SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Two sophomores at the University of Washington in Seattle have invented gloves that translate sign language to speech.
The gloves are called SignAloud and they have sensors that track hand gestures and wirelessly transmit the movement to a computer. The computer compares the motions with a database of American Sign Language to convert them into speech.
Unlike prior inventions, the SignAloud gloves are compact and meant for everyday use, much like contact lenses or hearing aids. The students were recently awarded a $10,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for their research, but it's not without controversy. They've been criticized for not understanding deaf culture. The students say they are trying to work with the ASL community to refine the programming.