Research for a product geared towards deaf people!

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I'm part of a team which is trying to develop a product geared towards the deaf community. However we need much more input from this community; so that we don't stray from what you actually need too far.

The problem we set out to solve originally was the fact that many deaf or hard of hearing people can not tell what is going on in their house. Examples of this would be things such as kids being too loud, a timer such as an oven or microwave timer going off, or a fire alarm.

Earlier we did research on a separate community, and they told us that the existing solutions were primarily either specifically trained dogs, or annoying flashing lights. If you know of any other better solution, we would greatly appreciate you sharing!

So at this point, we have come up with multiple possible solutions, and we need to know which one the deaf community thinks would be most effective:

  1. A water leak sensor, so you could be warned of a water drip if you can't hear it
  2. Detection of sound throughout your entire house, using either a system integrated into the house, or wireless modules placed wherever needed
    -if the modules were wireless, would any of you be interested in making the system DIY-friendly so you could make your own detection modules?​

There are multiple ways we could use the system to alert the user as well:
  1. Sending updates to a phone
  2. Use wristband which vibrates/compresses with a possible display
  3. Make it compatable with a smart home interface

If you think there is a better way to solve this problem, please tell us! Any feedback you can give is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
The project development team
 
It's not very hi-tech, but my dog is very good at number 2. I'm just glad he goes number 2 outside.
 
is it included the basement that there are leaking that can have sensor too? :aw:

That is one thing we are considering, to try to detect leaks in general rather than specifically for deaf people. But again, we just need to know what this community would value the most.
 
Something for water running would be nice.
It'd also be nice to have something more generic that plugged in between appliances and the wall outlet that measured the current drawn. When something is on/running it draws more current. You could then have receivers with lights to indicate when something is on/running and turn off when the current drops back down. It also be nice if it flashed when there was a state change to draw attention to the receiver. Receivers should accept signals from multiple sensors and the sensor should be programmable to recognize which currents to trigger on/running and off/not running. The receivers and sensor could also use the electrical wiring for basic network connectivity instead of radio or RF, although optional ability to interface with text messaging (if it can interface with home network) or portable unit would be nice for outdoors. Sensors that screw into light sockets would also be useful for knowing that a motion sensor light was tripped outside.
 
One time I used the baby cry signaler to put in my kids room when they were sick. They did push the device to let me know that they needed me. It did work.

Google
 
I hate for these quazi troll/spam posts. legit companies need to post their company name, address and buisness contact info. There have been a slew of people come here claiming to be making a product or service for the deaf and only turn out to be spam, data mining, phishing etc.
 
I hate for these quazi troll/spam posts. legit companies need to post their company name, address and buisness contact info. There have been a slew of people come here claiming to be making a product or service for the deaf and only turn out to be spam, data mining, phishing etc.

I'm sorry, I should have elaborated on my origins more. We area team of people in high school currently, Muskego High School. We are in a PLTW course, Engineering Design and Development. The goal of this class is for the students to team up, research a problem, and prototype and test the solution. We don't even have any connections with which to release data to data mining companies, and if we did, we wouldn't.

soulchill said:
It'd also be nice to have something more generic that plugged in between appliances and the wall outlet that measured the current drawn. When something is on/running it draws more current. You could then have receivers with lights to indicate when something is on/running and turn off when the current drops back down

This is genius.
 
Funny about bringing this up. Just few days ago, when I woke up at 5:30 am and still dark in the morning. I went to bathroom and closed the door so that it won't wake up my wife when i turned on the light. Behold! Just saw the water running in a full blast. I was like oh sh*t... So, later my wife finally woke up and I told her what happen. She said, oh sh*t yeah I got up like 3:30 am and need a drink cuz I was so thirsty...yeah I maybe left it on!! So it was like 2 hours worth of water wasted!

So, that's one idea about leaving the water running for certain minutes and if go over, it will send an alert. I do recalled that there's an auto shutoff if water run too long, I'll have to google it.
 
Funny about bringing this up. Just few days ago, when I woke up at 5:30 am and still dark in the morning. I went to bathroom and closed the door so that it won't wake up my wife when i turned on the light. Behold! Just saw the water running in a full blast. I was like oh sh*t... So, later my wife finally woke up and I told her what happen. She said, oh sh*t yeah I got up like 3:30 am and need a drink cuz I was so thirsty...yeah I maybe left it on!! So it was like 2 hours worth of water wasted!

So, that's one idea about leaving the water running for certain minutes and if go over, it will send an alert. I do recalled that there's an auto shutoff if water run too long, I'll have to google it.

How many thousands of dollars have I lost doing that? Ugh. Especially if it is hot water. . A control board showing unusual consumption of utilities would be useful
 
When I had the hot water tank replaced - it came with the silly sound thing for water leak when probe is placed in the drip pan. I called the company and asked how can I hear it since I am deaf. their response? find someone who does?! :roll: oh ok thanks for insulting me. have a nice day.
Anyways - I think that we need to change the way we do the alerts in the deaf/hoh homes. Why not use wifi signals?! technically you can have 256 devices on one home network minus one for router ip address which is 255. This way, if you need to add an alert - it just will have another ip address. you can easily add on flashers, alerts, etc via wifi. nearly every home has a wifi now.

Right now I'd focus on something simpler. dont worry about water drips. it's too cumbersome to do every facet in house. just think - how many water outlets? outdoor hoses? cold weather related freezing.
how about a pool alarm? right now many towns are requireing new pool installs or replacements to have a pool alarm. There seems to be ZERO products out there that is deaf friendly. I have a pool- and no alarm. Again -- just figure out how to send alert to the andriods/iphones via wifi. I am not worried about signal strengths as there are wifi repeaters out there to add on.
 
When I had the hot water tank replaced - it came with the silly sound thing for water leak when probe is placed in the drip pan. I called the company and asked how can I hear it since I am deaf. their response? find someone who does?! :roll: oh ok thanks for insulting me. have a nice day.
Anyways - I think that we need to change the way we do the alerts in the deaf/hoh homes. Why not use wifi signals?! technically you can have 256 devices on one home network minus one for router ip address which is 255. This way, if you need to add an alert - it just will have another ip address. you can easily add on flashers, alerts, etc via wifi. nearly every home has a wifi now.

Right now I'd focus on something simpler. dont worry about water drips. it's too cumbersome to do every facet in house. just think - how many water outlets? outdoor hoses? cold weather related freezing.
how about a pool alarm? right now many towns are requireing new pool installs or replacements to have a pool alarm. There seems to be ZERO products out there that is deaf friendly. I have a pool- and no alarm. Again -- just figure out how to send alert to the andriods/iphones via wifi. I am not worried about signal strengths as there are wifi repeaters out there to add on.

This is exactly what we were thinking of previously! On the topic of the pool, what kind of alarm would be needed for it? We could probably create an app for showing the signals, or it could even just send a sms to your phone directly
 
Wirelessly posted

It would be cool to have sensors such as doorbells, alarms, cry alert, timers and such hooked up to one small wireless touch screen device to let is know what is going on.
 
Wirelessly posted

It would be cool to have sensors such as doorbells, alarms, cry alert, timers and such hooked up to one small wireless touch screen device to let is know what is going on.

Well, with my smart house systems, Carbon Monoxide, Fire or intruder, my whole house will flashes with lights with a blaring robotic voice saying either "Carbon Monoxide!! 2nd floor East", or "Fire!! 1st floor Laundry room!!" or if Intruder walk in saying "Intruder ALERT! 1st Floor East Bathroom FARTING!!"
And the house will continue to flashes until I de-activated the alarm.
So, just the remaining thing that would be nice when it say with robotic voice says "Your WIFE wasting your f**king water!!"

Oh..another thing is that I have fire sprinkler systems in my house as well....
 
Here's the sample of sprinkler systems

I just took a pic below
 

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When I had the hot water tank replaced - it came with the silly sound thing for water leak when probe is placed in the drip pan. I called the company and asked how can I hear it since I am deaf. their response? find someone who does?! :roll: oh ok thanks for insulting me. have a nice day.
Anyways - I think that we need to change the way we do the alerts in the deaf/hoh homes. Why not use wifi signals?! technically you can have 256 devices on one home network minus one for router ip address which is 255. This way, if you need to add an alert - it just will have another ip address. you can easily add on flashers, alerts, etc via wifi. nearly every home has a wifi now.

Right now I'd focus on something simpler. dont worry about water drips. it's too cumbersome to do every facet in house. just think - how many water outlets? outdoor hoses? cold weather related freezing.
how about a pool alarm? right now many towns are requireing new pool installs or replacements to have a pool alarm. There seems to be ZERO products out there that is deaf friendly. I have a pool- and no alarm. Again -- just figure out how to send alert to the andriods/iphones via wifi. I am not worried about signal strengths as there are wifi repeaters out there to add on.

I did research on how leaks are detected, and that device you referred to probably amplified any vibrations in the water so that you could hear them. clearly it would be difficult, but not impossible, to make a devise for one who can't hear.

Using home wifi would certainly be an option, however, it might be difficult to create a low cost device capable to communicating on the wifi network

On your pool alarm suggestion, would that be for just detecting if someone enters the pool? We think that perhaps if we make it more DIY-friendly, then it would be possible to take an existing product and wire it into the system relatively easily. However, that wouldn't be for everyone, only people who knew how to use at least a multimeter and soldering iron.
 
I'm part of a team which is trying to develop a product geared towards the deaf community. However we need much more input from this community; so that we don't stray from what you actually need too far.

The problem we set out to solve originally was the fact that many deaf or hard of hearing people can not tell what is going on in their house. Examples of this would be things such as kids being too loud, a timer such as an oven or microwave timer going off, or a fire alarm.

Earlier we did research on a separate community, and they told us that the existing solutions were primarily either specifically trained dogs, or annoying flashing lights. If you know of any other better solution, we would greatly appreciate you sharing!

So at this point, we have come up with multiple possible solutions, and we need to know which one the deaf community thinks would be most effective:

  1. A water leak sensor, so you could be warned of a water drip if you can't hear it
    1) One product that already exists is an automatic faucet that will turn the water off after a short period of time.
  2. Detection of sound throughout your entire house, using either a system integrated into the house, or wireless modules placed wherever needed

    2) Some products already exists like the Sidekick II receiver which will interface with many things like wireless doorbells, door sensors, floor mats, smoke detectors etc...
    -if the modules were wireless, would any of you be interested in making the system DIY-friendly so you could make your own detection modules?​

3) Wireless module already exist but it would be nice if all manufacturers were on the same page, ie same wireless frequencies

There are multiple ways we could use the system to alert the user as well:
  1. Sending updates to a phone
  2. Use wristband which vibrates/compresses with a possible display
  3. Make it compatable with a smart home interface

If you think there is a better way to solve this problem, please tell us! Any feedback you can give is greatly appreciated.



Thank you,
The project development team

I hope that more and more products continue to hit the market for the Deaf and HOH.
 
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