New ‘superpower’ glasses use AI to enhance hearing

Scientists in Scotland are developing a revolutionary new type of “hearing glasses” that could provide a major breakthrough for over 1.2 million UK adults who struggle with conversational hearing loss.

A team led by researchers at Heriot-Watt University is creating a prototype that combines a camera, artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud computing to give existing hearing aids “superpowers” by isolating and clarifying a speaker’s voice in real-time.

The smart glasses work by using a small, integrated camera to identify the primary speaker in a conversation. As the wearer looks at someone, the camera records their dialogue, and the visual cues are used to pinpoint the voice of that specific person.

The audio is then sent to a cloud server, where AI algorithms do the “heavy lifting,” isolating the speaker’s voice and removing all surrounding background noise, even when multiple people are talking at once. The cleaned-up audio is then instantly streamed back to the user’s hearing aid, providing a crystal-clear version of the conversation.

Project leader Professor Mathini Sellathurai explained the technology’s core function: “You simply point the camera or look at the person you want to hear. Even if two people are talking at once, the AI uses visual cues to extract the voice of the person you’re looking at.”

This innovative approach addresses a key limitation of current noise-cancelling hearing aids, which often struggle to differentiate between overlapping voices or complex background sounds. By leveraging cloud-based AI, the glasses can perform the sophisticated audio processing required without being bulky or unwearable.

The researchers aim to have a working prototype by 2026 and are already in discussions with hearing aid manufacturers to bring the technology to a wider market.