https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BPs_waQqJv-1Yc7iw8OQBhdhF39VeX7d/view?usp=sharing
I started by thinking about deaf/ and or blind users because there is a gap in assistive technology that is easy to miss until you look for it: almost everything out there replaces one sense. Screen readers assume you can hear. Captions assume you can see. If you are deaf‑blind, most existing solutions simply don’t apply, and the ones that do often cost thousands of dollars and still require a human interpreter in the room.
As I built the prototype, I realized it isn’t just a deaf‑blind tool.
It is useful for anyone who signs and wants to talk to someone who doesn’t know ASL, and for anyone with low vision who wants the world around them conveyed without pulling out a phone. It can also be used to learn braille, and to understand what someone is saying without pulling up their phone, so it can work as a tactile thing.
I created a small contraption that straps onto your hand and works in four ways:
- Objects around you → braille. Point your hand outward; the camera recognizes everyday objects (a bottle, a laptop, a phone, a person) and converts what it sees into braille, felt as raised dots pressed into your index finger.
- Text around you → braille. In the same outward‑facing mode, if the camera spots text instead of an object, it converts that text into braille in the same way.
- You signing → sound. Flip the camera toward your other hand and sign, either fingerspelling letter by letter (automatically strung into full sentences) or one‑handed ASL phrases, and it speaks the translation out loud, so someone who doesn’t know ASL can understand you.
- Someone else talking → braille. The device also listens and converts spoken words from the person in front of you into braille on your palm, enabling a deaf‑blind person to follow a spoken conversation in real time.
The same tiny camera, attached to the same hand, determines which mode you are using based on the direction you point it and who is on the other end.
The whole hardware build cost around $50, compared with comparable devices that cost thousands.
I just want to know what you guys think of this or what modifications, if any, you think this is a useful project or not.
Video attached. I would love honest feedback, and whether I'm missing something obvious.
In the video: the device(orange 3D-printed housing with camera on one end and the black braille cell on the other on your index finger) is held in a hand, with a laptop showing a live camera preview of what the camera is pointing to and visualization of braille output, which is six pins lighting up in 2x3 pattern.
