Scientists at Brigham Young University (BYU) have created a system that projects sign language narration on Google Glass and other types of wearable devices.
The project, called "Signglasses", is a personal one for Tyler Fougler and other student researchers, who were born deaf, according to NDTV.
"My favorite part of the project is conducting experiments with deaf children in the planetarium," Fougler said.
"They get to try on the glasses and watch a movie with an interpreter on the screen of the glasses. They're always thrilled and intrigued with what they've experienced. It makes me feel like what we are doing is worthwhile."
The system was tested during field trip visits by high school students at Jean Messieu School for the Deaf. Researchers were surprised to discover that the signer has to be shown in the center of one lens. They assumed there would be a preference to show videos at the top, similar to Google Glass, Phys.org reported.
When deaf participants returned their focus to the planetarium show, they preferred to look straight through the signer.
The BYU team is also looking to see if the technology can be used for literacy purposes. The team is working with researchers at Georgia Tech to explore this idea, NDTV reported.
"Our idea is when you're reading a book and come across a word that you don't understand, you point at it, push a button to take a picture, some software figures out what word you're point at and then sends the word to a dictionary and the dictionary sends a video definition back," said Prof. Mike Jones, leader of the research team.
Jones will publish the results of the research next month at Interaction Design and Children. High school students being granted the opportunity to talk with his BYU students after the test was his favorite part of the project, Phys.org reported.
"They see deaf university students succeeding and doing cool stuff," Jones said. "It's really rewarding."
