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City students develop gesture-sensing glove

Last Updated 18 July 2016, 20:16 IST
A group of engineering students from the city has developed a glove that can convert Indian sign language into speech.

Invented by students of Amrita School of Engineering’s Amrita Robotics Research Lab (Bengaluru campus), ‘Mudra’ the smart glove, recognises hand gestures in all directions and angles using flex resistors, accelerometer and gyroscope. The output is transmitted as speech through inbuilt speakers. The glove can also be reprogrammed for a range of applications in which motion-sensor technology plays an important role, such as gaming stations, virtual reality, robotics and medical industry.

Abhijith Bhaskaran, a student, said that the glove is much cheaper compared to similar gesture-sensing products presently available.

“The prototype, costing Rs 7,500, took 16 weeks to build. The glove can currently recognise numbers from 1 to 10 and Indian sign language gestures corresponding to words such as morning, night, goodbye and thank you. It can detect four different states of each finger and as many as 70 gestures can be configured. The glove is now in advanced stage of the production cycle. We have begun validating its social feasibility. The preliminary results are very encouraging,” he explained.

Dr T S B Sudarshan, Research head at Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita University, said 1.2 crore Indians have some kind of speech or hearing disability, quoting the 2011 census.

“These people face many issues in society for being unable to communicate normally or express themselves effectively. They communicate through sign language and hand gestures which are often ridiculed by others, creating social insecurity among them. The glove can help bridge this gap between speech-impaired people and others,” he said.
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(Published 18 July 2016, 20:16 IST)

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