Related Keywords: communication, deaf, gloves, Kenya, language, Smart Textiles, Textiles
An engineer from Kenya has used smart textiles and sensors to create a glove that ‘translates’ sign language to words via an app.
Roy Allela’s niece was born deaf, and he wanted to help the family communicate better.
The Sign-IO gloves have five flex sensors mounted on each finger to quantify how much a finger is bent. They convert the change in bend to electrical resistance – the more the bend, the more the resistance. They then send messages to a program via Bluetooth and a text-to-speech engine vocalises the predicted gestures.
