Smart glove translates sign language into audio
Roy Allela has created Sign-io, a pair of smart gloves that translates sign language to audio speech. The 25 year old Kenyan engineer and technical evangelist at Intel, had the idea after his niece was born deaf. She was unable to communicate with her family because no one understood sign language. With these gloves, he hopes to ultimately help the 34 million children worldwide who are hearing impaired by removing the communication barrier that exists for them.
Roy also developed the application to go along with the gloves. Using bluetooth, the app pairs to the gloves, which allows it to vocalize the letter. The application gives users the ability to set the language, gender and pitch of the audio. One of his goals is to have at least 2 pairs of gloves in every special needs school in Kenya.
“The general public in Kenya doesn’t understand sign language so when she goes out, she always needs a translator. Picture over the long term that dependency, how much that plagues or impairs her progress in life … when it affects you personally, you see how hard people have it in life. That’s why I’ve really strived to develop this project to completion.”
sources:
The Guardian
World Health Organization