A group of students from Camarines Sur stunned the internet as they shared their latest invention: a trainable glove that translates sign language into speech.
In a Facebook post last June 28, 2021, Francis Anthony de Guzman, a college student from Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges, proudly shared their innovation: a trainable glove that translates sign language into speech.
The project, dubbed as “Filipino Sign Language to Voice Converter”, was driven by De Guzman, Klenn Arvin Alcibor, Rency Galan Dela Cruz, Joana Renz Gonzales Jimenez, Andrea Moran, and Rei Mark Tandaan.
“Thesis finally defended,” de Guzman said as he shared the demo of their invention.
“Communication plays an important tool in our daily lives. It is a medium where we can share thoughts and convey messages,” Alcibor said.
“With this, the communication barrier can be lessened, allowing the deaf and speech impaired people to express themselves,” he added.
Moreover, Alcibor reiterated that this project gives voice to deaf and speech-impaired people, giving them “more opportunity to grow in their respective careers”.
De Guzman also thanked his professor, Samuel Aringo, for teaching them sign language, as well as their adviser, Engr. Joed Cerillo, for helping them with the project.
The group received positive feedback from the netizens saying how amazed they are with the project.
As of writing, the post received a total of 611k views, 98k reactions, and 2.6k comments.
Last June 2020, the University of California, Los Angeles bioengineers developed a similar, glove-like gadget that uses a smartphone app to translate American Sign Language into English speech in real-time, which was released in June 2020. This system can recognize 660 different signs, including every letter of the alphabet as well as the digits 0 through 9.
Photo Credit: www.facebook.com/deguzmanfrancis22
