Dealing with Hearing Loss: Closed-Captions Possible on Radios?

[D31245]

I have some moderate hearing loss and occasional have a hard time making out what is being said on scanners or amateur radio.

I sometimes miss parts of statements or miss people’s call signs. Sometimes they talk really fast and I cannot register quick enough. I notice others have similar problems and ask them to repeat.

In my mind, I would love to have closed-caption options on screen (I can still see small print fine) - for those occasional misses or to reinforce what I just heard - and a major wish, is to automatically display FCC call signs when communicating to make it easier.

I searched the forum and have not seen this discussed unless I missed it. Any thoughts about this area?

 

[mmckenna]

Any thoughts about this area?

Text to speech, like you'd get on your cell phone voicemail is hit or miss. Get bad RF conditions, even worse. Getting that software into a small radio would be a challenge. Plus, people would get pissed off if it didn't get something right. I've got it on my voicemail system at work, and background noise or heavy accents can create issues pretty quick. Fast paced radio traffic would be a real challenge.

Some of it requires trained ears. Dispatchers are really good at this, mainly because they do it professionally. They usually have better speakers than what I've see most hams use, also. Since they kind of know what's going on, it's easier for their ears/brains to fill things in.

Not all scanners/ham radios have good audio. I've found that commercial radios tend to have better sound, especially when hooked up to good external speakers. That may be an upgrade that you'd want to try. A good large speaker will sometimes help.

As a ham myself, I found that some give their call signs way too fast and I'd often have to ask them to repeat it slower.

 

[IC-R20]

You can use those bone conducting headphones as well. I introduced some to a couple old local hams and it’s worked wonders on the HFDX side. I used to use set under my hat sometimes as well connected to my handheld scanner for stealth listening before I stopped caring if people knew I was listening in.

 

[W9WSS]

Try using your smartphone's capabilities. There are apps available to do Speech to Text and at least the Notes app will do a pretty decent job on the iPhone.

 

[D31245]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I came across this eHam discussion:

Hard of Hearing Hammin'​

https://www.eham.net/article/35387

 

[jtwalker]

I noticed that Google Chrome now has audio-to-text capability apparently built in. I tried it to see how well it would work using the ProScan web server and Chrome as the client browser.

It did ok, but the problems were apparent: people speaking fast and not real clear; and “special words” that are used on PS radio that are hard to decipher. It was cool but not there yet.

 

[phask]

I'll add that speech-to-text has improved a lot. Now I have no idea what platform does this but most of the live sports and news programs use it for closed captions and some are nearly 100% correct. Sad, that some are more like 50% though.

 

[jtwalker]

I'll add that speech-to-text has improved a lot. Now I have no idea what platform does this but most of the live sports and news programs use it for closed captions and some are nearly 100% correct. Sad, that some are more like 50% though.

I believe Azure (Microsoft) and AWS (Amazon) both have services that can be called from an application to do this. Maybe Google does too.

 

[Rq17954z]

After working around jet engines daily when in the service. Then in construction and in a machine shop with a air compressor right next to my Machine my hearing isn't the best anymore. I like over the ear headphones. I can turn the volume way down and understand much clearer what is being said . I can hear good in quiet surroundings but with background noise have a hard time.

 

[KB3KBR]

Yaesu system fusion transmits the callsigns on the data stream while in digital mode. APRS is packet based text. A few options there. I don't know of any options for scanners.

 

[pinballwiz86]

Yaesu system fusion transmits the callsigns on the data stream while in digital mode. APRS is packet based text. A few options there. I don't know of any options for scanners.

D-Star also transmits the callsign and displays it on the screen. Best solution is to get hearing aids. Live closed captioning isn't there just yet. But it surely will be with AI.

 

[merlin]

I am in the same boat for too much gunfire and now tinnitis. One thing that does help slightly is a good DSP speaker setup.
My thing though is SWLing and working below 55 Mhz. CW is ok if I can keep the tone at 750 Hz.
Anything using a terminal works.
For me it is like tone deaf and inner ear damage. I hear a lot of sounds fine but add noise and like being in a room with a lot of people, I can't discriminate speach. Using a cell phone is very poor.
I often wondered about a speach to text device but like others noted, add noise it doesn't work well. Maybe hardwired to audio in radios.
I have played with acoustic coupling and that is barely reasonable at best.
Food for though though.

 

[TGuelker]

45 years in the bay using air hammers, impacts, and tire machines has given me tinnitus. Like @merlin, if I am in a crowd, I can’t pick out of the noise what the person is saying. I just nod a lot.

I use one Bluetooth earbud to listen to my SDS200. The other ear is left open to hear my wife. The earbuds are from AliExpress. The battery lasts about 4 hours so I just swap for the other fully charged earbud and am good for another 4 hours. Since the ‘speaker’ on the earbud is in my ear canal, the sound is clear.

 

[Ronaldski]

This? Scanner Screen: Free Open Source Software for Uniden Scanners

• Text-to-speech support for channel, department, and system information

 

[bharvey2]

I'm with Merlin on this one. I too have some hearing loss. (tinnitus, have trouble discerning speech in loud environments, etc.) I think a DSP speaker or additional EQ would be of benefit to you. The ability to tailor the sound to fit your hearing ability can do wonders. I do it at home with TVs, etc., and it helps tremendously.