Kicker - Sign language translation

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: These days, if you don’t speak a second language, no problem! Just whip out your phone and use any one of the dozens of translation apps now available. Or just navigate to Google Translate. You’ll find at least a rough real time translation for any relatively common language on earth, except for one: Sign language. 

There hasn’t been a way to translate sign language into spoken word in real time, until now.

AUDIO: I, L, Y, I love you.

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles say they’ve engineered a special glove that will translate hand signs. 

They say the glove has an intricate series of sensors that identify a word, letter, or phrase in American sign language. It then sends that translation to a smart phone app, which reads it out loud.

UCLA lead researcher Jun Chen said “Our hope is that this opens up an easy way for people who use sign language to communicate directly with non-signers without needing someone else to translate for them.”

I call that eliminating the middle man.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Photo/iStock)

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