Kenyan entrepreneur creates robotic hand that translates speech to sign language
In Kenya, a 22-year-old entrepreneur has created a robotic hand that can translate a teacher’s voice into sign language for deaf students.
Some 300,000 children in Kenya are either deaf or hearing impaired, and not only are just a fraction enrolled in school, but Kenya lacks any standardized signed language, making concepts like math and science difficult to teach.
ZeroBionic was founded by 22-year-old Norah Kimathi to allow these students to be taught by teachers who themselves don’t know sign language, dramatically expanding their educational opportunities.
Each robotic hand is 3D-printed from recycled plastic litter and sold at $350. They can last three years without maintenance, and ZeroBionic has already sold 78 units.
Kimathi said they boast a 92% speech-to-sign accuracy rating, yet designing the mechanics of the arm was only half the battle. When it came time to input the translation to signs, the team realized there was no unified Kenyan or African sign language dataset.
They enlisted the help of deaf teachers and other experienced signers to record the movements and patterns of signed speech using an electrode-lined bodysuit imported from abroad.”No one else had built this on the continent … We had to start from scratch,” Kimathi told AFP from the company’s tiny lab in Nairobi.”We know we’re going to put a smile on someone else’s face,” she said.
The mechanical arms are just the first step. Next, the company wants to expand to Africa One, a robotic upper torso that can substantially increase the accuracy and vocabulary of African sign language.
