Project OUVER - collaborator creates 'do-it-yourself' open-source solution for deaf or hard of hearing

The project came about because Emanuel Ferreira works with a hearing impaired person. “I would enter the room many times and she would not be aware of my presence and would always get scared”, he says. “I spoke to her and she understood me by reading lips, but later, with the pandemic and the use of a mask, I noticed that she isolated herself. So, I started to think that there had to be some way of being able to communicate with her and really give her the chance to “listen””, reports Emanuel Ferreira.

This is how the OUVER (Listen + See, in Portuguese) came up. Project OUVER aims to help people who are deaf or have hearing problems to read what people are saying, it uses a AR Monocle to display floating realtime subtitles in the user field of view. The project is open-source, free for non-commercial use and its made to be simple enough so anyone can build its own at home.
The live captation of the speech is made by the user smartphone using a free android app that works offline and then it displays the resulting text in the OUVER Monocle via a cable ou bluetooth connection. The creators mixed the concept of AR and VR headsets to get a new hibrid with the best of both: users can see cleary the displayed information in AR in any light condition without requiring a high power bright display by using a VR approach, but without the giant volume that those require.

The creators are designing 3 versions of it:
- One that secures to the head using a band, giving it extra grip so it can be used in hard conditions like while doing sports,
- A second one that is secured on one hear leaving space for hearing aid devices
- A last one still in development to be attached to the user glasses.

The current versions in the 'do-it-yourself' (DIY) form cost 15€ for the cable version and 20€ for the bluetooth version.
The creators are looking now for investors so they can produce industrially two version of it, one with cable for the same price as the DIY version but with refined finish and high quality components, and a fully wireless compact version around 50 to 100€.

Adapted from: http://developkings.com/projects/project-ouver/?i=1

Instructions here: https://github.com/Developkings/Project_OUVER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrURmMgTcco