New Technology Applications Design & Business Models (NTADBM)

IIM-NID Joint Course June to August 2012

Instructors: Prof. Rakesh Basant, Economics and CIEE (IIM) Prof. Deval Kartik, Strategic Design Management (NID) Prof. Bhavin Kothari, Strategic Design Management (NID) Prof. Jignesh Khakar, New Media Design, (NID) Academic Associate: Vijaya Rajeshwari, IIM Siddharth Mankad, NID Anuradha Reddy, NID

Group 4 Rucha Patwardhan | Neha Chopade | Md. Shazin | Sachin Patil

Introducing the Concept

The people with hearing and speech disability face difficulty in day to day communication with normal people. These people effectively communicate using gesture and sign language. But such communication has limitations in a normal way of communication. When the other person does not understand sign language, the communication becomes limited. WANI (Words & Audio Narration Interface) is designed to address this need of such people. The application will try to facilitate the normal way of communication between a person with hearing and speech disability and a normal person. In a way the application will try to make communication for a person with speech disability as normal as possible.

Voicing self to the real world

User
We went to the special school for the hearing and speech impaired on Ashram road to understand our target audience and their lifestyle. Some facts : This is a genetic disability most of the times and can be identified during the pregnancy with the help of certain advanced test. Such tests are primarily conducted by every women to gauge the health of the baby inside the womb in urban setups. In case of abnormalities, babies are usually aborted. Whereas in rural setup, due to poor economic conditions higher percentage of babies with disabilities are given birth to. 70% of our users come from families with lesser means. Usually, such disabilities are found in combinations (deafness, muteness, reduced vision, slow mental growth and physical disabilities) Hearing disability causes reduced understanding of words and their meanings leading to speech disability. If during childhood proper attention is given at school and home, with the aid of affordable hearing devices, these individuals pick up the nuances of any language, thus communicate more effectively at an early stage in life. The parents of such children hesitate and realize much later that their kids also require to attend school, thereby causing a delay in admitting them into the special schools. Disability of one kinds make all the other senses very sharp. Indian languages are a bit more complicated than English. It is very difficult to communicate gender and singular/plural via gestures. Colloquially such kids develop their own gestures signaling objects/people/events,etc. It is difficult to standardize such gestures within the constraints of the sign language. Hearing impaired people get very restless, if not correctly understood by the recipient and try using different methods to communicate their ideas. Such as drawing, pointing, etc. They are trained into vocational professions like computer operator, data entry, stitching, mechanics, welding, carpentry, back end jobs, clerical work where communication is minimal.

Design
To capture the users gestures Wani comes with a pair of gloves that are sensor enabled. These gloves are made of stretchable porous fabric to ensure comfort. It allows the user to partially remove the glove off his fingers when he is idle. The glove comes in with an attached pouch that holds the mobile on his wrist and ensures complete visibility of the screen. A supporting application needs to be installed on the mobile phone that would be running in the background. The application pairs up with the glove using Bluetooth technology with the use of a single power switch on the glove. WANI can also be used to convey what the recipient is saying in a way convenient for the person with hearing disability. The proposed model will use gesture to words and audio and audio to words technique.

Size: The glove even though made from stretchable material, would have to incorporate sizing keeping into mind the ergonomics of the hand and the forearm. In case the gloves are too slack, there is a possibility that sensors may not work effectively. Fabric: The fabric will have a limited life due to everyday wear and tear. The body of the glove should be easily changeable or serviceable without much difficulty and delay. Changing the entire glove can be an option. Wherein we can ask users to return old gloves and replace with the new ones at some pre specified cost. The sensors and other working components can be used for making new gloves.

Technology
Gesture inputs A glove with sensors is used to detect finger movement. These sensors when moved will send readings to the circuit attached on the users wrist.

Open CV
http://siliconrobot.com/publications/iswc.pdf

E Glove
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA508940

Accelerometer input on fingers and wrist

http://siliconrobot.com/publications/iswc.pdf

AcceleGlove uses 3Axis accelerometer and camera

http://www.idrt.com/GestureRecognition.html

Technology
Message transmission The glove will then using Wireless Bluetooth device, wirelessly send the reading to the application on the mobile phone.

Gesture Identifying Component A mobile application would be connected with a database where different readings have a corresponding meaning assigned to it. It will compared the received reading with the existing set of gestures and meaning of the gesture will be identified. The meaning will then be converted into text and that text will then be converted into sound and will be played for the other person to understand. The same mobile application will be used to convert the reply from other person in to text. Certain technologies already exist for converting to audio to text. Some such well known applications are : Dragon Audio to Text convertor
http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm

SIRI in Apple iPhone 4S

http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html

Technology
Application
Beta testing : We could run and Alpha and Beta versions with the user for Pilot study and incorporate the feedback while launching Vani 1.0. In future upgraded version Vani 2.0, 3.0 will be launched considering the new needs of the user. Speech Recognition : Inter-speaker differences of languages and accents. It is not clear which characteristics of speech are speaker-independent such as ambient noise. Speech recognition technology is still struggling to transcribe multiple voices at the same time. When the phone is taking input of voices, it should be able to filter out one prominent voice or differentiate between the various sounds The interpretation of many phonemes, words and phrases are context sensitive. Words have different meanings in different sentences. Intonation and speech timbre can completely change the correct interpretation of a word or sentence, e.g. "Go!", "Go?" and "Go." can clearly be recognised by a human, but not so easily by a computer. Words and sentences can have several valid interpretations such that the speaker leaves the choice of the correct one to the listener. Written language may need punctuation according to strict rules that are not strongly present in speech, and are difficult to infer without knowing the meaning (commas, ending of sentences, quotations).
http://www.i2osig.org/speech.html http://voicesofdragon.com/2012/04/10/five-myths-of-speech-recognition-technology/

Technology
Other Technologies that are required

Enhanced wireless connectivity to communicate between glove and phone

Battery level indicator to indicate level of battery left in glove device

https://sites.google.com/site/rgaragewebsite/hpi/savage-x/led-battery-level-indicator https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11087 http://www.circuitsgallery.com/2012/07/simple-battery-charger-circuit-and.html http://www.electronicsforu.com/electronicsforu/circuitarchives/view_article.asp?sno=137&title=Batterylevel+Indicator&article_type=1&id=433&tt=unhot

Software inbuilt in phone to comprehend the signals sent from the glove.

While the user is communicating using the loudspeaker, it needs to be powerful enough to subdue the ambient noises and be clearly audible.
http://www.mtu.com/basics/noiseremove.htm http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/mic_array.aspx

Precedence

Some of the examples of such technologies are given below :

Skinput turns body into touch screen interface Tapping on arm allows users to scroll through menus and select options
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35708587/ns/technology_a nd_science-innovation/t/skinput-turns-body-touchscreeninterface/#.UB5Ztk3iYpC

Gestics lets your signs be heard Hand movement translator

http://gajitz.com/no-empty-gesture-ingenious-signlanguagetranslator/?ref=search&utm_campaign=googimages&utm _source=images&utm_medium=other

Enable talk Talking Hands No Longer Silent

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2012/7/15/talkinghands-no-longer-silent.aspx

Additional Features
Telephonic Mode: This mode can be used for long distance telephonic conversations wherein the gestures will be recognised and sent as audio signal. The responses will be converted in to text and will be displayed on screen.

Caller Gender Identification: Based on the voice pitch, caller gender will be identified. Emotion Identification: This feature will try to identify emotions conveyed by the other person. Based on the pitch, intensity and other audio clues application will try to identify emotions such as anger. Vibration Simulator: Every time application communicates or receives the audio input mobile vibrator will be used to indicate the sending or receiving. This feature will essentially be useful when the person with hearing disability is not paying attention to the other person speaking.

Addition of personalized gestures :

Indian Sign Language

http://www.deafsigns.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=67%3Aprofessionals&id=2136%3Aarchitect& Itemid=90 http://indiansignlanguage.org/sales/

Business Plan
The business plan for WANI has been formulated by looking at the below questions. What is being sold? What types of assets are required to sell? What is the value proposition for our customers? What is the value derived out of WANI for sellers? Along with the answers for these questions, the business model also covers the marketing and distribution aspects as well. What is being sold? WANI Gloves: Glove embedded with sensors to track gesture, vibrators to detect voice tone and placeholder for keeping mobiles. Right To Use Of WANI App: The application which acts as the interface between the glove and the mobile.

Customers would be able to buy WANI from authorized distributors. Each glove kit would contain a unique product key which can be used to download and use the app on the mobile.
What types of assets are required to sell? Technology Sensors Bluetooth communication Vibration

Software

Mobile App Speech detection Speech to text conversion Noise reduction/filtering/amplification Sign language experts Glove material Smart phone Internet Partnership with school, hospitals and NGOs

Others

Business Plan
What is the value proposition for our customers? WANI is a new product which seeks to bridge a gap which exists in the manner in which speech and hearing impaired communicate. The users of this product would be able to communicate with anyone who doesnt understand sign language thus making their lives normal. What is the value derived out of WANI for sellers? The price of the WANI kit would be INR 4499. This would be inclusive of the glove and the usage of the application. This price ensures that all players in the distribution network earn a decent margin. The cost estimates and margin calculations have been provided in exhibit 1.

Business Plan
Marketing Strategy Segmenting: The potential customers of WANI are those who have speech and hearing disability, have been trained in Indian Sign Language and understand other languages such as their mother tongue or English. Targeting: Anyone who can afford a hearing device worth INR 5000 by default becomes the target consumer. WANI would be introduced in schools for disabled to students who know how to operate a mobile phone. Hospitals would also be a point of introduction and sale of the device. Partnership with the NGOs working in this domain would also be sought to create awareness about WANI and also to introduce a subsidized version for the under privileged. Positioning: WANI would be positioned as an enabler which lets our loved ones communicate normally with the outside world. Distribution Plan WANI would initially be distributed through schools, hospitals and NGOs and using our inhouse sales team who would be well trained in demonstrating the usage of the technology. Once the critical sales of 500 units are achieved other channels like wholesale and retail distributors for the distribution would be sought. E-commerce as a distribution channel will also be used throughout to reach to maximum number of people. Promotion Promotion for WANI will be done by reaching to the maximum number of special schools, hospitals and NGOs working for people with speech disability. The working demonstration of the application will be given to the teachers, doctors and support staff. Our sales force will try to reach to the parents by using these mediums. The initial focus will be on the personal communication with the parents. Once the brand is established then other means of mass communication like print and tele-media will be used.