SourceAmerica Design Challenge

By: Nicholas Klofta

Plan

• To create an app that works with the MYO armband that translates American Sign Language (ASL)

Reasons• Allows deaf or Hard of Hearing (HoH) people to communicate more

effectively with people who do not understand ASL (no writing and can keep maximum eye contact to have more fluid conversations)

• The next closest system translates only 1 word at a time, is slow, and inefficient.

• Could also be used over Skype instead of the other system SVRS which is considered unreliable

• Currently no system to stream ASL over the phone

Pains – People who suffer hearing loss…

• Sorenson Video Relay Service (SVRS) currently is a skype like system that uses an interpreter to translate sign language, through a video feed, to a person on the phone. This system is not very reliable and removes the personal touch of the conversation by including a stranger.

• There are no current products on the available market that translates ASL to voice. The only devices out there are being developed at other Universities and include large, noticeable, rigs or gloves or are slow to translate.

• The only other means of communication is through writing which has been viewed as a very impersonal way to talk for deaf individuals who feel like they have no voice.

User 1 – alldeaf.com

• “Hearies [people who can hear] can’t even understand ASL so why stick to it? Why not promote technology that will replace that dying language?”

User 2 – gizmodo.com• “Deafness means I don’t understand anyone. When someone talks at

lunch, I want to know what they say. I miss out on the daily conversation, the back-and forth, the friendships made after propinquity.”

• “I can’t contribute to company meetings because I can’t just ‘drop into the conversation.’”

• “Since I’m deaf, having an interpreter for a phone interview wouldn’t be very useful since the interpreter would be in Washington and I’m not, right?”

• “Teaching a child language gets exponentially harder as they grow.”

User 3 – redeafined.com

• “…as the application process wore on I was alerted by several of my references that the head of the program was calling around asking if my deafness (not sure how he even found out that I was deaf, but that's another story) was going to be ‘a problem.’”

• “…lip reading is not a superpower, but an exhausting and often inaccurate skill with success contingent on an array of environmental factors, from mumblers to mustaches”

Feature 1

• Converts ASL to text (which can then be sent to a text to talk program)

• By using raw accelerometer data, raw gyroscope data, orientation data, and raw EMG data we will create a library of motion and EMG readings that fit certain words

• EMG readings are in an 8 element array pulled from the device at 200Hz

• SDK, firmware, and function downloads are provided online by Thalmic for creating apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Unity

Feature 2

• Incorporates a talk to text program and displays on cell phone

• Free “speech to text” api are available online

Feature 3

• Stream the converted sign language verbal speech over the phone during a call

Feature 4

• Have a visual dictionary of sign language motions and words in case a person is learning ASL and needs to look up a word

Cost

• The MYO armband costs $200• With 4 people on the team it would cost a total of $50 per

person

Works Cited

• http://www.alldeaf.com/• http://

www.redeafined.com/2012/11/5-things-i-dislike-about-being-deaf.html

• http://gizmodo.com/5912623/being-deaf• http://www.ispeech.org/#/home• https://developer.thalmic.com/downloads