In Japan, a new audio recognition system, originally developed for business record keeping, now helps people with hearing loss using generative AI.
Aisin Corporation, an auto component maker owned by Toyota, developed the YYProbe mobile app during the pandemic as a text-to-speech tool for employees to maintain professional records.
When hearing-impaired employees subsequently found it useful in their communication, the company expanded the technology and built the YYSystem, which is now offered to the entire company, particularly to the hearing-impaired, elderly and elderly. strangers, to help overcome obstacles in communication. communication.
Aisin worked with Microsoft to improve the tool’s summary and translation functionality, leveraging Microsoft OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology and Azure AI Translator.
The YYSystem is now used on counter displays in government departments and retail stores across Japan and is expected to be rolled out during the 2025 Deaflympics in Tokyo. The free downloadable YYProbe app now has over 10,000 active monthly users. There is also an enterprise version.
Through generative AI, Aisin plans to further improve the audio recognition system to enable users to input and generate images, videos and graphics to communicate.
THE BIGGEST TREND
Generative AI has seen its use cases expand in the healthcare sector in recent months. Healthcare providers have begun to adopt this technology primarily to help clinicians evaluate patient histories and records in order to make a diagnosis. Beyond increase clinical productivityit is also tested for supplement care for the elderly.
Now valued at $1 billion, the generative AI market in healthcare is expected to reach $22 billion by 2032.
ON THE FILE
Hiromi Soeda, a user of the YYProbe app, is diagnosed with auditory processing disorder (APD), a lesser-known listening difficulty in which the brain cannot process the words one hears.
She shared with Microsoft Asia a case where she used the app to understand what doctors were telling her about her mother’s condition when she was hospitalized with COVID-19. “It’s much better to read (the text) to follow along and help me understand. And if I’m listening and I misunderstand, I can go back and read it again,” she said.
Soeda, who now runs an online support group for parents facing APD and listening difficulties themselves or within their families, uses YYProbe for her seminars.
