For the hearing-impaired community, sign language is the best method of communication. Researchers have been working on finding out better ways to make them understand what is being said to them. they have even tried plugging their heads with devices to relay concepts and words to them that put together would make some sense.

For those who have lived or worked or been around people with hearing disability and who don’t know the sign language, for them there is a way out. A group of engineering technology and industrial design students from the University of Houston have come up with MyVoice, which is just a prototype of the American Sign Language (ASL) translator. This device is portable and has a microphone, speaker, soundboard, video camera and a monitor.

All this help to understand sign language. Different individual signals are read by a microprocessor that then translates them into sounds. If the device works wonderfully well, with its technicalities and possible problems dealt with, it could really become a very helpful way for all to communicate with hearing-impaired people without knowing the sign language.

The device has been awarded the first place amongst other projects made by American students by the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) – Gulf Southwest Annual Conference. The students who have developed this device are determined to take it to the next level. There is one way-deaf-to-hearing translator, AcceleGlove, that also works along the similar line is available in the market.