A wearable device supporting multiple touch- and gesture-based languages for the deaf-blind

Abstract

Over 1.5 million people in the world who are completely deaf-blind use touch-based alphabets to communicate with others and to interact with the world. However, they rely on an assistant who plays the role of an interpreter in translating the world for them. Unfortunately, despite the research work realized in the last decade, on the market there are no assistive devices for providing people who suffer from severe multi-sensory impairments with technology for social inclusion. In this paper, we introduce dbGLOVE, a wearable device for supporting deaf-blind people in being completely independent in communicating with others and in interacting with the world. Our system was co-designed with users to be a natural interface and to accommodate for different already-existing touch- and gesture-based languages, such as Malossi and deaf-blind manual, in order to offer a unique device for connecting different communities with an affordable solution.