Three Ukrainian students invented sensory gloves that work with an app to turn sign language into automated speech. The Enable Talk project won first place at Microsoft's this week in Syndey, Australia.
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Students on the winning Team QuadSquad -- Anton Stepanov, Anton Posternikov, and Maxim Osika -- beat out 350 students from 75 countries for the gold. Their glove gives deaf and hearing-impaired individuals the ability to communicate with those who don't know sign language.
"A while ago, in the supermarket we saw a cashier having difficulties understanding a speech-impaired person and we thought how useful it would be to have a device to overcome this communication barrier," the trio wrote in their . "We were very surprised to find out that no such devices are available on the market. Later, our interaction with hearing-impaired athletes at our school confirmed that such a solution is needed for them to communicate more fully with the world."
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The glove is flexible, easy to use, cheap to produce and battery operated. Each glove has 15 flex sensors. The sensors decipher hand motions in the air. A hearing-impaired person would use the glove and app to communicate with someone who doesn't know sign language.
The glove picks up the hand gestures and the Enable Talk smartphone app translates the data. The app is wirelessly connected through technology. The team uses Microsoft's Speech and Bing APIs to translate and play what's been signed.
The contest's cash prize of $25,000 will cover more than half of the $40,000 needed to start pre-production. Costs will cover software development and system testing.
The current product prototype retails around $50. In the short future -- with the savings and profits that come with mass production -- Enable Talk sets will likely be $20 each.
More than 275 million people worldwide have hearing impairment. Do you see this product helping that huge population? Share your thoughts with us below.
This story originally published on Mashable .
