Two Students Invent Gloves That Translate Sign Language Into Speech

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Two students from the University of Washington have invented a pair of gloves that will help the deaf and mute communicate by translating sign language into speech. This reminds me of those gloves that made music from hand gestures only better because these actually help people with disabilities.
 
I think I'll file this one under, "Why didn't I think of that?!?".

Great idea. I hope they can bring it to market.
 
I don't want to downplay what these guys have done in any way, because it is a great thing to bring a piece of technology from concept to practice, but this exact thing is done very regularly as a senior design project at all engineering schools.

Still a great achievement!
 
Uvaman2, That's what I was thinking. I wouldn't actually say the two students "invented" it. They merely used available technology to bring someone else's idea to life.
 
Kryptorchid said:
I don't want to downplay what these guys have done in any way, because it is a great thing to bring a piece of technology from concept to practice, but this exact thing is done very regularly as a senior design project at all engineering schools.

Still a great achievement!
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Yup, this was a common design project when I was finishing undergrad studies 7 years ago.
 
NoNRG said:
Yup, this was a common design project when I was finishing undergrad studies 7 years ago.
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I remember seeing this at an engineering week tour at one of the local state colleges over 25 years ago, I remember because the power glove was dissected on their lab bench. I will say though that with accelerometers getting cheaper, and computing power in general getting cheaper and smaller that this one is light years beyond the ones that I saw.
 
Great invention.

However, as a son of two deaf parents and two deaf uncles and am involved in the deaf community, the general consensus is that the deaf community does not want this. This is the same community that has protested and rejected the invention of cochlear implants even if it restores hearing.

I also don't see how this would work completely. It looks like you have to have very precise hand movements and you need to spell out each letter slowly and fully extending the fingers for it to work. Deaf people do not do that, they sign very quickly and 99% of the time will "half ass" a sign.

Also, most deaf people use ASL as in, they use a shortened version english. For example:

A hearing person says "How are you doing today?"

A deaf person says, "How doing?" they completely leave out "are" "you" and "today"

So this technology will not be effective because if a deaf person came up to you and it interpreted "how doing" would you be confused?

Whenever I go visit the parents, they always say "how doing" which I know they mean how are you doing today?
 
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TorryHolt81 said:
Great invention.

However, as a son of two deaf parents and two deaf uncles and am involved in the deaf community, the general consensus is that the deaf community does not want this. This is the same community that has protested and rejected the invention of cochlear implants even if it restores hearing.

I also don't see how this would work completely. It looks like you have to have very precise hand movements and you need to spell out each letter slowly and fully extending the fingers for it to work. Deaf people do not do that, they sign very quickly and 99% of the time will "half ass" a sign.

Also, most deaf people use ASL as in, they use a shortened version english. For example:

A hearing person says "How are you doing today?"

A deaf person says, "How doing?" they completely leave out "are" "you" and "today"

So this technology will not be effective because if a deaf person came up to you and it interpreted "how doing" would you be confused?

Whenever I go visit the parents, they always say "how doing" which I know they mean how are you doing today?
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i agree with you, i don't think this will be an every day item you have around but it's great for family stuff since i have a deaf aunt due to genetic hearing loss very few of us in the family know sign language so when we have family gatherings there's only 2 relatives that can translate anything for us otherwise it's just her yelling as she tries to talk or writing things on a piece of paper. but i think where this might help is in the business field being deaf and being able to talk to other people that aren't going to know sign language. outside of that most deaf/mute people just write things down on paper for those that don't know sign language.

either way it's a cool use of modern technology with something that's been thrown around as an idea for years.

as far as the ASL difference i'm sure they can probably code it in a way to complete sentences similar to how autofill works on cell phones. just depends on how accurate they can make it.
 
I don't understand how that if this has been around for 20 years we have not seen major development with this. So what is so many deaf people half ass their language so do the rest of us stop being lazy and communicate properly.
I also see so many deaf people frustrated that people don't take the time to learn the basics of signing. I see this as a great product and would love to have a pair for our church and they should be on ambulances and other key locations.
 
Poor attempts at proper language have existed since speech itself emerged. So many idiots now say "I's" instead of mine. Many other examples but being able to communicate is a benefit in any place.
 
TorryHolt81 said:
Great invention.

However, as a son of two deaf parents and two deaf uncles and am involved in the deaf community, the general consensus is that the deaf community does not want this. This is the same community that has protested and rejected the invention of cochlear implants even if it restores hearing.

I also don't see how this would work completely. It looks like you have to have very precise hand movements and you need to spell out each letter slowly and fully extending the fingers for it to work. Deaf people do not do that, they sign very quickly and 99% of the time will "half ass" a sign.

Also, most deaf people use ASL as in, they use a shortened version english. For example:

A hearing person says "How are you doing today?"

A deaf person says, "How doing?" they completely leave out "are" "you" and "today"

So this technology will not be effective because if a deaf person came up to you and it interpreted "how doing" would you be confused?

Whenever I go visit the parents, they always say "how doing" which I know they mean how are you doing today?
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Right now if they go up to the vast majority of hearing people and sign "how doing", the only response they are likely to get is a series of confused looks. It may not be perfect, but it is better than nothing. I think of it like using an online language translator, say from Spanish to English. Sure, the sentence structure is different, but I can get some idea. In a perfect world, everyone would learn ASL, but with more and more emphasis placed on standardized testing in schools, there's barely time for the arts, much less an entire extra language.
 
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