RoboHear™ Device: Advanced Haptic Technology That Allows the Deaf to Understand Speech
Phase: NA
Conditions: Hearing Impairment, Deafness
Sponsor: University of Arkansas

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 1 
Study Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows 
 
the deaf to understand speech 
 
Principal Investigator:  
John Dornhoffer, MD 
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 
4301 W. Markham Street, Slot # 543 
Little Rock, AR 72205 
Telephone:  501-686-5140 
Email:  dornhofferjohnl@uams.edu 
 
 
Sub-Investigator (s): 
 
 
 
 
 
Deanne King, MD, PhD 
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 
4301 W. Markham Street, Slot # 543 
Little Rock, AR 72205 
Telephone:  501-686-5140 
Email:  dking3@uams.edu 
 
Study location: 
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 
4301 W. Markham Street 
Little Rock, AR 72205 
Table of Contents 
 
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ 1 
Background and Rationale .............................................................................................. 3 
Objectives ....................................................................................................................... 4 
Investigational New Device ............................................................................................. 4 
Study Design and Procedures ......................................................................................... 7 
Study Population ............................................................................................................. 8 
Risks and Benefits........................................................................................................... 9 
Data Handling and Recordkeeping ............................................................................... 10 
Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 10 
Ethical Considerations ................................................................................................... 10 
Dissemination of Data ................................................................................................... 11 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 2 
References .................................................................................................................... 12 
 
 
 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 3 
Background and Rationale 
Of the 37.6M US adults with hearing difficulties, over 1M are profoundly deaf (i.e., unable 
to hear speech or participate in a normal conversation).  An additional 6M to 7M of this 
US total have hearing loss characterized as severe1.  Statistics from the National Institute 
on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NICD) indicate that a condition called 
sudden deafness strikes one person per 5,000 every year - usually adults in their 40s and 
50s 2.  A 2015 online report by the National Center for Health Statistics indicates that less 
than 2% of adults who indicated that they had any trouble hearing were deaf 3.  More than 
219,000 patients globally have received cochlear implants; over 70,000 patients in the 
US.  The average cost for one cochlear implant can range from $40,000 to $100,000 
inclusive of all the treatments 4.  Many deaf patients cannot afford a cochlear implant, 
others (for medical reasons) are not a candidate for an implant. 
 
Fauxsee Innovations, LLC is focused on developing new devices and assistive 
technology for the underserved blind and deaf communities5.  The company designed the 
Roboglasses® product using advanced sensor and haptic technology for providing 
guidance assistance to the blind.  This proposal addresses development of a RoboHear™ 
product to provide audible speech recognition capabilities for the deaf.  RoboHear™ 
device will use the haptics technology in the Roboglasses® design to communicate 
speech information to the deaf using touch (haptic) feedback.  Roboglasses® design uses 
a row of Linear Resonant Actuators (LRAs) located in the stems of the glasses frames to 
communicate distance information to the wearer.  RoboHear™ design will use the same 
haptic devices also located in the stems of a pair of glasses. These glasses can be fitted 
with clear or prescription lenses as required.  RoboHear™ device will convert audio 
speech into phonemes that are further mapped into distinct haptic effects that are felt by 
a deaf user in the stems of the glasses.   
 
There is a significant body of research in sound, sound technology, hearing, speech 
and speech recognition, sound localization, haptics and haptic effects, and research on 
human ability to utilize alternate technologies and substitute one sense (e.g., touch) for 
either hearing or seeing in sensing the environment. New technologies such as LRAs 
significantly offer unique advantages.  LRA outputs are not audible or vibratory. They 
simply touch the user in various programmable ways. The LRAs move in and out to 
“touch” the user and apply a slight pressure to the skin. These LRAs are commercially 
availables and are present in many commonly used devices such as smart phones and 
smart watches.  The LRAs are innervating mechanoreceptors used in normal cutaneous 
tactile perception, not vibro-tactile input from the Pacinian receptors, which are sensitive 
to temporal differences but less sensitive to spatial resolution 11. Modern speech 
recognition technology radically changes the speech detection, recognition and coding 
problem.  Modern microelectronics allows sophisticated control using high-performance 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 4 
microprocessor technology.  Weisenberger investigated the issues of communication 
using tactile stimuli 12, 13 as well as the role of tactile aids in speech perception 14 and the 
use of tactile phonemes 15.  Reed and Durlach investigated the subject of information 
transfer rates and differences in information transfer rates of phonemic codes using both 
auditory and tactual (haptic) modalities 16. Tan, et al, have more recently investigated 
optimum information transfer rates for various modalities 17.  These new technologies now 
make it much more feasible to build devices that can recognize speech and translate that 
speech into haptic stimuli. 
Objectives 
We are testing the feasibility of using high-performance, low-cost speech recognizers 
for converting spoken speech into text, translating that text into a phonemic 
representation and then mapping the phonemes into haptic effects.  We will perform a 
pilot study of 7-9 subjects to develop a training program for teaching users to 
understand haptic phonetics.  We will utilize computer-aided instruction programs to 
facilitate learning and practice with the device. We hope to show that haptic technology 
can provide an alternative form of communication for the deaf population. 
Investigational New Device 
RoboHear uses high-performance, low-cost speech recognizers for converting spoken 
speech into text, and translates that text into a phonemic representation.  The 
phonemes are mapped into haptic effects.  The haptic devices (LRAs) will be housed in 
glasses stems that also contain microphones for receiving the audio.  This ambitious 
research effort is feasible because we are able to reuse patented components and 
subsystems developed for our Roboglasses® product.  
 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 5 
Figure 1 
Our initial research indicates that it will only be necessary to fabricate one new 
hardware item for RoboHear™.  This is the Haptic Control function.  While our 
Roboglasses product provides a Haptic Control function, it is implemented on a small 
(19 x 21 mm) circuit board that is located behind the Roboglasses® lenses.  Our 
RoboHear™ concept calls for all electronics, as well as the haptic devices, to be located 
in the stems of the RoboHear™ glasses (so that the lenses are unobstructed). It will be 
necessary to fabricate a flexible printed circuit (FPC) containing the electronics for 
driving the haptic devices as shown in Figure 1.  Note that this is an extremely low-risk 
effort since the electronics design is the same as that used in Roboglasses® design.  It 
is merely repackaged in a different form factor.  This FPC is approximately 131 mm long 
and 12.3 mm high.  The 8mm holes in the FPC surround the LRAs that play the haptic 
effects.  The left end of the FPC is a printed connector for use in interfacing with the 
Haptics Controller function.   
Since Fauxsee has previously developed the software for controlling and activating the 
proposed LRA devices, we anticipate reusing this software with only minor changes.  
This software consists primarily of I2C software drivers and the code for controlling and 
activating LRAs.  As noted earlier, we will reuse the processor and power manager 
hardware from our Roboglasses® product and the RoboHear™ design can utilize a 
large body of existing software for the haptic interface.  We plan to use software from 
the CMU Sphinx project at Carnegie Mellon University.  This is a state of the art speech 
recognition engine that is designed specifically for operation in computer environments 
with few hardware and software resources 22-24.   
One primary research goal is to investigate and characterize the best mapping between 
phonemes and haptic effects. We are using LRAs and intelligent haptic drivers for 
producing haptic effects.  Each LRA and haptic driver pair (DRV2605 from Texas 
Instruments) provides up to 123 different haptic effects.  Table 1 describes a few of 
these haptic sensations.    The haptic effects are not audible – they are touch 
sensations. Note that we are mapping one of 44 phonemes into 1 of 123 different haptic 
effects.  Also note that many haptic effects can be played at different levels of intensity 
and this may be important in simulating loudness of the speech being processed. This 
means that the mapping of phoneme to haptic effect must be simple and intuitive thus 
minimizing cognitive effort for recognition 18.  RoboHear takes advantage of the location 
of the haptic effects in the row of LRAs on the stems to make it easier to learn.  The 
spatial location allows the differentiation of effects both by the particular haptic 
sensation and by the location of the effect.  Just as a blind person learns to read Braille 
by distinguishing the location of raised dots, we are using the same concept but 
simplifying it by taking advantage of the different haptic effects. 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 6 
 
 
 
 
Figure 2 illustrates our current implementation of RoboHear™ device. This 
implementation uses the right and left haptics FPCs developed for use with 
Roboglasses® device.  In this implementation, all low-level processing (managing the 
hardware) is accomplished in a highly integrated Bluetooth LE processor while all high-
level processing (speech to text conversion, text to phoneme conversion and phoneme 
to haptic mapping) is accomplished in an application specific processor.  This processor 
could be the main processor in a cellular telephone (e.g., iPhone) or an application 
specific processor such as that used in Roboglasses® device.  This approach allows all 
hardware specific processing to be accomplished in the RoboHear™ processor.  The 
embedded electronics in the RoboHear™ glasses frames communicate with the 
application processor over a Bluetooth LE link. In this implementation, the processor 
(e.g., a Texas Instruments CC2640) and one microphone are located in the right 
Table 1.  Example Haptic Effects 
Effect Description 
Effect ID 
Effect Description 
Strong Click 100% 
51 
Buzz 20% 
Strong Click 60% 
52 
Pulsing Strong 1 – 100% 
Strong Click 30% 
53 
Pulsing Strong 2 – 60% 
Sharp Click 100^% 
54 
Pulsing Medium 1 – 100% 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 7 
glasses stem, and a second microphone and the power manager (controlling battery 
charging, voltage regulation, and power consumption) is located in the left glasses 
stem. The electronics in the stem communicate with each other over a small flat flexible 
circuit (FFC) routed through the RoboHear™ glasses frames.  
Figure 3 shows the power manager and processor cards used in our Roboglasses® 
product.  The 41 x 36 mm processor board (on right in photograph) provides a high-
performance 32-bit processor (Texas Instruments TM4C123) 
that can be used to execute the RoboHear™ software. The 
figure also shows the Power Manager circuit card used in 
Roboglasses® device. This 31 x 37 mm card provides a 
Lithium Ion battery power source and necessary filters and 
regulators. These two cards provide the necessary power 
management and processing capabilities required in the 
RoboHear™ design and can be used without modification to 
support the proposed Phase I project. 
Study Design and Procedures 
Participants will be asked to learn to recognize haptic sensations (touch) as phonemes 
and short words or phrases.  The haptic sensations are generated by Linear Resonant 
Actuators (LRAs) situated in the stems (i.e., temple piece) of the RoboHear™ device.  
The actuators are made of steel but are separated from the participant’s skin by a thin 
elastomeric covering.  The covering allows the participant to feel the haptic effect without 
coming into skin contact with the device.  Each glasses stem contains five LRAs.  The 
haptic sensations can be described as a bump, click, purr, buzz, etc.  The sensations vary 
in kind, duration and amplitude.  The LRAs do not generate any audible sound.  The 
haptic sensation is not strong enough to cause any pain sensation. The goal is to have 
Figure 2.  One possible implementation of RoboHear™ design 
Figure 3.  Processor and Power Manager 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 8 
the participant learn to associate a particular phenome with its paired haptic signal, much 
as user of a smart watch or smart phone can associate a particular function (email, text, 
call, alarm) with its paired haptic signal. 
 
All trials will take place in a quiet laboratory or office space and will include the 
participant, a trial manager and optional observers who may include an audiology 
graduate student or an engineer from Fauxsee who may be present to ensure that 
software is functioning correctly or to make adjustments in the learning portions of the 
software (some participants may need a short or longer training session).  The 
participant will be outfitted with the RoboHear™ glasses and will be seated before a 
computer display.  The trial manager will control information presented to the participant 
with the RoboHear™ haptics.  Trials will be conducted in two phases - a learning phase 
and a recognition phase: 
1. In the learning phase, the trial manager will provide the participant with a 
particular set of haptic stimuli and a display showing the phonetic mapping of the 
stimuli.  Phonetic mapping will be combined with word mapping.  This is the 
same process that is used in teaching children how to read where they are 
learning to sound out words using phonemes.  Here the participant will be 
learning to feel phoneme while also seeing the word and hearing the word 
pronounced by the computer program.  Participants will be given repeated 
instruction over the course of a learning period. 
2. In the recognition phase of testing, the participant will be presented with various 
haptic stimuli and will be asked to select or sound the recognize phoneme or 
word.  Data monitoring will be done from a distance from each participant in the 
trial so that no participant will be affected by the collection of data. Data from our 
experiments will be recorded by the test coordinator and will include data about 
the length of time spent on various learning tasks as well as recognition time and 
recognition accuracy. 
Study Population 
This pilot study will consist of seven to nine adult participants (18-year old or older).  We 
may consent up to 15 subjects, in order to have 7-9 complete the testing.  Participants 
will need to understand English and must be able to sit at a computer for the training 
and evaluation session.  The session may range from one hour to up to 4 hours in 
length (with breaks provided as needed).  Participants will be recruited from the UAMS 
TRI Research Participant Registry.  If needed, fliers and other advertisements 
(newspaper, TV, etc.) may be implemented as well. 
Inclusion criteria: 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 9 
 
-18 years and older 
 
-Able to understand and read basic words in English 
Exclusion Critera 
 
-Less than 18 years old 
 
Unable to understand and read basic words in English 
Risks and Benefits 
1. Risk to participants 
 
The potential risks to seven to nine (7 to 9) adult participants in the proposed studies 
are minimal.  Because working with a desktop computer and wearing a pair of normal 
weight and size glasses with clear glass are skills and activities that are commonly 
performed by participants, the participants are not being asked to attempt a novel activity 
and will not be placed at risk of harm as a consequence of participating in this research. 
 
Electrical Shock Risk. Participant will wear a modified version of the RoboHear™ 
glasses which contain the haptic devices.  The glasses stems are connected to a control 
processor that processes speech into phonemes and then to haptic sensations.  All 
voltages are 3.3 volts or less and there is no danger of electrical shock.  No voltage in 
any part of the system exceeds 5.0 volts (at USB power block).   
 
Magnetic Field Risks.  Each LRA consists of a spring, moving mass, a voice coil and 
an extremely small NeFeB Neodymium magnet.  There are no other known risks 
to participants in this study. 
2. Adequacy of protection against risks 
 
A Hearing person will monitor all participants in the study.  Though potential risks 
to participants are minimal, the team will anticipate a formal risk assessment as part of 
the course/trial design process. Observations and data from the trial run will identify any 
additional potential risks to participants. In the event that additional risks are detected, the 
team will modify the trial procedure to mitigate that risk. Predetermined safety measures 
include a safety briefing for test participants, trial monitors and all participating staff. 
3. Potential benefits to participants and others 
 
There are no direct medical benefits to the participants other than the opportunity to 
use a new hearing device, however, test participants will benefit indirectly in that their 
input will be used to improve the final design of the RoboHear™ product. Honorariums 
($25 gift cards) will be provided for all participants for compensation for their time. 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 10 
Data Handling and Recordkeeping 
The Principal Investigator will carefully monitor study procedures to protect the safety of 
research subjects, the quality of the data and the integrity of the study.  All study subject 
material will be assigned a unique identifying code or number.  This study will utilize 
REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), a software toolset and workflow 
methodology for electronic collection and management of clinical and research data, to 
collect and store data.  REDCap was developed specifically around HIPAA-Security 
guidelines.  The key to the code will be kept within REDCap.  Only Dr. Dornhoffer and 
Dr. King will have access to database and full data set containing PHI.  All information 
for statistical purposes and publication will be downloaded in a de-identified manner. At 
the conclusion of the study, the data will stored in REDCap indefinitely for use in 
expanding this pilot research in the future. All information shared with the company will 
be de-identified and will consist of learning and testing responses (such as number of 
words correctly identified, number of training sessions, number of attempts, etc.). 
Data Analysis 
We will analyze the length of time spent on various learning tasks as well as recognition 
time and recognition accuracy.  As this is a small pilot study, most of the statistics will 
be descriptive.  We will use paired t-test to compare recognition accuracy at the 
beginning and end of training session.  We will look to see if any demographic data 
(age, gender, hearing status, etc.) has any positive or negative effect on learning 
capability by comparing recognition time and recognition accuracy. 
Ethical Considerations 
This study will be conducted in accordance with all applicable government regulations 
and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences research policies and 
procedures.  This protocol and any amendments will be submitted and approved by the 
UAMS Institutional Review Board (IRB) to conduct the study.   
The formal consent of each subject, using the IRB-approved consent form, will be 
obtained before that subject is submitted to any study procedure.  All subjects for this 
study will be provided a consent form describing this study and providing sufficient 
information in language suitable for subjects to make an informed decision about their 
participation in this study.  The person obtaining consent will thoroughly explain each 
element of the document and outline the risks and benefits and requirements of the 
study. 
The consent process will take place in a quiet and private room, and subjects may take 
as much time as needed to make a decision about their participation.  Participation 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 11 
privacy will be maintained and questions regarding participation will be answered.  No 
coercion or undue influence will be used in the consent process.  This consent form 
must be signed by the subject or legally authorized representative, and the individual 
obtaining the consent.  A copy of the signed consent will be given to the participant, and 
the informed consent process will be documented in each subject’s research record.   
Dissemination of Data 
Results of this study may be used for presentations, posters, or publications. The 
publications will not contain any identifiable information that could be linked to a 
participant. 
 
 

Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
IRB# 228355 
Date: 
03/28/2019 
Page 12 
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Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
Version #: 2 
 
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Date: 
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Title: 
RoboHear™ device: advanced haptic technology that allows the deaf to understand speech 
PI: 
John Dornhoffer, MD 
Site: 
UAMS  
 
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