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AI used to support the hearing impaired

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Lipnet is an AI technology that is more accurate at lip reading than any human being.

In recent months Springwise has seen some fascinating innovations that focus on improving things for those who are deaf. This webcam service offers mortgage advice for the hearing impaired and this smart t-shirt that translates music into motion for the deaf listener. Now, The University of Oxford is using AI technology to improve an existing service.

The Department of Computer Science at Oxford University has developed an app that uses AI software to read lips more accurately that human beings. The software is called LipNet and has a 92% accuracy rating. Indeed it scores 13% higher than the average lip-reading software. It does this by focussing on sentence construction, rather than deciphering one word at a time. The programme is also smart, and learns to become more accurate over time.

The technology has exciting potential applications both for helping deaf individuals communicate and improving smartphone voice commands. Will we see this technology adopted by others?


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