The innovative technologies gives voices back to mutes

May 16, 2019

Only mute people are rare. In general, we are talking about deaf-mutes. Muteism or aphasia is indeed a much more particular case from a medical point of view. The total population of dumb and deaf mutes is still an important sample. To support everyday those who are speechless, new smart health technologies support mutes and can provide great support.

SignLanguageGlove translates sign language

Sign language is a marvel invention, but there are not so many people who are not dumb able to speak it. It is therefore more useful for mutes to communicate with each other and with their loved ones. It does not really help things in everyday life. This is where SignLanguage connected gloves, designed by Hadeel Ayoud, a London student in 2015, come in. “I have a 4-year-old autistic niece who does not speak. When I saw her signing, I wondered what would happen if she tried to communicate with someone who does not speak the same language, “says the young woman of Saudi origin. Thanks to micro-sensors, this glove is able to detect the movements of each finger made by someone who speaks in sign language. They also detect the position of the glove in the space. Thanks to these two elements, it becomes possible for the glove to know what the gesture is. A chip located in the lining then transforms them into sounds. The content can then be translated into English, French and Arabic.

This project was only a prototype but the ambition of the young woman is to release a viable product economically, especially for children. The price mentioned last year was 350 €. Not sure, however, that it goes to the end of his idea since other models have already appeared. One can think in particular of Sign Aloud, imagined by students of the MIT who obtained a grant to develop it. Finally, for those who want a solution now, the application Sématos (iOS) is a real little dictionary of sign language with explanatory videos.

Nails connected to replace the voice control

Voice control has been made a basic element of home automation and connected objects. For a practical reason first. It is of course more we do it as well as taking out the phone or a remote control. But the second argument is more often technical. Some prototypes begin to use brainwaves like the Neuromoov Wheelchair. Elon Musk wants to connect our brains to computers to improve our cognitive abilities. We can imagine that at maturity, the connected house can be controlled by thought. But in the meantime, another tool of control is too often neglected: the movement.

With a simple swipe of your finger, for example, it becomes possible to scroll a page through a Bluetooth interaction with your device. For the moment, we are really at the prototype stage but this technology could easily be used by a dumb person to manage connected objects of all kinds. Of course, it would then be necessary to be on a universal language and a very high level of interoperability.

An artificial larynx , an innovative smart health technologies support mutes

A group of Chinese researchers succeeded in developing at the beginning of the year an artificial larynx designed in graphene. They used the porosity of the material to create a device capable of receiving and emitting sound signals. It can be worn on the body, near the neck. When the wearer tries to speak, the device picks up the vibrations and is able to emit a corresponding sound. We are still far from a ready-to-use product since it needs a database to compare but the concept is clearly interesting.