Hearing impaired - radio comms

[Endless time]

My wife has very poor hearing and is basically deaf without her hearing aids. That being said, even when she is wearing her hearing aids, she has trouble understanding incoming radio transmissions (not to mention just voice conversations if there is any significant ambient noise). While she would be fine transmitting her ability to understand any responses is problematic.

Are there the equivalent of close captioned capabilities which can be interfaced with items like VHF and SSB. I have Googled this as well as searching the forums and not found any such capabilities. This surprises me as there have to be many people in her situation and I imagine solutions have been worked on - it is a safety issue after all. Yet I found nothing.

Does anyone know of practical solutions? Txs.

[Don C L]

This is a great question. The only ideas I have are to browse various speech to text apps on your phone. I tried one just now to see how it worked, it was one of the free ones, and it seemed to transcribe the typical nautical terms you might encounter just fine. The apps are under “dictation” or “speech to text.” I found one free one and the others required a subscription. I look forward to seeing the ideas from others.

[Viking Sailor]

There is a Goolge App called "Live Transcribe and Sound Notifications" that I think does what you want.

[Endless time]

Originally Posted by Viking Sailor

There is a Goolge App called "Live Transcribe and Sound Notifications" that I think does what you want.

Thank you very much. I see in the Store there are a host of apps for the phone which take in speech and print text on the screen. Definitely a possible solution. We will try some of them.

It's too bad there are not versions of the various radios with screens which could display close captioned voice. I would be willing to pay extra for such a feature. But, failing that, having to hold the phone up to the radio is better than nothing by far.

[Uricanejack]

My wife is hearing impaired as well, actually my hearing is not great either. Mine due to industrial noise.
Odd thing, I have problems, with conversations, in places with back ground noise, I hate crowded bars or clubs. Perhaps due to familiarity or the nature of the sound, I do ok with radio communication.
For me the only thing which works is turn the volume up. Which can be an annoyance for other people.
It can be a bit more problematic if I have someone with me who wears hearing aids.
I’ve heard of no other solutions. Like the ones you ask about.

Something I don’t make use of, which does exist, if you have a GMDSS radio integrated with AIS. You can send and receive a text message. Some displays allow you to click on target and opt to sent a text.
How well this works in practice. I can’t really say. The few rare occasions anyone has sent me a text message, it took me a while and some swearing to figure it out.

If sending a text, mention the hearing impairment, otherwise I would probably reply by radio.

[Endless time]

More info. I was just explaining the above to my wife. She is telling me that she saw a Youtube video of a guy operating a radio where the text (of the CG talking on the radio) was appearing at the bottom of what looked like a chartplotter screen. The text was flowing across the bottom like a banner (kind of like the stock ticker feeds on TV). She said that he explained that he had 'upgraded' his communication setup specifically because he had trouble understanding radio transmissions due to hearing problems. She does 'not' think it was a tablet type display but on the bottom of the chartplotter screen (I am a bit confused now and still wonder if she was looking at a tablet mounted to the area above the chart table.

She says the video was from a couple who were showing off their very nice expedition yacht. She cannot remember what kind of boat nor who's video it was not how old the video was. So now I am also off to try and find this video...

[Don C L]

Welcome aboard by the way!

[Viking Sailor]

Originally Posted by Viking Sailor

There is a Goolge App called "Live Transcribe and Sound Notifications" that I think does what you want.

I'm sorry to say that the app I pointed you to will not help solve your problem. I have been using it for sometime and it seems to work well. When I read the write up for the app there was no mention of an internet connection requirement. However, after testing in today I found that it does in fact require a WIFI connection to function. Again, sorry for sending you on a wild goose chase.


Best of luck on figuring this out,


Paul

[Don C L]

Ok I have been playing around with one called "Dictation - Speech to text" and it is working on my iPhone with no WiFi and in airplane mode. It says "free trial" but it seems to depend on advertising, not a monthly subscription. I'll keep checking.

[Endless time]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Ok I have been playing around with one called "Dictation - Speech to text" and it is working on my iPhone with no WiFi and in airplane mode. It says "free trial" but it seems to depend on advertising, not a monthly subscription. I'll keep checking.

That app might be only for iPhones as I do not find it in the Google Store.

I found an app named Voice Notebook - continuous speech to text. It will work with wifi off and in airplane mode. It gets some words wrong but seems to be somewhat trainable - I am experimenting with that to see how much better it can get.

[Endless time]

I found a company out of Norway which is advertising a speech to text capability for VHF which 'sort' of sounds promising. I have sent them an email to try and get more information.

https://seasurv.net/news/introducing...-radio-system/

[hjohnson]

My hearing isn’t the greatest (family history, plus several years as a defense contractor bouncing around the sandbox in helicopters), so one of the things I’ve appreciated is the voice recorder on my m506. It will play back the last x seconds of transmissions so I can ptry and puck out what I missed. Failing that, if it’s something that’s important (say Traffic calling a “Clear Narrows” in Vancouver Harbour) I’m not afraid to double check with Traffic Services. They would rather that everyone be absolutely clear on something like that then a B recreational boat interfering with a tanker under the Lions Gate.

[stevead]

Microsoft Windows has had speech to text capabilities since I can't remember when. Not sure how it will perform if it hasn't been trained to hear a voice over your VHF radio, or whether it could use the PC's line-in connection instead of the PC's microphone nor if a PC is something you would use on-board.

[markxengineerin]

I am bumping this back up to the top for discussion, because, how is this not a product yet!? So many times the messages we need to receive are very technical- long strings of GPS coordinates warning about the location of a hazard, or vessel in distress, weather reports that are too quick to copy down every detail, so I end up listening to the loop 3 times. Trying to do any of this while handling a boat in heavy weather, over wind/engine noise- forget about it!

A simple screen that displays the last 10 lines of VHF transmission in text form would be a game changer! Even without any "save" functions, I could take photos of what I need to keep beyond 10 lines.

Does such a thing exist? Would you buy one for $50 if it did?

[Ferrity]

Originally Posted by markxengineerin

A simple screen that displays the last 10 lines of VHF transmission in text form would be a game changer! Even without any "save" functions, I could take photos of what I need to keep beyond 10 lines.

Does such a thing exist? Would you buy one for $50 if it did?

On an Atlantic crossing many years ago, the captain carried a small voice recorder and "taped" the broadcasts for later playback as many times as necessary.

That is my solution today. Recorder is always ready near the radio. In fact, I have two One near the cabin radio and one near the RAM mount at the helm.

Dennis
s/v Ferrity
- currently Annapolis, MD USA