Brighten the Silent World: How AR Smartglasses Change the Lives of Hearing-impaired

报告时间：2022年1月7日下午14:00-16:30

报告地点：管理一号楼1111

报告人：李涛

工作单位：中国科学技术大学管理学院管理科学系

举办单位：合肥工业大学管理学院

报告简介：

Brighten the Silent World: How AR Smartglasses Change the Lives of Hearing-impaired

As wearable devices, Augmented Reality (AR) smartglasses display information on a virtual layer overlaying the real-world reality. In the summer of 2021, a few companies started exploring if AR smatglasses could be considered as an innovative hearing aid, which shows the captions of real-time converted speech in front of people with hearing loss, allowing them to “see” the sound. But how AR smartglasses could affect the hearing impaired in this novel use has never been explored. To fill this void, we partnered with a leading AR company and conducted a large-scale field study consisting of three parts. First, we collected data from around 2000 hearing impaired to understand their needs and preferences concerning hearing aid and AR smartglasses. Second, we conducted a randomized field experiment among randomly selected 56 users who experienced a two-week free trial of the AR smartglasses, while another 170 users served as a control group. We investigated how AR smartglasses could influence users’ ability to obtain information and collaboration with others in a team environment. We compared their performance under three scenarios: no hearing aid, a speech-to-text app in the smartphone, and AR smartglasses. Third, we conducted surveys and interviews to explore the changes in their psychological needs and daily lives after the trial.

We find that, first, AR smartglasses can help hearing-impaired users improve their ability to acquire auditory information by as much as 40% without any loss of visual information. Second, AR smartglasses can enhance communication efficiency and collective intelligence when they collaborate to solve designed tasks in a team. In addition, with the help of AR smartglasses, users are more confident and relaxed in group discussions. Third, wearing AR smartglasses induces psychological changes after only two weeks of use, compared with the control group. Fourth, in post-trial interviews, users report that using AR smartglasses has significantly reshaped their daily lives, work efficiency, and social interactions. This paper reveals the multifaceted benefits of AR smartglasses for people with hearing loss.