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SALT LAKE CITY — For the deaf-blind, communication is a constant struggle, and has been essentially limited to those who understand and can “speak” through a language known as Lorm.
Germany’s Design Research Lab is currently developing a glove capable of translating Lorm into text- based communication on smartphones and tablet devices.
Lorm is a touch-based sign language that assigns characters to different parts of the hand. Its creator, Mikulov Heinrich Landesman — who changed his name to Hieronymus Lorm to escape persecution, according to records — lost his hearing at the age of 15. Upon additionally discovering the looming loss of his sight, Landesman created the hand touch alphabet, which spread through Europe and was eventually named Lorm.
The glove, known in the lab simply as the Mobile Lorm Glove, contains textile pressure sensors on the palm which enable the deaf-blind wearer to compose messages in Lorm. The glove then transmits the signals sent from the pressure sensors over a Bluetooth connection to the user’s handheld device, which forwards the data in the form of an SMS text message.
Inversely, a message sent to the user’s device will be “translated” back through the Bluetooth connection into the back of the glove, which contains vibration motors that transmit tactile feedback patterns, allowing the wearer to understand incoming messages.
In addition to allowing those without the knowledge of Lorm to communicate with the deaf-blind, the Mobile Lorm Glove provides users with the freedom of communicating at a distance — a major limitation of Lorm communication in the past.
The development of the Mobile Lorm Glove is currently led by German researcher Tom Bieling, with assistance from Ulrike Gollner and supervision from Dr. Gesche Joost.
“The Mobile Lorm Glove functions as a simultaneous translator and makes communicating with others without knowledge of Lorm possible,” the team wrote on their official release. “As a result, it empowers deafblind people to engage with a wider social world and further enhances their independence.”
The device is currently in the prototype stage, and the team plans to incorporate direct speech input and output into the next phase of development.
Alex Larrabee is the former General Manager of KWCR-FM, a graduate of Weber State University, and a producer/writer for www.gametaffy.com. You can email him at alex@gametaffy.com, or follow him on Twitter @BaerTaffy for all your nerd needs.
