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This article was published on January 9, 2012

This glove works with an Android app to translate sign language into text


This glove works with an Android app to translate sign language into text

We’re all eyes and ears about the new cool gadgets The Next Web team is checking out at CES, but this is one gadget that didn’t pop up in Las Vegas. Despite that fact, it still deserves some attention and recognition.

At a recent Google developers event in Tel Aviv, a proof of concept for a gadget that could change the way we communicate with the hearing impaired was demonstrated.

Three developers, Oleg Imanilov, Zvika Markfield, and Tomer Daniel, have come up with a glove that interprets sign language and turns it into text using a custom Android app.

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The glove, which is still in its very early stages, would let someone who knows sign language speak in their native language while allowing someone to read the text version of what they’re saying on an Android app that it’s hooked up to. It’s a brilliant idea and the demonstration makes it seem like this product could have a future:

While the device is still being refined, perhaps the team should start a Kickstarter project to get more funding. I imagine that many people who have hearing impaired family and friends would love to be able to use this for communication purposes.

The gesture-sensing project for good is currently dubbed the “Text Glove” and uses an accelerometer, finger sensors, a gyroscope, and Lilypad Arduino to do its magic.

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