The South Florida deaf and hearing impaired community learned significant news. Today, in Ecuador, it was announced that a youth group from a Polytechnic School, el "Chimborazo" (ESPOCH), developed a software tool to ease communication between "hearing impaired and hearing people." Their project won a Technology contest.
The "Imagine Cup" is a world wide technological contest where college students from different countries participate. This took place in Poland on July 1, with 68 participating teams from several countries. Amongst them: Africa, Egypt, Algeria; Asia, China., India; Europe, Bulgaria., Armenia, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece; Australia, Indonesia, to mention only a few.
At the outset, this software tool will be used at the elementary school level of education; and then, it will be extended to an user at any level. The program is called EASY (Aided Education Software). Henry Paca, a system engineer, explained that the application works as a translator of the spoken language into sign language. The platform is designed to convert the voice of a speaker into a sign language and finally display it on screen. The project won for ESPOCH the Imagine Cup 2010 International Contest, Ecuador phase, enabling them to represent the country in Poland. The contest was organized by Microsoft Co.
To use this tool in the classroom, Teachers need not know sign language. They only have to speak into a microphone and conduct the class. This tool makes it possible to integrate children with hearing disabilities to the regular classroom. For now, the platform is being tested at the Institute for the Deaf el "Chimborazo", in Ecuador.
From the start, the youngsters had many ideas, but little by little they narrowed it down to the specific subject of the hearing impaired. "It was a challenge to attempt to break the communication barrier between individuals with hearing disabilities and regular listeners", explained early, Anilema Vicente and Juan Morales
At the first stage of the contest, which was held in Ecuador, participated 28 projects from 16 universities. Each tool was evaluated by a panel of experts in different areas: technology, ecology, education and marketing. Only ten projects were selected to move on to the second phase. In this contest, which was held on May 3 at the Escuela Superior Politecnica del Littoral, the jury selected five finalists. ESPOCH was the only college with two winning projects: Aided Education Software (winning program) and SysBiOrg, a computerized system of organic life running on any machine.
Now only hope to see that the final out come is a happy one, trusting that the hearing impaired, long time barred from scientific participation, can be integrated into areas they can also make a valuable contribution as other groups in our society. Good luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment