Maskio
According to deafness and hearing loss statistics by Forbes Health more than 70 million people worldwide are deaf and more than 80% of them reside in developing countries. Out of the 80% very few can afford other hearing assistive technologies like the hearing aid or the cochlear implant and as a result, they face a higher risk of being affected by fire. They also face other life-threatening situations due to communication barriers, and limited emergency preparedness.
Maskio is an assistive wristband that will enable the deaf feel sound. The wristband will be AI integrated to classify the different sounds into classes such as emergency or fire alarms, door bells, phone calls and such. The user will be notified of the sound through tactile senses, mainly vibrations. Maskio (ears in Swahili), will support different languages to meet different users’ needs.
The wristband will consist of simple to use user settings and will be made using locally available resources to make it cost effective.
Team Members:
Maryanne Emomeri (Nairobi, Kenya)
Ankit Tripathi (Brno-Černá Pole, Czech Republic)
Maskio is one of the two final winning teams of the project.