Development of an artificial intelligence based occupational noise induced hearing loss early warning system for mine workers.

Introduction: Occupational Noise Induced Hearing Loss (ONIHL) is one of the most prevalent conditions among mine workers globally. This reality is due to mine workers being exposed to noise produced by heavy machinery, rock drilling, blasting, and so on. This condition can be compounded by the fact that mine workers often work in confined workspaces for extended periods of time, where little to no attenuation of noise occurs.

Application of machine learning approaches to analyse student success for contact learning and emergency remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 era in speech-language pathology and audiology.

Background:  The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe resulted in countries taking several measures to curb the spread of the disease. One of the measures taken was the locking down of countries, which entailed restriction of movement both locally and internationally. To ensure continuation of the academic year, emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL) was launched by several institutions of higher learning in South Africa, where the norm was previously face-to-face or contact teaching and learning.

A proposed artificial intelligence-based real-time speech-to-text to sign language translator for South African official languages for the COVID-19 era and beyond: In pursuit of solutions for the hearing impaired.

Background:  The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in communication being heightened as one of the critical aspects in the implementation of interventions. Delays in the relaying of vital information by policymakers have the potential to be detrimental, especially for the hearing impaired.

Objectives:  This study aims to conduct a scoping review on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) for real-time speech-to-text to sign language translation and consequently propose an AI-based real-time translation solution for South African languages from speech-to-text to sign language.