“
What did you say? It's too noisy in here! I can not hear clearly!
Hello? Hello? Why is your voice intermittent?
You wait for me, I'll find a quiet place
”
On the subway, on the side of the road, in restaurants, such conversations often occur in our lives. Various noises and signals affect our information reception, making us yearn for a quiet and unaffected communication environment .
However, for hearing-impaired partners, some of them have faced a silent world since birth . How to make the silent world "noisy" again , or how to make the information of these sounds perceivable, is a problem they face every day .
01
Is it enough to "see" the sound?
Prior to this, Xiaomi has launched Xiaomi Wensheng, which realizes the real-time conversion between text and voice in the dialogue scene; the environmental sound recognition function also allows non-text information in the environment to be "seen" ; Love call (formerly AI call) also realizes the conversion between text and voice in the call scene.
Figure: The user interface of Xiaomi Wensheng (left: dialogue mode, right: subtitle mode)
But is that enough? Can we do better?
With such doubts in mind, we held a small exchange meeting between hearing-impaired users and Xiaomi , and invited hearing- impaired partners to Beijing Xiaomi Science and Technology Park. How possible .
Picture: Xiaomi Hearing Impaired Users Exchange Meeting Site
02
Personal experience of hearing-impaired friends
At the exchange meeting, Mo Changgeng, a Ph.D. student from the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences of the University of Hong Kong, who has 20 years of hearing aid experience, shared the hearing accessibility support he encountered during his studies in South Korea and Hong Kong , such as in class and Speech-to-text service in meetings.
In addition, he also shared some professional concepts related to audiology, and explained the thinking path of coil system, job redesign, etc. to provide barrier-free support .
Picture: Teacher Mo Changgeng
Zhu Yilin , the chairman of the Xicheng District Association for the Deaf, the deputy director of the Information Accessibility Promotion Committee of the Beijing Association for the Deaf, and the torchbearer of the Winter Paralympics, shared her own story:
"I was congenitally extremely deaf, and I couldn't even hear the roar of the plane or the loudest roar of the KTV. When I was 32 years old, I had a cochlear implant. Wow, this opened up a new world of my voice.
I was very frightened when I heard the first cicada call (cicada chirping), and wondered if someone's pressure cooker had exploded. And as a mother, with information accessibility, I can now take my child to the hospital by myself without worrying about hearing what the doctor said.
Not only my own life has improved, but I can also take better care of my family. "
Let everyone feel most intuitively that technology can really change life.
Picture: Shared by Teacher Zhu Yilin
03
Break cognition, divergent thinking
After gaining a basic understanding of hearing accessibility support, hearing-impaired friends and Xiaomi students formed a group for in-depth discussions on MIUI, smart home, wearable and hearing aids and other fields.
In the process of communication, the hearing-impaired partners not only gave feedback on the current use of functions , but also shared various actual scenes in life , breaking the original cognitive boundaries of Xiaomi students.
Ma Ru, the product manager of the screen speakers, said: "I used to think that as long as the electronic tones were turned up enough, they could hear them. But in fact, their ability to receive electronic tones is not the same as that of human voices. , Many voices may be amplified by us, but they can’t hear them.” This prompted her to think more about the product itself.
Figure: Group in-depth communication 1
During the communication process, the hearing-impaired partners also used mobile phones, smart glasses, and sign language interpreters to make the communication smoother. This not only allowed Xiaomi students to experience the most realistic usage scenarios, but also began to understand that the need for communication is not just the realization of functions , but also the need to pay attention to the feeling of equality in communication .
As Li Yilong, who is in charge of the wearable business, said: what we need to think about is to respect everyone, and to consider friendly, equal, and polite interactions into the product when the functions are realized . When communicating, if you have to look down at your phone all the time to know what the other party is saying, if you lack eye contact, both parties in the communication will have the experience of being disrespected.
Figure: Group in-depth communication 2
04
From "Receiving Feedback" to "Knowing Friends"
In this exchange meeting that is not only about sound, the hearing-impaired partners were torn off the label of "impaired persons" and became real users such as "Xiao Gu" and "Xiao Li". Feedback" has been transformed into "understanding the needs of friends", actively raising doubts and imagining the possibility .
When sharing, teacher Zhu Yilin quoted a sentence from Yang Yang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Council of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, and chairman of the China Deaf Association: " We who are illuminated by the light can also become the light, shining on others, and being needed by others."
Technology is like light , which has changed the lives of many people. When we become more inclusive in technology and products, this beam of light not only illuminates the lives of more people, but also empowers those who are illuminated to become light and illuminate more people .
