Researchers working at the KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology) have created a pair of glasses that can
potentially help people with hearing disabilities “see” sounds
and noises. The glasses are designed to convert sounds into
visual alerts while indicating the direction from which the
sound is generating. The innovation could help the deaf respond
to loud noises like car or bike horns when crossing a street.
The LED glasses comes with seven microphones mounted on the
specially designed frame. These mics allow the wearer to
identify the direction from which a sound has emerged. The LED
screen located inside the frame then converts the audio signal
into a visual and flashes the alert for the wearer to see. The
LED glasses are also designed to alert the wearer when the sound
level around him has risen to above the threshold level of a
person with normal hearing ability. At the moment, the LED
glasses only work when they are synced with a laptop for the
processing of the audio signal into a