Roy Allela – the Kenyan engineer that invented smart gloves that turn sign language gestures into audio speech

By Cathy Russey

 Over 30 million speech impaired people around the globe relies on sign language as a means of communication. But sign language is not understood by most of the people on the planet, which creates a communication barrier for the people with speech impairment.

Roy Allela, a 25-year-old Kenyan engineer has invented smart gloves that can convert hand gestures of sign language into audio speech. This innovation could change the lives of hearing-impaired people across the world.

Dubbed Sign-IO, the gloves have sensors stitched to each finger. The sensors interpret the word being signed from the bend of the finger.

Allela said challenges faced by his deaf niece inspired him to create the gloves. He also said that the speed at which the signs are vocalized is one of the most important aspects of the smart gloves:

“My 6-year-old niece wears the gloves, pairs them to her phone or mine, then starts signing and I am able to understand what she’s saying,” says Allela.

“People speak at different speeds and it’s the same with people who sign – some are really fast, others are slow, so we integrated that into the mobile application so that it’s comfortable for anyone to use it.”

The Sign-IO app, which vocalizes words signed by the person wearing the gloves. PHOTO/Brett Eloff/Royal Academy of Engineering

The Sign-IO delivers give translations in real-time and the gloves can be set to customized interpretation speeds, explains Allela. The device can also be altered to manipulate the pitch, speed and tone of the voice.

Allela is among 16 young Africans who was shortlisted by The Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize 2019 for inventors from 6 countries. He says the recognition is a wonderful validation of his work and a great opportunity to put African inventors on the map.

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