Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Talking Hands (Talking Hands)

Teaser

LiMiX wants to enable a radical change in the life of deaf people. Deafness and hearing problems are conditions that affect about 360 million people, of which 70 million with deafness problems that can be congenital or acquired.People with hearing impairments are relatively...

Summary

LiMiX wants to enable a radical change in the life of deaf people.
Deafness and hearing problems are conditions that affect about 360 million people, of which 70 million with deafness problems that can be congenital or acquired.
People with hearing impairments are relatively isolated from the community and they form a specific socio-cultural minority, members of which mainly communicate with each other using sign language.
Limix is developing Talking Hands, a wearable glove that capture hand gestures to be translated in sound by a smartphone app.
The impact of this disruptive innovation is going to be enormous in terms of improvement on the quality of deaf people life, helping them to reduce the gap towards the access to the labor market, the relationships with other people, the social inclusion and their self-confidence.
The main objective of this SME Instrument Phase 1 action is to enable a deep feasibility study of this project from different perspectives: context, product, market, economic, IPR.

Work performed

From the context feasibility study, Limix confirmed the interest of the deaf communities for this project, together with a deep analysis of deaf people conditions, problems and needs.

Huge benefits have been achieved for the product feasibility: a new prototype has been realized with the perspective of its industrialization, using the most suitable solutions for a massive production and reliability of Talking Hands without penalizing its usability.

The market feasibility study has been a very challenging task, but it led to significance improvements. In fact, even it’s not possible to quantify the performance of Talking Hands target market, due to its uniqueness in the sector, a deep analysis of the hearing aids industry trends shows outstanding performance.

Final results

There are several advantages of Talking Hands compared to similar projects in terms of hardware, software and product design. The most important progression is the scenario-based translation system. Other important advantages are: a customized board which reduces the dimensions and optimize the performances; two IMUs for a more accurate detection of hand movements and orientation.
Thanks to these advantages, Talking Hands can be the first wearable device for sign language translation on the market.

Limix aims to complete the project development by December 2019, and this action enables to estimate the expenses for the project conclusion and to forecast the financial plan for the next years.
Since Talking Hands is a very innovative product, a great attention has been given to its intellectual property. A PCT Application has been submitted, and it will be followed up with the national phases of all European countries to proceed towards grant of one or more patents.

This project led to an exhaustive business plan which will be used in the near future to show the possibilities of Talking Hands to public and private investors to collect more funds, complete the project and enter the market.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.limix.it.