importance of inclusion, but also see the financial value of making their products accessible to more people. A 2016 report by Nielsen found that consumers with disabilities, along with their families, friends and associates, make up a trillion dollar market segment. In addition, a 2018 Accenture report found that if companies engaged in a greater inclusion of people with disabilities, they would have access to a talent pool of more than 10.7 million people. More diversified hiring would allow companies to do a better job of making their products accessible.

“Inclusive design is now a topic that is talked about in the mainstream,” said Greg Stilson, head of global innovation at American Printing House (APH), which makes a QWERTY keyboard and hybrid braille. “Until five years ago, inclusive design was not a priority for UX designers,” he added, referring to user experience design.

Here are some of the accessibility and assistive technology offerings presented at this year’s all digital CES that aim to level the playing field.

Mantis Q40

The APH Mantis Q40 is a Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard that includes an upgradeable braille display. This frees blind or visually impaired users from having to choose between a traditional keyboard or a braille device. Instead, as they type, the braille display at the bottom presents information written to complement a screen reader, which speaks the descriptions aloud to users.

The device can connect to up to five different devices at the same time via Bluetooth and includes a USB connection. Works with Mac, PC and iOS devices, with support for Android and Chromebook coming soon. It sells for $ 2,495.

The company also sells a smaller, cheaper Chameleon 20 device, for $ 1,595, which features a traditional braille keyboard input instead of QWERTY. It includes the same functionality with external devices and the same connectivity capabilities as the Mantis Q40.

An important component of these tools is that they are based on the accessibility initiatives that increasingly large technology companies are adopting, said Stilson. He noted that while it’s exciting to see companies like Samsung, Apple, Google and Microsoft put more emphasis on inclusive design, “accessibility isn’t always equal to efficiency. You can make a computer talk, but there are interaction tools that make it an experience efficient? “

Products like the Mantis Q40 and Chameleon 20, he says, add this layer of efficiency, while allowing users to keep braille at their fingertips.

The high price of keyboards is due to the cost of producing specialized devices with upgradeable braille technology, said Stilson. But APH is developing a dynamic tactile device that would create multiple braille lines, so that a blind student, for example, could have immediate access to an image, diagram or shape being discussed in class. APH hopes to be able to create low-cost upgradeable braille technology with the device.

Oticon More

Hearing aids have started to draw more attention at CES in recent years, especially as they have received a boost from artificial intelligence. There is a serious need for these tools, as nearly 500 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss, according to the World Health Organization.

Hearing aid maker Oticon launched Oticon More on Tuesday, which is designed to help hearing-impaired users better understand speech and pick up more sounds they need to hear.

Embedded in the hearing aid chip is a neural network, a computing approach that mimics how the human brain processes data. DNN is trained on 12 million real sounds, says the company. When a sound passes through the hearing aid, it is compared to the results of the DNN learning phase. This allows the device to offer a more natural and balanced representation of sounds, according to Oticon, and is capable of processing speech in a noisy environment more like the human brain.

Oticon More supports streaming from the iPhone and some Android devices. It comes in eight colors and costs are set by individual hearing care professionals.

Other smart hearing aids on this year’s CES virtual floor include the Kite personal sound amplifier, which features noise reduction technology and resembles a pair of headphones attached to a neck strap. It has three listening modes: focus mode, which focuses on the person in front of you and is designed for individual conversations; ambient mode, which provides more general awareness while reducing unwanted noise; and group mode for social environments, which improves speech 180 degrees in front of the user and reduces background noise.

Signia also offers a variety of smart hearing aids, as well as a face mask mode in its app that helps users better understand speech through face masks. Users can tap a button on the app, which then tells hearing aids to focus on a person’s speech signals, making words clearer and reducing background noise. After the face mask mode is deactivated, the hearing aids re-transmit the surrounding noise in a natural sound balance. The application is available for iOS and Android.

I heard that

Hearing aid users looking to better separate speech from surrounding noise may find HeardThat useful. The smartphone app, launched late last year and available for iOS and Android, uses machine learning to achieve this goal.

To create the application, neural networks were trained using thousands of hours of recorded speech to distinguish useful speech from other noises. While other speech aids tend to amplify or reduce all sounds, including what is useful, HeardThat separates and discards noise, the company says. This makes it easier for users to understand speech.

The app was not designed to replace hearing aids or to serve as an alternative to them, says Bruce Sharpe, CEO of Singular Hearing, which makes HeardThat. Instead, it is an accessory for hearing aids.

To use the app, connect your hearing aid or headphones to the phone and place it in front of you, pointing at the person you are talking to.

HeardThat is free, but the company plans to launch a subscription service.

App aware

Smartphones also have the ability to help blind or visually impaired users to navigate their environment. The Aware application, from Sensible Innovations, offers descriptive step-by-step navigation for users, who can put their phone in their pocket and listen to the application announce wherever they go.

Users can tell the app where they want to go and it alerts them when they reach their destination. Aware also provides an audio description of locations, such as a store layout.

Aware is available on iOS and will be released soon for Android.

Sravi

Liopa, a company that developed THEREbased on lip reading technology, created an app called Sravi that is designed to recognize specific phrases by analyzing lip movements. This can be useful for people with speech difficulties or patients in critical care with illnesses that make them unable to speak.

The app is being tested at the UK’s National Health Service and is scheduled to be commercially launched in early spring.

Sravi has been useful in intensive care units within the NHS, due to the flood of COVID-19 patients using ventilators, says Liopa CEO Liam McQuillan. ICU doctors tend to use tracheostomy to keep patients away from ventilators, which prevents them from speaking. These patients can benefit from an application like Sravi, says McQuillan, and the company has seen an increase in demand for its technology.

Customers use the app by downloading it to their phone or tablet and then holding the device in the direction of a patient. Sravi captures a video of the patient speaking and a deep neural network maps the movements of the lips to find out what someone is trying to say. This information can be sent back to the health care provider’s phone or tablet in textual form or as a synthetic voice.

The range of accessible products presented at CES highlights a growing awareness of the need for inclusive technology design and product offerings, which Stilson does not expect to see slowing down in the coming years.

“In fact,” he says, “I see that this is increasing more and more.”

The information in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended for medical or health advice. Always consult a doctor or other qualified healthcare professional regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health goals.