A former Electrical Engineering major of the University of Guyana Josiah Cossiah, was awarded the Best Innovative Project Prize at the recent Prize Giving Ceremony of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology (FET). At this ceremony Ms. Veryln Klass, Dean of FET praised the awardee and highlighted the university’s mission to give students additional opportunities to realize their full potential.
Cossiah, fueled by a desire to help people in difficult situations, designed and built a mobile American Sign Language (ASL) translator glove to bridge the communication gap between deaf persons and the hearing society. The awardee emphasized how another student’s work on a prosthetic arm motivated him to embark on such an endeavor.
This cost- effective solution works by interpreting hand gestures and converting them verbally though speech and nonverbally through text. According to Cossiah, this innovation captures all twenty-six (26) ASL alphabet letters and incorporates five flex sensors that respond to movement, generating more resistance when bent. The glove tracks individual finger measurements, hand orientation and also contains an MPU 6050 which is an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) that processes motion.
The UG graduate described the laborious procedure that went into making the gloves, including determining the electrical composition and recording and practicing the numerous hand gestures. Even though Cossiah considers this project to be his most difficult, he said it was thrilling and allowed him to fulfill his passion for helping people.