Award-Winning "SignAloud" Glove Translates American Sign Language To Speech
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Hundreds of thousands of hearing-impaired people in the United States and many parts of Canada rely solely on American Sign Language (ASL) for communication. But popular as the language is, there are millions of people with normal hearing that are unable to decipher the hand and finger gestures. That may change soon thanks to the ingenious “SignAloud” glove that converts sign language into speech.
The gloves are the brainchild of University of Washington sophomores Thomas Pryor and Navid Azodi. The inventors, who met during their freshman year, are firm believers that the ability to communicate is a fundamental human right and that those unable to hear or speak face a significant disadvantage in life. But though there have been many attempts to bridge the communications gap, the current solutions are simply too cumbersome to be implemented on a large scale.
The lightweight and comfortable SignAloud glove that can easily be worn as a daily accessory, is equipped with a series of sensors that measure the movement and position of the hands as a person is signing. A Bluetooth device transmits the information to a computer, which tries to match the gesture with a one in its database. As soon as the exact match is located, it “speaks” the relevant words or phrase through a speaker.
Though still in prototype phase, the glove seems to have impressed even the experts. On April 12, the inventors won the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. Established by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994, the award that comes with a $10,000 USD cash prize, celebrates collegiate students whose inventions have the potential to impact critical sectors of the global economy. University students can submit entries in one of four categories: "Cure it!", "Drive it!", "Eat it!" or "Use it!.”
Pryor and Azodi won top honors in the "Use it" category, which recognizes technology-based inventions that have the potential to improve consumer products. In addition to using the glove to enable the hearing impaired to converse more efficiently, the inventors envision several other commercial applications. These include using them to teach ASL, as well as for communicating with patients recovering from debilitating ailments like strokes.
The sophomores are not the only ones trying to solve this issue. Hadeel Ayoub, a student at the Goldsmiths, University of London, has been working on a similar idea. Her SignLanguageGlove translates sign language into text that can be transmitted to a smartphone app or tablet device. The young inventor who is on her third prototype also wants to incorporate multilingual features into the glove so that it can be used in countries where English is not the primary language. Thanks to these creative youngsters, the future of communication for all people, regardless of their hearing abilities, certainly looks a lot brighter!
Resources: mit.edu,mentalfloss.com,motherboard.vice.com
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514 Comments
faderover 8 yearsOMG,if people could improve that, people that uses sigh language could be just like normal people!!!- Cool dudeover 8 yearsSign language is cool. I kinda want to learn sign language some day.
- Spinout11over 8 yearsSignlanguageGlove is way more better than the other gloves because when you put on the signlanguageGlove and when you do a sign the glove will show you what you did and it makes it faster to communicate to people and clear messages to people or less misunderstanding and signlanguageGlove is kinda similar to the signAloud glove.
- Samantha Diazover 8 yearsEven though you can use your hands for sign language,these gloves are even more helpful for that.For example instead of making signs with your hands you can just say it with the gloves.Another example is that if people can not talk they don't have to suck in the pain they are having they can just say with the gloves.At the end of the day you have to admit that the gloves are more helpful than you think.
tumble-queenover 8 yearsEven though, Many people believe that if they won't work, they have a bright future.One way, it would be successful is because it is a wonderful way for the people that need special help to still be able to communicate.For example, if people can't understand how to talk they can use this.Another example, if people are unable to talk because there jaw is messed up they can still talk.Another reason, they would be successful is because they can be sold to a lot of very phrofititing companies.For example, if they sell them to families every one will be able to comunicate.Another example, the companies will make them very popular.In conclusion, these will be very successful.- Jeff over 8 yearsThe love them all and i want for my birthday do you like them yes or nothing they are so cool gold smiths I like it.
- Star ship over 8 yearsIn my opinion i think the sophomore are not the only ones that cost issues
- Adolfo do over 8 yearsThe gloves can help deaf people and the glove can understand what deaf are saying and it take time to do sine language.
nm972816over 8 yearsMy opinion, is there saying that it's better because you talk different and it's cool. One reason, is that you don't have to talk and you don't loose your voice. For example, you can go fast and your don't have to talk for ever. Another example, is that you could teach people that know language sight you can show them. Another reason, is that you can tell a lot of people and that person that knows they can tell other people what it means because they talk and they can tell you what it means. For exmple, you can say hello and they will tell you. Another example, is you can say what's your name. In conclusion, that it's cool to show people how to talk sign language gloves.
cooltigersover 8 yearsIn the beginning it says," it was established by the Massachusetts institute of technology in 1994, the award that comes with a $10,000 USD cash prize. Then, in addition to using the glove to enable the hearing impaired to converse more efficiently. In the middle, her sign language glove translates sign language into text that can be transmitted to a smartphone app or tablet device. Next, popular as the language is, there are millions of people with normal hearing that are unable to decipher the hand and finger gestures. End, the lightweight and comfortable sign aloud glove that can easily be worn as a daily accessory.
