SoylentNews

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A 'smart glove' that translates sign language from hand gestures to visual text on a screen and audible dialogue has been developed by a Goldsmiths, University of London student. She's now working on an app to enable real-time translation of the text into other languages.

Her first experimental prototype translated sign language gestures into visual letters on a screen. The glove's circuit comprised of flex sensors, an accelerometer, a microcontroller board, and a four digit graphic numerical display.

Five flex sensors were attached to the glove corresponding to the five fingers, detecting bends and curvatures then reporting the values to a serial monitor. An accelerometer was attached to detect the orientation of the hand.

Hadeel also developed a computer programme that identifies the output values of the sensors and accelerometer and matches them with a series of statements which determine what letters to display on a screen.

Her second prototype was better, faster and more durable, with smaller hardware and more efficient software. She incorporated a smaller microcontroller and smaller flex sensors and redesigned the software to allow text to scroll on a screen, deleting the old and adding the new.

The third and latest prototype – which now incorporates a text-to-speech chip - went on display at the Goldsmiths MA/MFA Computational Arts end-of-degree show earlier this month. Much of the glove's hardware is now sewn into a lining:

"I didn't want all the wires to intimidate users, making them feel the glove will be complicated to use or really fragile," Hadeel explains. "People tend to lean to the cautious side when approached with new high-tech products which contradicts the main purpose of this glove, which is to help make lives easier."

Original Submission