I see what you’re saying: Saskatoon man invents with voice-to-text mask

A Saskatoon inventor has put technology into masks to help those who have a hard time hearing what someone else is saying behind their face covering.

Brian Kendall has invented a voice-to-text mask.

“It’s got a flexible LED screen inside in a little pouch, and a little computer chip and a lithium battery,” Kendall told 650 CKOM’s Brent Loucks. “It’s like closed-captioning LED.”

Kendall said as the person talks, their words will appear in big LED letters on their mask. It works using a phone app and transmits through Bluetooth.

He thought up the idea after visiting his father in a care home.

“I noticed when the pandemic was going on that the elderly people were all having a difficult time communicating through the Plexiglas, that sort of thing,” he said. “Everybody’s (saying) ‘What? What?’ because they can’t hear.”

And it’s not just a mask Kendall is working on. The inventor says there’s a a whole line of products including badges, desk signs and hats. He said the pandemic may be gone at some point and people won’t need masks every day, but there will still be people with hearing loss.

A Kickstarter campaign is getting underway any day now to help fund the project.

Kendall said he hopes to have the masks for sale by late March and they would cost about $40 each.

And the creative man behind the idea told Loucks at some point the masks are even going to be able to translate languages.

“As I am talking in English, if I am in Quebec trying to order coffee, my words are going to come out in French,” he said.

Updates on Kendall’s projects can be found here.