According to the World Health Organization, 360 million people suffer from disabling hearing loss. Approximately 70 million of those people use sign language to communicate.
This makes everything from ordering coffee to asking for help so much more difficult, which often leads to a lack of independence. That’s where Enable Talk gloves come in. The young inventors behind these potentially life-changing devices want to take the agency that’s stripped from people with hearing impairments and put it back in their hands.
Created to help those with hearing and speech problems reach across language barriers, Enable Talk turns the isolation associated with such impairments on its head.
They developed software that reads hand motions and translates signs into audible language through an easy-to-use smartphone app.
The road to commercial sale will undoubtedly be a long one, but if this project takes off, it could vastly improve everyday life for millions of people across the globe.
Check out the video below for more details!
Most surprisingly of all, the Enable Talk design was ideated by a group of four high school students.
Unlike similar devices, this one accounts for differences between regional sign language dialects. As you can imagine, development for such an extensive program takes time. Right now, the team is working on expanding the device’s vocabulary and going through the legal proceedings that tend to accompany such extraordinary projects.
If you want to learn more about Enable Talk, be sure to check out their website.
Comments