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SciTech
Portable sign-language translator developed by US students
A group of engineering and industrial design students in the US has developed a portable sign-language translator that can help break the barrier with deaf or hearing-impaired people.
MyVoice, the prototype by students from the University of Houston, is an American Sign Language translator with a mic, speaker, soundboard, camera and monitor.
"It would be placed on a hard surface where it reads a user’s sign language movements. Once MyVoice processes the motions, it then translates sign language into space through an electronic voice. Likewise, it would capture a person’s voice and can translate words into sign language, which is projected on its monitor," a news release from the University of Houston said.
The device's developers included engineering technology students Anthony Tran, Jeffrey Seto, Omar Gonzalez and Alan Tran; and industrial design students Rick Salinas, Sergio Aleman and Ya-Han Chen.
Overseeing the student teams were Farrokh Attarzadeh, associate professor of engineering technology, and EunSook Kwon, director of UH’s industrial design program.
During the project, the industrial designers researched the application of MyVoice by reaching out to the deaf community to understand the challenges associated with others not understanding sign language.
They then designed MyVoice, while the engineering technology students programmed the device to translate motion into sound.
“The biggest difficulty was sampling together a databases of images of the sign languages. It involved 200-300 images per sign. The team was ecstatic when the prototype came together," Seto said.
But for now, the MyVoice prototype could only translate a single phrase: “A good job, Cougars.”
Since MyVoice’s creation and first place prize at the ASEE conference, all of the team members have graduated. Still, Aleman said the project is not over yet.
“This wasn’t just a project we did for a grade. While designing and developing it, it turned into something very personal. When we got to know members of the deaf community and really understood their challenges, it made this MyVoice very important to all of us,” said Aleman, who just graduated from UH.
A separate article on Gizmag.com noted an already-existing product known as the AcceleGlove works as a one-way deaf-to-hearing translator.
The AcceleGlove uses built-in accelerometers to determine the signs being formed by the wearer’s hand, and expresses those in written text or spoken words. — TJD, GMA News
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