HearSay

HearSay

Inspiration

We aim to maximize the reach of the world’s best explanations for concepts across different subjects, without inhibitions due to language barrier or literacy. While live transcription exists for Zoom and other video platforms, this text format is not accessible to young children who might not be able to read or who aren’t as engaged by simple text. Our application aims to overcome this communication barrier and create a more engaging video lecture experience for people around the world. Join us today.

What it does

HearSay (the title of our project) allows users to translate live recordings of video and audio and output an audio of the translation, with little delay. In other words, any participant in a Zoom/Google Meet meeting can choose to hear a live lecture/explanation of a concept in a different language.

How we built it

We combined some different libraries in Python that included Speech-to-Text, Translation, and Text-to-Speech. This allowed us to record ourselves saying something live, seeing it translated, and output in Spanish with minimal delay. Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish connecting it to Google Meet/Zoom/any other video service.

Challenges we ran into

Our first project idea we realized was already in use around 3 hours after we started it, so we had to pivot. We also ran into challenges as to whether or not to use Java or Python, and the advantages and disadvantages of either programming language. Finally, we had trouble installing the libraries that we needed to form the baseline of our code.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of our idea formation and brainstorming process. We had multiple ideas, and evaluated them based on feasibility and impact. Throughout this evaluation process, we were able to get input from everyone and choose the idea that we thought had the most potential for good. Overall, our team had a similar mindset that even if we could not finish coding within 24 hours, we would prefer to have an unfinished but meaningful project rather than a finished project that doesn’t have much meaning. We;re also proud that we made it through our first hackathon :)

What we learned

We learned that the Wilkinson building is a pretty incredible place to study. We also learned that brainstorming is the hardest part of the project. We learned that in the future, it may be more effective to have a developed idea before the hackathon begins, so that over the 24 hours we can make the most of our time coding.

What's next for HearSay

We’ll be doing more hackathons to either develop this idea further or pursue a different one. We’ll also all pass our CS 201 class with flying colors. We’re excited to do more hacking in the future!