Design Research Labs
The Design Research Lab in Berlin has developed a glove that provides a way for people who are deaf and blind to communicate digitally. Named the Mobile Lorm Glove, this product has the ability to translate text into “Lorm,” a hand-touch alphabet used by deaf blind people. Such a product allows them to communicate via SMS messaging, email and online chat.
Users type their message in Lorm onto the palm of their gloved hand, where it is received by pressure sensors and sent via Bluetooth connection to a smart phone in SMS form. The glove also works the other way: messages received to the phone can be sent to the glove using the same connection, and once they get there small motors on the back of the glove relay the message to the user.
Though the device has yet to hit the market, researchers in Berlin are already brainstorming its various uses, and suggest the possibility of using it to feel Ebooks. The Design Research Lab press release suggests that the next model would be one that translates Lorm into speech and vice versa.
[via Gizmodo]
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