Developing Hearing Devices

Scientists are using 3-D printing tools plus a cell culture to create what is termed a bionic ear. Scientists at Princeton University have created a functional ear that can hear radio frequencies far beyond the range of normal human capability. This project is the research team’s first effort to create a fully functional organ that not only replicates a human ability but extends it by using embedded electronics. It is also the first time that researchers have been able to demonstrate that 3-D printing is an effective strategy for interweaving tissue with electronics.

Link: http://federaltelemedicine.com/?p=922#more-922

Sign Language Interpreter Uses Skills to Enhance Concert Experiences

For Holly Maniatty of Portland, Maine, actions certainly do speak louder than words, as thousands of concert-goers use her skill as a certified American sign language interpreter to follow along to the lyrics of headlining artists such as Phish, Wu-Tang Clan and Bruce Springsteen.

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2013/07/sign-language-interpreter-keeps-up-with-phish-wu-tang-clan-and-springsteen/

Claudia Gordon Appointed as Public Engagement Advisor at the White House

Claudia Gordon was recently appointed as the Public Engagement Advisor for the Disability Community in the Office of Public Engagement at the White House. She is the first deaf African American woman to become an attorney as well as the first deaf student to graduate from the American University (AU) Washington College of Law in Washington, DC in 2000. The discrimination Gordon experienced as a deaf child in Jamaica compelled her to become a lawyer. At age eight, she moved to the United States and attended the Lexington School for the Deaf in New York where she learned sign language.

Link: http://www.nad.org/news/2013/7/nad-applauds-appointment-claudia-gordon-public-engagement-advisor-white-house

Digital Assistance for Sign Language Users

Researchers from Microsoft Research Asia have collaborated with colleagues from the Institute of Computing Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to explore how Kinect’s body-tracking abilities can be applied to the problem of sign-language recognition. Results have been encouraging in enabling people whose primary language is sign language to interact more naturally with their computers, in much the same way that speech recognition does.

Link: http://blogs.technet.com/b/inside_microsoft_research/archive/2013/07/16/digital-assistance-for-sign-language-users.aspx