Month: April 2017

Forum Responses

As part of my market research I posted a rough proposal of my idea on public forums. The forums that I posted on were http://www.alldeaf.com and https://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk.

Proposal:

Both Virtual and Augmented Reality are becoming more and more popular in today’s society.  But for what purpose? The expansion of these technologies is being idolised for all the wrong reasons; they are being incorporated into mobile applications and video games for people to enjoy and have fun with. I believe that we should use these technologies to our advantages and therefore I wish to create a pair of smart-glasses that will act as an assistive device for those with hearing difficulties.

The smart-glasses will incorporate Augmented Reality. The AR function enables the user to see a visual of a human being (man or woman) performing sign language superimposed in the real world. The microphones built into the frame of the glasses allow spoken dialogue to be recorded, the software inside the glasses will read the recorded audio and quickly translate it into British Sign Language. (To begin with, the only language available on this device will be BSL, however there will be room to develop the glasses so that alternative languages, such as ASL, can be added.)

Some may argue that one of the biggest difficulties of being deaf is that people of the hearing culture treat deaf people as if they are handicapped, people to be pitied or changed. Therefore, the design of the product will look like an ordinary pair of glasses. The main reason for this is to prevent discrimination from people of the hearing culture. However, this design will have further benefits, such as being comfortable and stylish.

It is apparent that a fairly large percentage of people who are deaf (especially those deaf from birth) would opt out of the hearing world altogether – no matter what technologies were offered. These smart-glasses are not a solution for curing deafness, they are a device which can help those with hearing difficulties to overcome issues that occur naturally as a consequent of hearing loss. The smart-glasses will hopefully be beneficial to those who cannot or struggle to lip read. The smart-glasses will also enable users to become more aware of surrounding conversations and may open the opportunity for further communication. The smart-glasses will also be suitable for children, particularly school children who may struggle to understand their teacher or peers.

Although there are many mobile applications already available that offer sign language translation assistance, there is no product as such currently on the market. Furthermore, this product has additional benefits because it is eyewear; prescription lenses can be made available for the glasses if desired.

At first I didn’t get any responses but after time a few people began to voice their opinions. One of the main concerns was that not many people know sign language and therefore a speech to voice option may be more beneficial.

“Text technology has freed up many with hearing loss, I just feel sign does the opposite and is restrictive. Certainly sign is no opposition in media at all, given a straight choice, few would choose sign language as a media format of access these days. Not the 9m HoH anyway… I don’t believe media shares the access demand view of BSL. ‘888’ has killed sign access as a necessary media access form. It isn’t a matter of choice/preference or anything else, just it is a superior access format for the majority. So I don’t really follow there is any demand for everyone to learn it or for applications to provide it, the market must be extremely small for it. The advantage of text access is it allows better intro to mainstream and its grammar, I never saw the point learning an alternative that would provide issues of access when I want to read something or get a job, with a loss situation that provides barriers in itself, who needs it ?

The glasses thing has been tried in cinemas etc not really effectively, again subtitling was superior there too. You can be sure once we get instant text access to speech via some really easy means, the sign fraternity will demand a signed version. But only 5% of deaf rely solely on BSL… I believe once a really effective and cheap way is found to access face to face text via unobtrusive translation without a middle person, it will be taken up by us all. At that point, it will be a real game changer for the BSL deaf. Their peers will have real choices…”

– MervynJames4

 

“There are more people who are hard of hearing or gone deaf.. and all in between .. who lost their hearing later in life and therfore do not sign. There are probably 6-9 million of us. Therfore BSL would be underused.

It would be much more inclusive and the uptake would be greater if speech to text were used, without the need for a third person.. although there are apps for this out there…they are still not accurate enough to say follow a film or the news in real time. Now that would be something if this could be achieved.”

– Tiptop

Another concern was the cost of the project:

“It sounds like a great idea but I have a few reservations. First of all it will cost a lot of money to develop this. There are already BSL translation applications on mobiles and there is a danger that other more portable apps will come along while you are developing this. So you would be dependent on earning enough money from the finished product and I have doubts about that.”

– Cornishhandy

It seemed that there were a lot of negative responses regarding the project. So I decided to take on board what had been said and change the concept of the product slightly. The changes that will be made are based upon the response that BSL may not be a common method of communication for all deaf or hard of hearing people. The option to to have speech-text translation will now be incorporated into the design. There is reason to think that product will benefit from this change as the target market is likely to expand, people who do not know sign language may potentially be open to purchasing the product, as well as people who have slight hearing loss.

Sources: https://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/community/forums/deafness-and-hearing-loss.aspx?g=posts&t=14389

http://www.alldeaf.com/threads/new-smart-glasses-proposal.129168/#post-2509332

There are many factors to consider when proposing a budget for this kind of project.

The graph below shows a rough estimate for the hourly rate for chartered engineers who belong to the Engineering Council based on years experience.

Another factor to consider is location. The graph below shows that the hourly rate varies upon the location of the engineer with the UK.

Also, the hourly rate will vary depending on whether the engineer is self-employed or working for another company.

And obviously, the hourly rate will vary depending on the type of engineer.

Ideally the costs of the project need to be kept to a minimum, however, it is likely that in order for the project to have the best overall outcome the following roles would need to be filled:

Project Team:

Project Manager

Industrial Designer

Electrical Engineer

Mechanical Engineer

Software Engineer

 

In terms of wages, most employees will be paid based on experience. This could be anything from £15 – £60 an hour.

The project itself is realistically going to take between 1-2 years to complete.

The average amount of hours that one person works in one day is 8 hours.

If each Engineer/Designer (excluding the project manager) were to be paid £30 per hour for an 8 hour day of work then the total costs for just one day of work would be £960 (£240 to each employee).

It is unlikely that these employees will be needed throughout the whole course of the project.

The minimum timescale for the project is 12 months so based upon 3 months of work from each employee, working 8 hours a day, 4 days a week at the rate of £30 per hour the costs to hire these employees for 1 year will be around £46,080.

The wages of the Project Manager still need to be added on to this.

Assuming that the project manager will be paid roughly the same but for a period of 12 months, the costs for the overall wages of the above employees will estimate around £92,160. 

Other factors to consider:

• Costs of Materials
  • Material to make the frame of the glasses
  • The lenses
  • The Augmented Reality Lens
  • The Software (Android)
  • The Microphone(s)
  • The Micro-projectors
• Sales and Marketing
  • Promotional costs
• Packaging
  • Costs of production
  • Costs of material
  • Costs of employees

Sources: http://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Certification=Chartered_Engineer%3a_CEng_(Engineering_Council)/Hourly_Rate#by_State

I understood that this project was going to be cost worthy but I didn’t understand just how much. I decided to get in touch with some companies via email to see if they could give me any advice on how to lower costs or even a rough estimate on how much they think the project is likely to cost overall. I emailed well known companies as well as freelancers. Only one person responded to my email and here is what he said:

James’ response got me thinking. I was unaware of how much a project like this would actually cost. I realised then that the costs of production for my project were going to be extortionate!

But then I figured that the costs of production may actually be a lot less because the plan is to only incorporate the essentials,  the elements that are in most smart glasses are not needed, for the purpose of this project is to create a pair of smart glasses that display an Augmented version of a woman singing BSL, there is no need for extra components such as navigation, headphones, bluetooth connection, wifi connection, photography etc. Hopefully, this will result in the overall costs being reduced.

Having said this, I’ve realised that I have not considered the costs of hiring a Sign Language Interpreter, and because a highly qualified professional interpreter is required, the costs may be expensive.

 

Sign Language Interpreters

Figures from the National Career Service website estimate that the hourly rate for a freelance sign language interpreter vary from £25 – £30 an hour. Wages for interpreters who are employed by another company can vary depending on experience and location.

https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/job-profiles/british-sign-language-interpreter

I would need to consider the fact that additional charges may occur for hiring a sign language interpreter to work on a project like this, as they will not be performing their ordinary job role.

 

Summary of Expenses

I decided to make a rough spreadsheet of the estimated overall costs. My projected costs are based upon project tasks divided into five subject categories, Project Design, Project Development, Project Delivery, Project Management and Other Costs.

I have based the labour costs for employees (Project Manager, Industrial Designer, Software Engineer, Hardware Engineer, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers) on a wage of £30 per hour per 8 hour day. This may be subject to change. Therefore I have allocated an additional £7,680 to cover 384 hours of work.

The costs for the Sign Language Interpreter is based up 96 hours of work at an hourly rate of £50.

I have allocated £60,000 for all materials (including hardware and software).

The total contingency allowance is £17,100.00 to cover any overtime in hours, extra material costs, additional travel expenses and any other costs not mentioned.

The total costs estimated for the whole project is £129,430.00 based on a 1 year timeframe.