Talk to the hand via HandTalk

Juniper Foo | May 14, 2008

There may come a day when telling someone to "Talk to the hand" won't intimate you're turning a deaf ear to what the other person has to say. Quite the contrary. Designers Bhargav Bhat, Hemant Sikaria and Priya Narasimhan have in hand a prototype gadget called HandTalk, which essentially is a phone for the hearing impaired. This wearable glove device detects the motions and gestures used in sign language, translates these into audio, then plays this back on a cell phone or mobile device.

Recently showcased at the Meeting Of The Minds expo at Carnegie Mellon University Center, the mobile software app can reportedly detect 32 words to date--a mere drop in the ocean of the hearing impaired's vocabulary. But it's a start, and one the team hopes to expand by integrating pressure sensors and accelerometers to augment the flexor strips on the glove's digits. Hopefully, too, this turns out to be more than just vaporware, unlike a certain glove camera.

Via Tech Pin | Photo credit: Carnegie Mellon University Center

Filed under: Future Tech
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