Future thoughts

Through using the blog and in-person meeting and group work we were able to produce the SoundSense Glasses meeting most of our goals, however, there were some features we would change for future versions:

1. Use real circuit boards. With enough time and resources, we could produce very small circuit boards to store the components
2. Attempt to use smaller batteries. Possibly using the original 2x 3V CR2032 batteries we would be able to further reduce size and make the hardware truly head-mounted
3. Fix the light and microphone to strict positions. This was a problem as the LEDs were uneven on each side, however the glasses are still effective as-is so this issue is less serious
4. Add a cone for the microphones/use better quality microphones. The microphones were very sensitive to wind or direct contact, but it took a loud sound to trigger them otherwise
5. Add a sensitivity option and a true off switch. These two ideas would make the device much easier to use, as it could be turned off or dulled down when in an environment with lower sound levels. In the Multimedia tutorial room the conversations of others were able to trigger the LEDs in low tones

However, despite these minor changes, the glasses turned out very successful for us and truly do work well for drawing attention to directional sounds. We were very glad to stick within the budget of $20 (at $19.99 including the price of the glasses), making this technology open and affordable for all!

We'd like to see more technologies like this in the future, and were surprised with how quickly a device like the SoundSense Glasses could be made.