Good afternoon, my name is Natsumi Sasaki, and My name is Holly Casandra. We would like to begin our presentation now.

Holly Casandra
To begin with, did you know that around 15 percent of the world’s population has some type of disability?

In this era, digital technology like AI has greatly improved.
Now, it is not unusual to see 3D human avatars or holograms used in many areas of our daily life such as entertainment, online games, and even customer service.
We thought it would be amazing to create a hologram to help people with disabilities.

For this project, we decided to focus on people with deafness or those who are hard of hearing because 3D human avatars can move and do hand gestures and so we thought they could also perform sign languages.

Our goal is to create a better study environment for students who are hard of hearing or deaf.

To achieve this goal, we propose a holographic sign language generator for the classroom!

Sasaki Natsumi
Can you imagine what this percentage represents?

This is the percentage of deaf people in Japan. 0.36percent of the population or about 448,000 people are deaf.

Holly Casandra
Now, let’s take a look at this chart.

As we have just seen, in Japan, 0.36percent of people have hearing disabilities and this is shown in the red part of the chart.

However, people who are hard of hearing are not included in the "red part", and the light part of this circle is the estimated number of people who have hearing disabilities but do not own a disability certificate.
Which means, the actual number of people who are HoH & deaf is certainly more than 0.36 percent of the population.

Let’s take a look at Sweden for example. According to the Swedish government's statistical agency SCB, 14.1% of people over the age of 16 or about 1 in 7 have hearing disabilities which is shown in the graph.

Even though the population in Sweden is 10 times less than Japan, why is the number bigger?

Because in Sweden, there is no separation between people who are deaf and people who are hard of hearing.

Now some of you may be thinking, but it’s still a very small part of the community.

However, we think these people are overlooked and we strongly believe that they need and deserve more of our attention and support.

Sasaki Natsumi
I would now like to outline what we see as the current situation of deaf students in Japan.

As you can see in this table, according to data supplied by MEXT, the number of students that go to colleges/universities have increased little by little but steadily.

In fact, in the last 10 years, the number of deaf or Hard of hearing students attending universities has increased by about 1.4 times.

However, there are not enough sign language interpreters who can handle advanced academic subjects. With the increase of this number, schools need to provide an adequate amount of support and improve their learning environments even more.

Holly Casandra
These are some voices of college and university students who are Hard of Hearing or deafness.

For first student, it was difficult to obtain a qualification at the university she attended. She wasn't allowed to get a certain qualification because she had a disability. The classes that she could take were also limited.

Second student, she was supporting students with hearing disabilities as a note taker. However, the awareness of the staff of the Student Support Division, who organize note-takers, was low; she noticed the lack of support and attention from the university.

Sasaki Natsumi
For the third student, in the university that she went to, there were no note takers in all classes, and no voice recognition app was used. She was struggling to take the exam because she couldn’t understand the content that was only provided by oral explanation.

In fact, according to the Japan Student Support Organization, out of 1,170 schools, there are only 56 schools that provide sign language translation support and 148 schools that provide note taking support for deaf students which is far from enough.

Their voices motivated us to create something that would help them to be able to study more comfortably and hopefully expand their abilities and open up new opportunities for them.

What we came up with is a system called “iHearU”, a way to generate holographic sign language in the classroom or lecture theatre.

The special device will be a desktop portable 3D hologram generator.

Now, although, this system does not exist yet, the technology to create it does.

We will partner with a leading Holographic image producer called Euclideon and the best speech to text software developer called nuance dragon Nuance Communications.

Holly Casandra
Let me explain the functions:

In simple terms, this device will catch what the person says and translate it into sign language through a 3D human hologram.

Initially the sign language will be based on the standard sign language used in Japan.

First, you will open the iHearU app that is installed on your smartphone, make an account and pair it with your Hologram generator.

After it is paired and connected, the hologram image will appear from the exclusive device.

This device will catch the spoken words and translate it into sign language through a 3D hologram. In addition, it will also show the written words in English or Japanese in order to assist students who don't know how to read sign languages. Moreover, it may help them to learn grammar.

Now, can it also be used for output?

The answer is YES. With your smartphone, you can type what you want to say and the text will appear above the hologram

Sasaki Natsumi
We planed to include features such as automatic mode and manual mode.

In automatic mode, we can adjust the distance that we want and the device will only catch voices within the chosen distance automatically.

In manual mode , students can press the “listen” button on their own terms and timing.

These two modes are to prevent the devices from catching the “unnecessary voices”.

Maybe now some of you are wondering “what if new words are created?”

Our app will also include features that allow the user to register new words in sign language.

Holly Casandra
By having this app, students can communicate smoothly. Also, it will include all of the diverse students in one classroom. Therefore, it will allow them to be more interactive and creative.

Sasaki Natsumi
For the above functions, our app will contribute in achieving SDGs goals number 4 quality education ,10 reduced inequalities

Holly Casandra
This is our proposal for the digital transformation of schools. No more note takers, no more barriers due to disability, and the include all the diverse students in one classroom.

We want to make sure no one is left behind and our app, “iHearU”, will make it possible. Thank you for your time and attention