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Science Daily —
A new high-tech glove enables the translation of sign language into
written text, facilitating communication for the hearing or speech
impaired. The glove senses movements of the hand and fingers, and a
computer turns those signals into letters and words. Future versions
will also translate sign language to speech...
WHEATON, Md.--There are more than 28 million deaf and
hard-of-hearing Americans, yet there are still communication barriers
between the deaf and the hearing world. Now, a new technology is
breaking sound barriers and lending a helping hand to the hearing
impaired.
In a hearing world, many of us take everyday sounds for
granted, but for the deaf, living in a silent world is hard. Corinne
Vinopol, an educator and president of Institute for Disabilities
Research and Training in Wheaton, says, "The biggest challenge that
deaf people face on a day-to-day basis is communication."
Communication is a challenge that electrical engineers are now
helping the hearing impaired overcome, with an electronic glove that
turns American Sign Language gestures into text.
"What it does is detects the position of the fingers and the
position of the hand so it translates positions of fingers into
letters," says Josý Hernandez-Rebollar, an electrical engineer at
George Washington University in Washington.
The glove, called Acceleglove, has sensors that send signals
from movements of the hand and fingers to a computer. The computer
finds the correct word or letter associated with the hand movement and
displays the text on the screen. Vinopol says: "It's important to have
technology because it's an equalizer. It allows deaf people to function
as their maximum within society."
Researchers hope the high-tech glove will bridge the communication gap between the deaf and hearing -- a sure sign of the times.
The glove will be available to the general public within a year
and expect the cost to be less than 0. Researchers are also developing
the glove to translate sign language to speech.
BACKGROUND: A Washington University researcher has developed
a glove that can convert American Sign Language into electronic text
and speech using gesture-recognition technology. Letter by letter or by
whole gesture, users can sign more than 200 words stored in the
Acceleglove's dictionary. This could help the deaf communicate more
easily with the hearing world, for example. The glove can also be
modified for use as a virtual reality game tool, or for military
applications. Its first practical application is as an interactive
computer game tool to help deaf children learn English language
spelling, or for hearing children to learn sign language.
HOW IT WORKS: Sensors (called accelerometers) on each finger
of the glove, and other sensors fixed to the elbow and shoulder,
generate electrical signals from the movement and position of the hand
and fingers in relation to the body. These signals are analyzed by a
microcontroller to find the correct word associated with that
particular hand movement. The various signs are recognized by the
differences in the beginning hand shapes, intervening movements, and
ending hand shapes. Once the glove recognizes the beginning hand
position, it can safely eliminate all the phrases in the database whose
beginnings don't match. As the intervening movement progresses, more
phrases are eliminated. When the end phrase is formed, only a single
match remains. To keep the translator from incorrectly interpreting the
move from a relaxed state with the hands down at the side to the
signing position, and vice versa, the system begins processing the data
from the movement of the glove only after the signer makes the ASL
gesture meaning "start sentence." The "end sentence" gesture
deactivates the system. The glove is placed on the hand and strapped to
the arm. The entire process takes milliseconds from the time the sign
is made to recognition of the sign and the computer output.
ABOUT ASL: Every country has its sign language, each with a
distinctive developmental history. American Sign Language has roots in
Europe. An early precursor to ASL was developed in the 18th century in
France by Charles-Michel de l'Épée. In the U.S., a small island off the
Massachusetts coast called Martha's Vineyard was a kind of "deaf
utopia": so many residents were born deaf -- thanks to generations of
inter-marriage -- that they developed their own sign language, which
later merged with signing languages on the mainland to form modern ASL.
Today, it is estimated that between 500,000 to 2,000,000 people in the
U.S. use ASL.
You can watch the video here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006-03-10/
For more information about this story, contact:
José Hernandez Rebollar
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
George Washington University
Tel: 202-994-9425
***
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006-03-10/
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