Speaking glove

[magid]

Someone has created a talking glove that translates ASL into speech. It's a fascinating thought; I wonder how easy it would be to reprogram to translate other sign languages into speech. The inventor is also planning to have a two-glove system out sometime in the next couple of years.

Perhaps predictably, there are some who are not in favor (from the linked Globe article above):

But the idea of turning sign language into speech annoys some deaf people who see ASL -- used in the United States and English-speaking Canada -- as part of their unique culture. ''Some feel that being deaf is not a deficiency,'' said Andy Lange, president of the National Association of the Deaf. ''It's simply another way of life and the deaf should not use artificial means to overcome a loss of hearing.''

I've read about how many Deaf see their culture as rather separate from mainstream American culture (in Seeing Voices and Train Go Sorry, for instance), but this seems to be obstructionist: a glove like this could make it much easier for a deaf person to communicate to non-deaf, non-ASL-speaking people.

Comments

Re: Deaf culture

[cnoocy]

I think you're overstating the case a little. There are (in my impression) plenty of people who see Deaf culture as its own worthy community who don't necessarily believe that the implants and sign translators are bad things. I have my doubts about the sign translator on a language complexity issue, but that's something else.

Re: Deaf culture

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're right; like I said, I haven't done much reading on the topic, so it's entirely possible that I've run across the opinions of a vocal minority (as it were).

I don't know anything about other language technologies (speech synthesizers, programs than translate spoken to written language, etc), so I have no idea how good this is compared to those, and whether being on par with them is enough at a useful level or not.