The talking glove

Abstract

A new bi-directional communication aid is being developed which allows deaf, deaf-blind, or nonvocal individuals to interact verbally with others. The device analyzes a nonvocal person's fingerspelling hand formations and outputs the spelled words as synthesized speech. In effect, this component of the communication aid is a "talking glove". In addition, by using state-of-the-art voice recognition equipment, a deaf user is able to read incoming speech on the miniature LCD screen of a modified digital wristwatch. Similarly, a deaf-blind individual may read incoming speech on a portable braille display module.