Dhruv Bantval

Wearable ASL Glove

Started May 31, 2023

Abstract or project description

Dhruv is further developing the wearable ASL glove from a previous project. The glove is made for users to translate American Sign Language for non-ASL fluid individual. The project is focused on further developing the glove by making it more compact and adding arm and hand gesture sensing mechanism. An accelerometer will be used to measure arm and hand gesture. Position estimation and correction algorithm will be implemented. The project will potentially have 2 gloves (based on how much time is left) for each hand to maximize accuracy and decode more signs. The entire design of the glove is aimed to be compact and user-friendly.

How can wearable technology help people with hearing loss communicate better?

Started Feb. 28, 2022

Abstract or project description

My project was chosen for the sole purpose of helping impaired people communicate better with others. This project was chosen due to the facts that it has an important impact on others, helps less fortunate people in countless ways, it is a manageable project. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Over 5% of the world’s population – or 430 million people – require rehabilitation to address their ‘disabling’ hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children). It is estimated that by 2050 over 700 million people – or one in every ten people – will have disabling hearing loss.” Hearing loss grows at a rapid pace, and never stops, so we need to be prepared for the future. One way to take on the effects of hearing loss is to make communicating with others, who might not know sign language, better. A method found to do this is to connect a glove which can detect and recognize sign language, with a phone, which is able to speak the words and/or letters signed. Some benefits of the glove would be that other people wouldn’t need anything, instead only the person with impaired hearing would need the product. This would solve the problem of people with hearing loss not being able to communicate clearly and effectively. The results of the product were amazing. The gloves worked, but the problem was that the gloves were very expensive ranging from 500-2000 euros (520-2080 usd). Some other, broader ways of helping communication might be an app which can sense sign language and translate video feed of sign language into words and letters. Some problems with this might be that someone else might not have the app. Another problem with this is that the other person might not recognize what you are doing is sign language as they probably do not know what sign language is.

[Source, who.int, wearable.com, asl translator]