Researchers in IIT Madras are enhancing already-developed wearable devices with latest technologies that will assist people with hearing impairment and motor disabilities to communicate independently and enhance their quality of life.

SPNI
Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) is supporting these projects of researchers in IIT Madras through its CSR initiatives.

The devices are being developed by the Centre for Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology (CREATE), a multidisciplinary translational research and educational initiative of IIT Madras.

It was conceived as the researchers in IIT Madras began interacting with NGOs and inclusive schools. CREATE sets out to meet the major social need for indigenous development of low-cost technologies that address the needs of people with different abilities in India.

Researchers in IIT Madras

Highlighting the need for indigenous development of assistive devices, Professor Anil Prabhakar, Head, CREATE-IIT Madras and Faculty, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, said due to the non-availability of affordable and sustainable assistive devices and systems, the hearing-impaired are excluded from the mainstream and inclusive education.

‘Also, the imported devices cannot be afforded by most people.’ Speaking further about the work by researchers in IIT Madras he said the cost of the product is kept low and to be less than 5000/- Indian rupees so that it is an affordable device for its basic functionality.

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The advance of technology and the advent and availability of low-cost microcontrollers and sensors allows us to come up with this unique low-cost device, he said.

Two major projects
The two major projects being developed by researchers in IIT Madras are ‘Vibe’ and iGest’ for the hearing impaired and for persons with motor disabilities, respectively.

Both devices are embedded systems that will bring the latest developments from IoT and ML to wearable assistive devices. Such wearable devices will have rechargeable batteries and communicate with a mobile phone over Bluetooth.

Elaboration
Elaborating on the impact envisaged from these CSR projects, Mr. Rajkumar Bidawatka, Company Secretary, Compliance Officer and Head CSR, Sony Pictures Networks India, said inclusivity is an essential aspect of the culture at Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI).

We are proud to extend our support to researchers in IIT Madras for this project, which is an effort to ensure that the needs of differently-abled communities are addressed in the most convenient, affordable and accessible manner.

At SPNI, our aim is to support initiatives that result in a tangible impact to communities who benefit the most from such innovations, he said.

Vibe and IGest
Vibe is a wearable device that vibrates for acoustic sounds around a person with hearing impairment. Vibe features a multitude of sound patterns that are recognized using a microphone and voice recognition modules, say researchers in IIT Madras.

Vibe will alert the hearing impaired about a specific sound such as a doorbell, alarm, or a crying child. It will be compact and wearable as a watch, say researchers in IIT Madras.

It is a simple way of providing vibration input for the pre-identified surrounding sounds, with each such sound corresponding to a specific vibration and blinking LEDs to alert the user, say researchers in IIT Madras.

Researchers in IIT Madras say iGest will function as an alternative and augmentative communication device for persons with cerebral palsy.

It will recognize the gestures of those with limited motor skills and convert them into audio output through a smartphone. It aims to address issues of speech impairment and motor impairments faced by persons with cerebral palsy, say researchers in IIT Madras.

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iGest, which borrows on commercially available fitness sensors, will be designed using an inertial motion unit. For persons with cerebral palsy, movements can be much slower than normal people and also less repetitive

Hence, iGest will be designed around available Edge ML microcontrollers that provide machine learning (ML) capabilities to IoT devices, say researchers in IIT Madras.

Census
As per the last census, 20 percent of the Indian population suffered from a motor disability. Such individuals will frequently go in for occupational therapy.

In addition, there are those who require physiotherapy only on occasion (due to a strained muscle, or bad posture). iGest will cater to a large number of such individual cases, say researchers in IIT Madras.

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In the case of persons with cerebral palsy, limited motor control also manifests itself as a speech impairment and an inability to communicate independently, say researchers in IIT Madras.

The overall incidence of cerebral palsy at birth is about 0.3 percent, but they account for 15-20 percent of children with a physical disability.

S. Vishnu Sharma

S Vishnu Sharmaa now works with collegechalo.com in the news team. His work involves writing articles related to the education... (Full bio)