Translator: Ai Van Tran Reviewer: hila scherba
Good morning, everyone.
Ability.
Ability is a skill, training, or an inborn talent.
My ability is slightly unusual.
I have a hearing impairment of both ears wtih microtia.
But my disability has been a great asset to me and to my life.
Microtia means that your external ears are extremely undeveloped.
If you could get a closer look at me,
you’d be easily able to find that I have no ear holes or ear canals.
I can start to hear the pure tone sound, like beeping sounds -
beep, beep, like that - at 75 decibels,
which is as loud as the vacuum cleaner working 5 feet away
from where I am standing.
The reason why I can hear at all is because of a BAHA hearing aid,
Bone Anchored Hearing Aid, which is implanted above my right ear.
Before I got the implant, I was unable to hear at all.
The process of getting the implant,
of learning to interact with the world in a different way,
meant that I spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals,
learning about the technology that is inside my head.
Hearing aids like mine don’t just amplify the sound
like a microphone on my body,
but also convert it into the bio-electrical signals
that our brain, neurons, can understand.
This complex piece of technology
and the huge part it holds in my life are part of the reason
why I came to Duke University to study biomedical engineering.
I hope to create better hearing aid technologies
to help deaf people hear and communicate with society.
However, here is the thing.
Deaf people have no trouble, no trouble communicating with each other.
Sign language is just as complex and beautiful as spoken languages.
Sometimes, signs look like random gestures, body languages,
or are even interpretable to the general public.
But, absolutely, obviously,
the process, the structure,
or the fast movement of hands will be complicated to people
who haven't been around it as much as I have.
Let’s go through some of it together.
First of all, this means the "woman" in International Sign.
I think I don't have to explain
why this gesture means "woman" in International Sign.
This might be pretty clear to you.
But a single use of the word will be less obvious.
Everyone, please, stick your left thumb up, please?
Yes, thank you very much.
Thank you, left thumb.
Everyone is giving me thumbs up. Very good.
This means the "person," the "man," in Korean Sign Language.
Actually, it resembles the person.
Your thumb will be the face, the rest four fingers will be the body,
and this part will be the back of the person.
An example of the complexities of sign languages
can be showing how they can sign "help"
in Korean Sign Language.
If you use your right hand and tap the back of the person,
this means "help" in Korean Sign Language.
Actually, it looks like helping, right?
Supporting the person, making the person go ahead.
I would like to show you further examples,
but actually, I need one more person on this stage.
So, I want to invite Rence, right now. Is it great?
Yeah, thank you very much.
(Applause)
I want to show you that Rence is helping me
because he is literally helping me right now.
Then we have to solve the English grammar problem.
Let's go back to the "help" gesture.
There is an explicit difference between the subject and the object.
My right hand is helping the person on my left hand.
In other words, even though it is the set of the gesture,
there is an explicit difference between the subject and the object.
So, we have to use this word with considering who will be the subject
and who will be the object.
So, Rence is helping me.
It means that my left hand should be on my side.
And the helping hand,
my right hand should approach from where Rence is standing.
Like this.
How about Rence wants to tell you
that Rence is helping me?
Because, you are really helping me right now.
Your left hand should be toward me. Yeah.
And, your right hand should be tapping the back of the person.
We are explaining the same situation to you.
But there is a difference between our expressions.
I am in a passive tone. And, he is in an active tone.
This means, if we talk about this without considering the motion,
we will be likely to make a mistake in communication.
Great?
Two persons? Thank you. Thank you very much, Rence.
(Laughter)
The point of that was to show you
Sign Language is not an inferior or alternative method of communication
developed for people with disabilities.
Sign Language is the basis of Deaf culture.
The basis of deaf society.
Deaf culture, deaf society, and sign language
are not something to be looked down upon,
but something to be embraced in the same way other languages are,
spoken languages are.
Let's imagine that my friends in South Korea,
they came to the USA, they came to Duke University.
Their inability to speak English will not be considered a disability.
Of course, they will have many difficulties communicating with you
because they cannot speak English.
But they are not disabled.
Why is Sign Language treated differently?
Why is using Sign Language considered a disability?
In my freshman year of high school,
I volunteered for and got interacted with the deaf community.
Going to camps and conferences in South Korea,
I developed a much closer connection to my own disability,
And I began to see my disability as a cultural identity
that unites me to others in a similar situation.
This is also how I began to doubt the way we innovate in biomedical engineering.
I come from a unique position of both sides of this technology,
and I believe that we will be able to make even better solutions for deaf society.
Building on the idea that sign language is a native language of the deaf,
we can broaden our perspectives on technology for the underprivileged.
In 2014,
the Berghs School of Communication submitted a concept technology -
they named it "Google Gesture" - to a design competition.
This Google Gesture would consist of wearable cuffs
that interpret signs into spoken speeches by analyzing muscle movement.
Let’s take a look at what that could look like.
(Video starts) Voice-over: Say hello to Google Gesture,
a service that translates sign language into speech.
Using electromyography, it analyzes the position and muscle activity
in both your hand and forearm.
Computer generated speech: This means that Google Gesture
can identify exactly which sign you are making.
The information is then sent to the Google Gesture application,
which translates your gestures into speech in realtime.
With Google Gesture,
Google continues to do what they do best:
making information available for everyone,
no matter who you are, where you are,
or what language you use.
(Video ends)
Jaehoon Sung: This is an amazing piece of technology.
To make this Google Gesture,
we would, of course, rely on knowledge of neural prostheses,
but also we must rely on our experiences in deaf society.
The Google Gesture and my hearing aid, BAHA hearing aid technology,
are applied on the same field of biotechnology.
But we can say that one is much more friendly to deaf society.
The comfort and ability of deaf society to communicate
will be maintained through Google Gesture.
This is the moment
when disability becomes one of many kinds of abilities
we can have in the world.
Fundamentally, engineering exists to help the human society,
to innovate the way we live,
and to help us reach new heights as a species.
The relationship between technology and society
is just as important as the technological development.
Now, we can make the better world.
We can even create the new world.
But to make the best world,
I believe that we should work together,
seeking what each community really needs,
not what we think they need.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)