Final-year student Le Ngoc Anh from the Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Da Nang University of Technology and Science (DUT) has successfully created a glove which is able to turn sign language into speech.  The intention is to help the hearing-impaired more easily communicate with other people.

Anh and his glove

Anh’s invention recently won 1^st prize at the 2017 Scientific Research Competition for Students, which was organised by DUT and the municipal Department of Science and Technology.

The glove, which is for the right-hand, features a flex sensor and an accelerometer to collect data from the shape a hand when it is making a sign.  Thanks to this, it can recognise the sign language of the hearing-impaired user and converts it into associated words or phrases which are emitted through a speaker.

It costs only 300,000 VND to make the glove, but it is able to translate 24 letters and 10 numbers, as well as 13 other simple words and sentences.

Anh said that he is next planning to develop a left-hand glove so that wearers can use their both hands when communicating.

He also intends to share his experience of making the gloves with others who are keenly interested in creating community service products.  He remarked, “The biggest dream of my life is to help hearing-impaired people remove some of the barriers which prevent them from communicating with hearing people.  I am doing my utmost to create even more support machines for disabled people”.

Currently, Anh is making great efforts to perfect his product’s features, with a focus on adding one more capability to his product - to translate the letters Z, U and F - and enhancing the speed of its sign language conversion.

Lecturer Nguyen Danh Ngoc from DUT’s Mechanical Engineering Faculty remarked that the price of each of Anh’s glove is half that of similar products sold on the domestic market.  Mr Ngoc said that Anh’s invention would help to create a premise for him to promote his science and technology innovation in the near future.