BUZZBAND: A Vibrating Wristband for Hearing-Impaired Elderly People

In this paper, we focus on the problem of getting notifications about sounds for hearing-impaired people in home environments. After analyzing available solutions for typical sounds like, e.g., the intercom, the telephone, various alarms, etc., we propose a solution based on a wearable device that vibrates as soon as a sound is detected. The goal is to maintain already existing devices that emit sounds and provide a simple, low-cost, accessible, and versatile solution that can be used with any device. The paper describes the main functionalities of the proposed solution and the first technical experimental results obtained with our prototype.