Smart Glasses with Live Captions Wins AARP Pitch Contest at CES

Two microphones are inside the glasses, and the battery is expected to last five hours between charges.

Captions can appear with or without internet connectivity, although results may be impacted in particularly loud environments.

Pritsky says you may not read every caption, but they can help you fill in words you are missing; for his part, he reads lips a lot.

Captify is not the only smart glasses that may help someone who is hard of hearing. A start-up called Xander has also produced captioning glasses.

And Nuance Audio from EssilorLuxottica are eyeglasses with hearing aids discreetly embedded in the frames.

Here are the four other start-ups that were featured at the pitch event.

Accelera bands aim to prevent falls

Medical alert devices and smartwatches can detect when someone falls, an event that Accelera CEO Matthias Loening says occurs every 11 seconds in the U.S. Accelera’s Proprio bands look to prevent those falls in the first place. The all-day wearable uses gentle vibrations to stimulate a person’s sensory awareness in the limbs it is worn on to improve proprioception (the body’s ability to sense position), balance and mobility. Cost: $399 for a pair.

ATDev builds personal robotic devices to bolster mobility

Home care costs are mammoth at the same time that there’s a threatening shortage of caregivers, says ATDev cofounder and CEO Todd Roberts. ATDev’s solution is to develop personal robotics that can help someone get around, shop, work, eat and live independently.

ATDev’s first product, called Reflex, is a telehealth-enabled robotic rehabilitation device for orthopedic knee recovery. With academic and commercial partners that include Nvidia and the University of Pittsburgh, the company has begun developing an AI-fueled robotic wheelchair platform for people with severe mobility impairments. It can navigate autonomously and, through a robotic arm, assist someone in opening doors and shopping in a grocery store.

Kinemo Proprio helps you control digital devices when you can’t use your hands

People with severe arthritis, carpal tunnel or who have a physical disability may struggle with or not be able to use a mouse, keyboard or computer. Kinemo has a discreet device with tiny tracers and motion sensors that can be attached via skin-safe stickers anywhere on the body to detect bodily gestures. Via an app, such gestures are converted into mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, and so on, which are sent to the Bluetooth device the user is trying to control.

For example, the company notes that one user navigates an iPad by flexing her cheek, while another moves her foot to scroll and swings a knee to click. The $1,499 wearable is currently in use at 20 rehabilitation centers. Neither Medicare nor private insurers reimburse users; however, cofounder Nordine Sebkhi says the Department of Veterans Affairs completely covers the costs.

Memcara uses music therapy to help patients with dementia

While the loss of memory is devastating for dementia patients and their loved ones, Memcara cofounder and CEO Christina Tadin, a board-certified music therapist, says there’s another hardship: the loss of communication.

“Even as memory fades,” she says, “the capacity to communicate, feel and express identity remains far more intact than most people realize. What is missing is the infrastructure to support what remains.”

Memcara employs music recordings performed by the original artists, and pairs them with nostalgic imagery from the person’s formative years to activate “preserved neural pathways” and “cue recognition and expression.”

Sessions with patients also include guided conversational prompts. Data is captured and shared with care partners and families.

Memcara is currently running 15 pilots across adult living communities in North America. A direct-to-consumer offering is priced at $29.99 per month per family.