What it does
Vi-Pod converts key home sounds, like fridge alarms, washing machine signals, a baby’s cry, or loud TV noise, into tactile and visual alerts. This helps hearing-impaired parents stay aware at home and care for their children without extra stress.
Your inspiration
We set out to understand and solve the daily challenges of parents with hearing loss. Through interviews with Ms. A, a mother of two, we learned she sleeps with hearing aids to hear her baby cry and often only realizes the fridge is open or the TV is too loud when neighbors alert her. These experiences showed us how unpredictable and stressful home life can be for hearing-impaired parents. We are working to create solutions that help them stay safe and aware.
How it works
Vi-Pod consists of two devices: a sensor unit that detects sounds and vibrations, and a wearable device that delivers notifications to the user. The sensor units placed around the home pick up events like a running washing machine, loud TV volume, or a baby crying in the nursery. When detected, this information is wirelessly sent to the wearable, which can be worn as a necklace, brooch, or bracelet. Notifications are provided through vibration and simple text on the display. For example, when the washing machine finishes and vibrations stop, the user receives a notification. If the TV stays above 30dB for some time, the sensor flashes and alerts the user to turn it down before disturbing neighbors. In the nursery, Vi-Pod detects a baby’s cry and immediately notifies the parent, ensuring they can respond quickly. This system helps parents with hearing loss stay aware and manage important household situations without stress.
Design process
Above all, we believed it was important to interview people with hearing loss directly to truly understand the challenges they face. With support from a local hearing-impaired association, we interviewed a mother raising children. This helped us learn about the everyday difficulties of hearing-impaired parents and homemakers and highlighted the need to improve these issues. We aimed to find ways for parents with hearing loss in families with children to efficiently receive important sound information. We focused on two main situations: interactions with home appliances and with children. For appliances, we found that products like washing machines and toasters produce vibrations during operation that stop when the cycle is complete. Using Vi-Pod, we developed a way to detect these changes, so users can be notified when appliances finish working. For situations involving children, like a child turning the TV up too loud or leaving the refrigerator open, Vi-Pod alerts users if noise exceeds residential standards. It also immediately notifies parents if a child is making loud noises or crying near the sensor, so they can respond quickly.
How it is different
We placed the highest priority on creating a solution that works seamlessly in homes with children and can be easily applied to existing household appliances. For devices like washing machines or toasters that generate vibrations and noise during operation, we found that detecting changes in vibration (such as when a machine starts or finishes) is more effective than simply measuring noise or recognizing end-of-cycle sound alarms. Vi-Pod can be attached and used on existing appliances without modification, and it also detects and delivers various household auditory signals, making it a more economical and efficient solution in terms of both cost and time. Users can select from necklace, bracelet, or brooch styles for comfortable wearing, and Vi-Pod delivers information through haptic (vibration) cues and a simple display, helping to minimize unnecessary stress during use.
Future plans
We believe our approach to identifying problems and finding solutions has great potential, so we want to have families with hearing impairments actually use our product and give us direct feedback to improve it. Through interviews with people who are hearing impaired, we realized that there are still many challenges in their everyday lives that we may not notice. While technology is gradually helping to reduce these inconveniences, it will still take time before their lives are as convenient as those of the general population. That’s why we hope to find simpler, cheaper, and faster ways to provide practical help.
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