Communication system for deaf, deaf-blind, or non-vocal individuals using instrumented glove

摘要

A communication system for deaf, deaf-blind, or non-vocal individuals includes an instrumented glove for obtaining electrical signals indicative of a hand configuration of a first individual. Strain gage sensors in the glove flex with movement of the hand. Each sensor includes a tension strain gage and a compression strain gage which are serially connected and form two legs in a bridge circuit. Signals from the bridge circuit are amplified and digitized and applied to a computer which includes an adaptive pattern recognition algorithm which is responsive to hand-state vectors for recognizing letter beacons in hand-space. A second individual communicates with the first individual through the computer system using a portable keyboard. The output devices for communicating to the first and second individuals depend on the visual, vocal and hearing capabilities of the individuals and can be selected from a voice synthesizer, LCD monitor, or braille display.