Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Robotic hand translates speech into sign language
An 80-centimeter robotic hand that can covert spoken words and simple phrases into sign language has been developed in a town in Fukuoka Prefecture.
The robotic hand was shown at a two-legged robot tournament held at the Fukuoka Prefecture Education Center in Sasagurimachi, where it won applause from appreciative spectators.
A microchip in the robot recognizes the 50-character hiragana syllabary and about 10 simple phrases such as "ohayo" (good morning) and sends the information to a central computer, which sends commands to 18 micromotors in the joints of the robotic hand, translating the sound it hears into sign language.
The aluminum robot was developed by a team led by the center's head instructor Keita Matsuo, 39, and Hirotsugu Sakai, 38, who is attending a long-term training program for schoolteachers.
The two men came up with the idea when they visited a school for the hearing-impaired and communicated with students through an interpreter who signed for them.
"We wondered if it would be possible to communicate with them via robots," Matsuo said.
They studied a book on sign language, and spent about two months creating the system, increasing the number of joints in the hand to 18 so that it could sign smoothly.
They added that in the future, hundreds of thousands of words could be programmed into the voice recognition unit and the robotic hand could function as a receptionist.
The robot was shown to teachers at the school in December to ensure that its sign language was understandable.
In addition to the signing robot, the event, attended by 160 students from middle school and technical high schools, featured a race among bipedal robots developed by six high school teachers.
source:http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/culture/20060116TDY19003.htm
