Special low-cost 'Talking Gloves' for persons with disability developed by team from Jodhpur's IIT, AIIMS

A team of innovators at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Jodhpur has developed low-cost 'Talking Gloves' for people with speech disabilities, the institutes announced on November 29.

The device uses principles of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to automatically generate speech that will be language independent and help people with speech disabilities communicate with others. It can also help individuals convert hand gestures into text or pre-recorded voices. Hence, it makes a person with disability more independent and helps them communicate effectively. The device costs less than Rs 5,000, the institutes said in a statement.

Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Jodhpur, Sumit Kalra, said in a statement, "The language-independent speech generation device will bring people back to the mainstream in today's global era without any language barrier. Users of the device only need to learn once and they would be able to verbally communicate in any language with their knowledge."

"Additionally, the device can be customised to produce a voice similar to the original voice of the patients — this makes it appear more natural while using the device," Kalra added. 

The device comes with in-built sensors that can be worn on both hands and it generates electrical signals using hand movements, which are then received at a signal processing unit. By using AI and ML algorithms, these signals are then translated into phonetics corresponding to at least one consonant and vowel.

Speech generation is independent of a particular language because the technique uses phonetics. The team is further working to enhance the features such as durability, weight, responsiveness and ease-of-use. The developed product will be commercialised through a start-up incubated by IIT Jodhpur.