> When the world around you doesn’t give you feedback,
> and the best gauge you have of your own noise level is
> frustration on the faces of the people near you
People laugh at HN suggesting technical solutions to every problem, but this really does seem like something that could be solved (or at least mitigated) by a microphone, some small LEDs, and a gutted wristwatch. Light up more LEDs depending on how loud the sound is relative to the average level of the previous N seconds of recorded audio.
A web search for [wrist sound sensor] didn't find anything relevant, but this is probably because I don't know what such a device would be named.
edit: Following the trackback at the bottom reveals the author is a hardware hacker. I wonder if she has tried to build such a device -- if not, maybe it's much more complicated than it seems.
A similar tool, though not designed for exactly that purpose, is a sound level meter or a loudness meter. There are small handheld ones, but I don't know of any that could be worn on a wrist or that have a useful UI for a deaf person.
A web search for [wrist sound sensor] didn't find anything relevant, but this is probably because I don't know what such a device would be named.
edit: Following the trackback at the bottom reveals the author is a hardware hacker. I wonder if she has tried to build such a device -- if not, maybe it's much more complicated than it seems.