Sign language finds its voice with the help of prototype translation device

MyVoice is a new technology that translates sign language into audible words and may finally eliminate the communication barrier between those who can hear and those who cannot.

Last month we reported on a three Cornell University engineering students who had developed a high-tech glove that can translate hand gestures into spoken letters.

Now students at the University of Houston have taken this one step further with a prototype sign language translation device that converts motions and hand shapes into complete audible words.

The development of the innovative translation device known as MyVoice was a collaborative effort by UH’s engineering technology students Anthony Tran, Jeffrey Seto, Omar Gonzalez and Alan Tran and industrial design students Rick Salinas, Sergio Aleman and Ya-Han Chen.

The device has already earned first place among student projects at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) -- Gulf Southwest Annual Conference.

"The biggest difficulty was sampling together a databases of images of the sign languages. It involved 200-300 images per sign," Seto said. "The team was ecstatic when the prototype came together."

"We got it to work, but we hope to work with someone to implement this as a product," Aleman said. "We want to prove to the community that this will work for the hearing impaired."

Alex Dupont

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