A Design Proposal of Support Product for Single Sided Deafness, Focused on Difficulties of Sound Localization

Abstract

Single sided deafness is a type of hearing impairment where there is impaired hearing in one ear. Patients have peculiar problems. So, I propose a support product for them, focused on difficulties of sound localization. This wearable product analyze "a dangerous sound" and "a communication sound" turned to the user, then vibrates a one point or two points of four points that around the neck by different patterns. The user can understands the sound location by a vibration point, and the characteristic of the sound by a vibration pattern.