Mute no more
TWO young students have developed a computerised glove which can convert the deafmute alphabet into speech and another has invented a blind person's stick which can "hear" obstacles.
As part of a special competition held by the Christoffel Mission for the Blind at Bensheim, Germany, young inventors exhibited their gadgets which were devised primarily for handicapped people. "We're glad that young inventors want to help handicapped people become accepted by society," said Guenter Conrad Althans, one of the jury members. Elke Marz and Tobias Strenger were awarded the first prize for their data glove. A computer-assisted system receives signals from the glove which is "signing" the deafmute alphabet and converts these signals to speech, which is in turn transmitted over a loudspeaker.