Josiah Cossiah, a recent graduate of the University of Guyana’s Faculty of Engineering and Technology (FET), was always passionate about helping persons facing certain challenges in their life.
This motivated him to undertake a path-breaking project which saw him designing and building a cost-effective and portable American Sign Language (ASL) translator glove capable of interpreting hand signs and motions and converting them into both text and speech.
Cosssiah, who read for a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, was awarded the prize of the Best Innovative Project when the university’s Faculty of Engineering and Technology hosted its annual prize giving and awards ceremony recently.
According to Cossiah, communication barriers between deaf-mute individuals and the hearing population persist due to the limited knowledge of sign language amongst the latter and “this disconnect results in misunderstandings, frustration, isolation, and societal exclusion for the deaf-mute community.”
Cossiah explained: “The objective of the project was to create a translator that covers all ASL alphabet letters while maintaining affordability and portability. The glove’s functionality is straightforward: the user wears the glove and performs sign language gestures. The glove incorporates five flex sensors, whose resistance increases as it bends, which is used to track the movement of each finger and an MPU 6050 which tracks orientation of the hand.”
After deciding on what solution would be used, Cossiah worked on designing and carrying out a simulation of the circuit. He explained that once the physical assembly of the glove was finished, it was time to map the different hand signs of the alphabet.
This was done by wearing the glove, forming the different signs and recording the sensor data from each sign formed.
“I remembered there was a past student who did a robotic prosthetic arm and I decided I would do an ankle. I wanted to continue down the same path of helping persons with disabilities. It was fun and at times stressful because it was my first time doing something this complex,” Cossiah said.
At the award ceremony which was hosted at the University’s George Walcott Lecture Theatre (GWLT), Dean of FET, Ms Veryln Klass heaped praises on the students for their excellent performances. She noted that the faculty will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure that it meets the needs of all students who have a desire to pursue its programmes and engage in such path-breaking work.
Assistant Dean Mr. Basheer Khan encouraged the students to continue to be resilient, humble and focused in order to overcome the various challenges they would face as they embark on their careers.
