About this role
PhD position on 'Restoring Communicative Agency: Human-centered AI smart glasses for people with speech impairments ' Give speech impaired individuals their voice back with Wearable AI and Smart Glasses! Can wearable AI make everyday communication more accessible for people who cannot rely on spoken speech? The Department of Computer Science at the Open Universiteit is looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate to develop and evaluate human-centred AI for visual speech recognition in smart glasses. Deadline 13 Sep '26 Published yesterday Vacancy ID FAC/BW/26072 Save Research fields Psychological sciences; Computer science Job types PhD Weekly hours 30.4-38 hours per week Salary indication €3204-€4051 per month Location Postbus 2960, 6401 DL, Heerlen Job description The Project Imagine trying to have a conversation while cooking or carrying groceries, but the only way you can communicate is by typing on the phone or using sign language. For many people with severe speech and hearing impairments, this is a daily reality. Current assistive tools, such as typing text to speech or sign language interpreters, require users to drop whatever they are doing just to communicate, which can make everyday interactions frustrating. These communication barriers often lead to profound social isolation, economic marginalization, and reduced quality of life. This project explores a complementary approach: smart glasses that use wearable AI to interpret visible lip and facial movements and convert them into audible speech. The aim is not only to improve technical recognition performance, but also to investigate when and how such technology can support communicative agency, autonomy, confidence and participation in everyday life for the speech impaired. The project brings together expertise in artificial intelligence, computer vision, human-computer interaction, and psychology. Its technical core lies in developing robust and adap...