Smart gloves for hand gesture recognition: Sign language to speech conversion system

People with speech impairment find it difficult to communicate in a society where most of the people do not understand sign language. The idea proposed in this paper is a smart glove which can convert sign language to speech output. The glove is embedded with flex sensors and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to recognize the gesture. A novel method of State Estimation has been developed to track the motion of hand in three dimensional spaces. The prototype was tested for its feasibility in converting Indian Sign Language to voice output. Though the glove is intended for sign language to speech conversion, it is a multipurpose glove and finds its applications in gaming, robotics and medical field.