As I was searching for a communications technology that will
affect the way technology is used in professional communication I found one in
an unusual source. I was watching The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon where
they did a segment on inventions that children around the country had made. One
of these inventions was made by a 17 year old boy named Daniil and he titled it
“Live Time Closed Captioning system.” This is a system that is designed to help
people who are hearing impaired. The device is attached to a person’s glasses
to help the hearing impaired participate in ongoing conversations. A
microphone, which could easily be worn on the person’s clothing, records the
audio of the conversation and runs that audio through word recognition software
to display the words as subtitles that can be read.
This is the YouTube video entitled "GE Fallonventions: Live Time Closed Captioning System" where I first saw this technology presented.
This invention and technology was designed specifically to
help those with hearing impediments but I believe that there are more
applications for such a technology. One of which is to serve as a translator. I
think that this would be slightly more difficult to program because of the wide
variety of languages worldwide. The idea though, is similar. The microphone
would recognize the words being spoken and once they had been recognized they
would be fed through a translation software and displayed in the desired language
as subtitles on the glasses. This could have large effects on the professional
community because there is an ever increasing amount of business being
conducted internationally and this technology would allow the facilitation of
communication between business individuals who did not speak the same language
without being inhibited by the long, difficult, and often costly process of acquiring
new language skills in a foreign language.
This technology has a high resemblance to other wearable technologies that have been presented. The most famous of these is the Google Glass. Google presented the idea of this wearable, glasses technology in 2012 with the first of these units being sold almost a full year later in 2013. There were many concerns from the public about this technology being used to invade personal privacy and record conversations, meetings, and events without permission. The Google Glasses were/are also quite expensive which made it so that not many people had access to them.
I believe that the reason why the live closed captioning system will be more successful and have a greater impact than the other smart glass technologies have been is that it is more simple. This technology has a specific purpose and it accomplishes that purpose alone. The concerns about being filmed or recorded won't be an issue since there is no apparent camera or memory storage system. The fact that these additional elements aren't included in the technology also means that it will be less expensive and that more people will have access to it. This means that as the technology is adapted and applied in new ways it will be more useful in the professional world and an excellent tool that will shape the way that people are able to communicate. Eliminating the disadvantages of a hearing impairment and removing the language barrier are ways that more people will become competent and confident communicators thanks to this technology.
Thanks for reading!
Scott
Sources:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDz9-MUxrgA
2. http://glassalmanac.com/history-google-glass/
This technology has a high resemblance to other wearable technologies that have been presented. The most famous of these is the Google Glass. Google presented the idea of this wearable, glasses technology in 2012 with the first of these units being sold almost a full year later in 2013. There were many concerns from the public about this technology being used to invade personal privacy and record conversations, meetings, and events without permission. The Google Glasses were/are also quite expensive which made it so that not many people had access to them.
I believe that the reason why the live closed captioning system will be more successful and have a greater impact than the other smart glass technologies have been is that it is more simple. This technology has a specific purpose and it accomplishes that purpose alone. The concerns about being filmed or recorded won't be an issue since there is no apparent camera or memory storage system. The fact that these additional elements aren't included in the technology also means that it will be less expensive and that more people will have access to it. This means that as the technology is adapted and applied in new ways it will be more useful in the professional world and an excellent tool that will shape the way that people are able to communicate. Eliminating the disadvantages of a hearing impairment and removing the language barrier are ways that more people will become competent and confident communicators thanks to this technology.
Thanks for reading!
Scott
Sources:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDz9-MUxrgA
2. http://glassalmanac.com/history-google-glass/
