Avum’s sponsored FIRST LEGO League team, WHAT?, had to create a solution for some of the difficulties faced during natural disasters. The team came up with a solution to help the deaf during an emergency. During a disaster, deaf people often don’t get the information they need in time, as the majority of people cannot communicate via sign language, and they cannot hear a disaster while they are asleep, or about it through the radio. Therefore, the team decided to use the Bluetooth sensor in cochlear implants to help alert the user, thus the name EarTooth.
EarToothAppThe way this system works is when an emergency alert is broadcast to a smartphone, the smartphone sends a Bluetooth signal to the cochlear implant, which then plays a repetitive, easily identifiable tone until they open their phone. The programming on the phone would be temporarily disabled, and they would see a simple, deaf-oriented program as shown. The home screen would inform the user of the type of disaster. Swiping right, they would see the information screen, which would inform them more about the disaster. The final screen would show what the user should do. In the model app, it shows a map for evacuation.
We believe our idea has the capacity to be useful to the deaf community during natural disasters and we hope it is useful to the readers of this.