This glove can translate American Sign Language into English

Sign language is invaluable to those who are 聽(“big d” deaf describes people who identify themselves with the deaf culture and are sign language users, and “little d” deaf describes people who face hearing loss but whose first language is English, and may have the option to lip-read or use hearing aids). But not everyone knows sign language. So Ethan Damiani, a high school student in Atlanta, Georgia designed wearable technology that has the intelligence to not only read hand motions, but also convert them into computer text. 鈥淚 successfully translated American Sign Language (ASL) into English,鈥� he said.

Ethan embedded sensors into a glove, which monitor and detect the ways a person鈥檚 hand moves. He then wrote a computer program to translate different gestures into English. 鈥淚 programmed this into open source , and made the flex sensors and triple axis accelerometers Bluetooth-compatible,鈥� he explained. 鈥淭he sensors send data to the computer, which analyzes it in open code and translates the blocks of data into letters, numbers, words, and even some personalized phrases.鈥� His current design computes multiple analog signals from ASL into English.

Many people in the D/deaf community face alienation and discrimination, Ethan explained. 鈥淭his has left people with hearing disabilities feeling isolated from the rest of society and unable to interact with others,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 wanted to bridge this language gap and provide the D/deaf community with an affordable technology that would allow easy social interaction. I wanted to help integrate the D/deaf community with the rest of society.鈥�

Ethan went through several prototypes before his glove worked.

Photo courtesy of Ethan Damiani.

Ethan’s impact in the deaf and hard of hearing community was noticed by聽the 中文无码 & the Public. His work was selected by his local science fair for recognition as a 中文无码 & the Public Community Innovation Award winner. This award honors students participating in science fairs around the world who are making a difference in their communities. In 2018, the Society has selected聽20 young scientists from around the world with $500 prizes聽鈥� and Ethan was one of them.

鈥淭o be recognized in science as working to benefit the community was one of the greatest awards I could ever ask for,鈥� Ethan said. 鈥淭his innovation can have a huge impact on society. It鈥檚 driven me to continue innovating to help others from every background.鈥�

In the future, Ethan is interested in electrical engineering and building complex circuits, 鈥渏ust for the fun of it.鈥� He plans to pursue a master鈥檚 degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering.

Ethan encourages others interested in 中文无码 to not 鈥�… kick out any of your craziest ideas. A lot of times, those have the most potential. Don鈥檛 let them scare you because they would be 鈥榯oo hard.鈥欌��

Check back for more blog posts from other Community Innovation Award winners from this year.