Intelligent gloves: An IT intervention for deaf-mute people

Abstract

Deaf-mute people have much potential to contribute to society. However, communication between deaf-mutes and non-deaf-mutes is a problem that isolates deaf-mutes from society and prevents them from interacting with others. In this study, an information technology intervention, intelligent gloves (IG), a prototype of a two-way communication glove, was developed to facilitate communication between deaf-mutes and non-deaf-mutes. IG consists of a pair of gloves, flex sensors, an Arduino nano, a screen with a built-in microphone, a speaker, and an SD card module. To facilitate communication from the deaf-mutes to the non-deaf-mutes, the flex sensors sense the hand gestures and connected wires, and then transmit the hand movement signals to the Arduino nano where they are translated into words and sentences. The output is displayed on a small screen attached to the gloves, and it is also issued as voice from the speakers attached to the gloves. For communication from the non-deaf-mutes to the deaf-mute, the built-in microphone in the screen senses the voice, which is then transmitted to the Arduino nano to translate it to sentences and sign language, which are displayed on the screen using a 3D avatar. A unit testing of IG has shown that it performed as expected without errors. In addition, IG was tested on ten participants, and it has been shown to be both usable and accepted by the target users.

Assistive Technology for The Deaf: A Literature Review

“…Two studies focus on touch devices, namely Alarm Technologies to Wake Sleeping People Who Deaf (Erik et al, 2019) and Intelligent Gloves for Deaf (Babour et al, 2023). The Alarm Technologies to Wake Sleeping People Who Deaf study discusses vibrating alarm devices designed to wake up individuals with hearing impairments from sleep.…”

Sign language voice convertor design using Raspberry pi for impaired individuals

“…According to the World Health Organization, approximately 70 million people worldwide are deaf-mute. It is also estimated that one in four people will experience hearing loss by 2050 [1]. People with disabilities can usually communicate with each other using sign language, finger alphabet and gestures [2].…”