Al Lotze

Falls in older adults are common, have high societal and monetary costs, often lead to injury and can even be fatal. It is known that noise can damage the vestibular periphery resulting in postural instability and compromised balance. This project investigates how natural aging is accelerated by lifetime noise exposure, and how that can lead to impaired vestibular function, contributing to propensity to fall.

The purpose of this research study is to test subjects who have various hearing and vision problems on their lipreading, visual and auditory skills in order to understand the relationships between lipreading and visual impairment. We then can explore training strategies to improve auditory and visual communication.

Blind travelers rely on subtle acoustic cues for independent mobility. When hearing becomes impaired, as in the normal aging process, a special type of hearing aid may be needed to enhance these cues.

This project aims to do a detailed analysis of the environmental acoustic cues that help some blind navigate successfully.

A robotic fingerspelling hand would give anyone who can type the ability to communicate with deaf-blind people who know tactile fingerspelling. It also would have the potential to provide computer access to deaf-blind people who do not read Braille.