A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur, and the All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS), Jodhpur has developed low-cost “talking gloves” for people with a speech disability.’ The device can help individuals to convert hand gestures into text or pre-recorded voices. Hence, makes a differently-abled person independent and communicates through message effectively.
The developed device that costs less than Rs 5000, works on the principles of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to automatically generate speech that will be language independent and facilitate the communication between mute people and the other people.
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As per the team, the device can help individuals convert hand gestures into text or pre-recorded voices, making a differently-abled person independent and communicating the message effectively.
In the device, electrical signals are generated by the first set of sensors, wearable on a combination of a thumb, finger(s), and/or a wrist of the first hand of a user. These electrical signals are produced by the combination of fingers, thumb, hand, and wrist movements. Similarly, electrical signals are also generated by the second set of sensors on the other hand.
Expressing his views on the innovation, Prof Sumit Kalra, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Jodhpur, said, “The language-independent speech generation device will bring the 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 which makes it appear more natural while using the device.”
By using AI and ML algorithms, these combinations of signals are translated into phonetics corresponding to at least one of consonant and a vowel. An audio signal is generated by an audio transmitter corresponding to the assigned phonetic and based on trained data associated with vocal characteristics stored in a machine learning unit.
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The generation of audio signals according to the phonetics having combination of vowels and consonants leads to the generation of speech and enables the mute people to audibly communicate with others. The speech synthesis technique of the present subject matter uses phonetics, and therefore the speech generation is independent of any language.
In a bid to strengthen the ability of the device, the team is further working to enhance the features such as durability, weight, responsiveness, and ease-of-use, of the developed device. The developed product will be commercialised through a startup incubated by IIT Jodhpur.
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