For the hearing impaired: new Google Glass app is closed captioning for the real world (video)

From keeping soldiers safe to assisting doctors during surgery, Google Glass is slowly transitioning from being a cool tech demo to a useful real world tool. Soon to contribute to the wearable’s mainstream appeal is a new text captioning app developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology that transcribes spoken word via a companion Android app.

Designed for the hearing impaired, the software captures an audible conversation through a paired mobile device’s microphone and displays the person’s words teleprompter style on Glass’ small display. The original concept for the app came from School of Interactive Computing Professor Jim Foley who was having his own personal battle with hearing loss.

“This system allows wearers like me to focus on the speaker’s lips and facial gestures,” Professor Foley told CNET. “If hard-of-hearing people understand the speech, the conversation can continue immediately without waiting for the caption. However, if I miss a word, I can glance at the transcription, get the word or two I need and get back into the conversation.”

Captioning on Glass is available from the MyGlass marketplace and the software’s companion Android app is free to download from Google Play. Here’s a quick look at the app in action:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5eXmShC3WE]