Skip to main content

25-year-old Kenyan invents smart gloves that convert sign language movements into audio speech

By
Roy tries out his gloves


More than 30 million people around the globe have speech impairments and must rely on sign language, which poses a language barrier when seeking to communicate with non-sign language users. 
It is something Roy Allela’s knows too well.
Roy Allela’s six-year-old niece was born deaf and found it extremely difficult to communicate with her family, none of whom knew sign language.
Roy Allela presenting his Glove

They say necessity is the mother of invention and the need to communicate and connect with her niece pushed 25-year-old Roy to invent smart gloves that convert sign language movements into audio speech.
Sign-io’s sign language to speech translation glove recognizes various letters signed by sign language users and transmits this data to an Android application where it is vocalized.
Allela Roy Intel 1st Runners Up
This feat saw Roy win admiration and recognition by the prestigious American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the world’s largest organization for mechanical engineers, during its prestigious 2017 ASME Innovation Showcase (ISHOW) competition.
Roy and two other African inventors – one from Uganda and Ghana – took home the Grand Prize in second of three regional showcase events.
Brian Gitta from Uganda who developed Matibabu, a noninvasive device used to test for Malaria, Charles Antipem from Ghana who created Science Set, an affordable, portable, practical and highly scalable science lab that can fit in the bag and on the desk of students and Roy Allela shared $500,000 in cash and in-kind prizes, along with three other winners in Bangalore, India, and three more in Washington, DC.
Sign-io’s Founder Roy Allela (center) accepts his trophy from LR Kamau Gachigi (left
The winners were among ten socially-minded hardware entrepreneurs who were selected among 150 applicants as finalist of the event, held at the Golden Tulip Westlands Nairobi Hotel, to present a range of devices designed to make a transformational economic, environmental, and social impact. 
During the competition, the finalists appeared before a panel of judges, including successful entrepreneurs, academics, and founders of venture-funded startup companies, to pitch the engineering design attributes of their prototypes and outline their plans for manufacturing, implementation, marketing, and financing.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mogadishu bombings: Top Somali officials fired over deadly blasts

By
The Somali government has fired two top security officials after twin blasts and a siege left at least 27 people dead on Saturday. They came just two weeks after at least 358 people died in another attack, one of the deadliest ever to hit Mogadishu. Police chief Abdihakin Dahir Saiid and the director of national intelligence, Abdillahi Mohamed Sanbaloosh, were both removed from office on Sunday. The decision came after an emergency cabinet meeting, Somali officials say. The Islamist militant group al-Shabab says it carried out Saturday's bombings. Police say three militants were captured alive and two others blew themselves up during the attack. The siege started on Saturday afternoon after a car bomb was driven into the Nasahablod Two hotel. A few minutes later, a second car bomb targeted the former parliament house nearby.
Post a Comment
Read more

Why are more people right-handed?

By
Why are more people right-handed? M.K. Holder is an affiliated scientist in the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior at Indiana University. She replies: In the 160 years in which "handedness" has been studied we have learned quite a lot, but we still cannot precisely describe what causes humans preferentially to use one hand over the other, or why human populations are biased toward right-hand use rather than left-hand use. Scientists disagree over what percentage of human populations are "right-handed" or "left-handed" because there is no standard, empirical definition for measuring "handedness"; our criteria vary, and are based on various theoretical explanations because we are still trying to understand the mechanisms involved. But I can describe in general terms what we do know. Most humans (say 70 percent to 95 percent) are right-handed, a minority (say 5 percent to 30 percent) are left-handed, and an indeterminate number...
Post a Comment
Read more

Naming ceremony of the Dead Nollywood actress Alhassan Abisogun who died when delivery (Photos)

By
A few days after Nollywood actress, Funke Alhassan Abisogun died after giving birth to her baby boy, her hubby who is popular Yoruba movie director, Taofeek Alhassan Abisogun held the naming ceremony for the child. Amidst tears, the child was quietly named Ridwannullahi Olayinka Amobi Damilare Enitan Ayodeji Al-Hassan Abisogun in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Post a Comment
Read more

Must Read: My Teenage Mind (18+)… - Season 1 Episode 15 - Stories

By
She threw herself on the bed pulling me along. She started tickling back,my ribs,my stomach,I was so lost in laughter that I didn’t feel her hand on my b0s0m. When I eventually did,I looked at her and memories of our primary school days came rushing back to my head. I couldn’t stop her. She started kissing my neck. I wanted to fight it but I was loving the feeling. I started giving out little m0ans. Of course she took as my approval of what she was doing so she climbed on top of me and started grinding her crotch on mine. She was kissing my neck and fondling my breasts at the same time. I was putting on a chemisole and a short,no bra or  p@nt because I don’t enjoy wearing innerwears when I’m at home. I was so lost in the heat of the moment that I didn’t even know when my chemisole was pulled down to my stomach. I felt a cold air on my Tips and I shuddered and quickly opened my eyes. She smiled at me before feeding herself with my Tips. She sU-Cked on the left and used her fi...
Post a Comment
Read more