I to I (2.0) signature presentation can be found at: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aLC1swxWnzyosxshGG2-uG36VUWa7dy7yINtPANeugg/edit?usp=sharing
It was a big success on Friday, May 25th! I really appreciate the attention, passion, and support given by my audience in the room that morning.
In the reflection section of my presentation, I mentioned that "the one-year journey of signature has been full of challenges and eventually some successes."
Challenges:
-- First of all, the scope of this project is quite broad to be carried on by a student
-- Technology limitations blocked my project to some extent and made me frustrated when trying to build a prototype.
-- Time management, it was hard to balance my time between signature and my other tasks, especially during college application season.
Successes:
-- Glad I touched base on the deep learning technology world through this project
-- My I to I design and the innovative back-side filming concept were confirmed
-- Learned the startup business process and learned the real need of sign language translation
Before the D-day, I organized my complete presentation and ran through several times to practice, each time getting better and better.
My first draft of presentation was rough since I put in too much information but didn't pick only the most important ones and organize them to be clear. Gradually I learned how to filter the minor information and focus on the major ones. The second draft was still beyond time limit, so I knew I had to write a better script and be concise. Lastly, I was able to practice with a finalized script and be confident knowing my material.
On Friday morning, I gave my presentation with calmness. The Q&A part really surprised me. A lot of people expressed their strong interest in my I to I product.
One said that her best friend is a deaf person, so she could totally relate to this real-world problem and really thought my project and effort would be helpful.
Some others brought up a new viewpoint: I really should work on the voice translation into text to begin with, and they for sure will want to buy it! The current problem is that for people have hearing loss, the hearing aids are expensive do not work very well, and it's really bad that people can't wear glasses conveniently if they wear hearing aids behind their ears. I to I can also function as a translation device allowing people to understand others' talking and signs on the street in different languages.
In this way, I to I as smart glasses seem like a perfect solution. I was really inspired by this perspective and their passion, so I want to look into voice recognition as my next step.
It's been a hard but great year working on my signature! I have learned a lot!
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