A group at Brigham Young University has turned Google Glass into a device that helps deaf students enjoy a planetarium. The conundrum facing the deaf in the dark is that they can't see an ASL interpreter, and captioning is difficult on a round display and would interrupt the experience for hearing people. To solve this problem, it's wearable computers to the rescue, as they can allow deaf students to view the interpreter without disturbing other viewers.

According to EurekAlert, the project is called "Signglasses," and it gives deaf students a tiny ASL interpreter while watching the planetarium show. The Glass display is visible in the dark and displays a video of the interpreter during the show. The group, which includes two deaf students, hopes to expand the idea beyond the planetarium. "One idea is when you're reading a book and come across a word that you don't understand, you point at it, push a button to take a picture, some software figures out what word you're pointing at and then sends the word to a dictionary and the dictionary sends a video definition back," the professor in charge of the group said. The full results of the group's research will be published in June at the Interaction Design and Children conference.

While the idea is a novel use for Glass, it's not the first time a piece of wearable tech has been used to provide personalized captioning in the dark. For the last year, Sony and movie theater chain Regal entertainment have been employing "Access Glasses" to provide deaf customers personalized captions while watching a movie. Like Glass, Access Glasses are a heads-up display, but this device covers both eyes for a wider display area. The downside is that they look much dorkier than Google Glass, but hey, at least you only wear them in the dark.