Do you talk with your hands?
Those who communicate with American Sign Language (ASL) do so every day, and two students from the University of Washington hope to make it easier for ASL speakers to communicate with those who don’t know how to sign.
The “SignAloud” gloves translate American Sign Language into speech and text. (Image courtesy of University of Washington.)
The students invented a device called “SignAloud,” a pair of gloves that can recognize the hand gestures that correspond to words and phrases in ASL.
Each glove is embedded with a collection of sensors that can record hand movement and position, then send the data through wireless Bluetooth to a nearby computer.
The computer analyzes the gesture data with various sequential statistical regressions, similar to a neural network. If the data matches a specific gesture, the associated word or phrase is spoken through a speaker.
The students involved, Thomas Pryor and Navid Azodi, set out to find a way to translate ASL into a verbal form both instantaneously and ergonomically.
“Many sign language translation devices already out there are not practical for everyday use. Some use video input, while others have sensors that cover the user’s entire arm or body,” said Pryor, an undergraduate engineering researcher with the Composite Structures Laboratory in the department of aeronautics and astronautics.
“Our gloves are lightweight, compact and worn on the hands, but ergonomic enough to use as an everyday accessory, similar to hearing aids or contact lenses,” continued Pryor.
Pryor and Azodi developed their prototype in the UW CoMotion MakerSpace on campus, which offers students the tools and equipment to invent and innovate.
They expect that the initial market for the gloves will be the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, as well as those who are interested in learning or working with ASL.
UW engineering sophomore Thomas Pryor demonstrates the “SignAloud” gloves that won a 2016 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. (Image courtesy of University of Washington.)
“Our purpose for developing these gloves was to provide an easy-to-use bridge between native speakers of American Sign Language and the rest of the world,” UW sophomore Azodi said.
“The idea initially came out of our shared interest in invention and problem solving. Coupling it with our belief that communication is a fundamental human right, we set out to make it more accessible to a larger audience.”
However, they also believe the gloves can be commercialized for use in other fields such as medical technology to monitor stroke patients during the rehabilitation process, gesture-controlled technology and enhanced dexterity in virtual reality environments.
The “SignAloud” gloves won Pryor and Azodi the “Use It” prize awarded by the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize program, a nationwide search for the most inventive undergraduate and graduate students at colleges and universities. The “Use It” undergraduate prize is awarded to students demonstrating technology-based innovation for the improvement of consumer devices.
For more information on the “SignAloud” gloves, visit the University of Washington College of Engineering website.