Vocalize By Tenacity Team-185

Team Photo during the final testing of the project
Output of the finalised version

Inspiration

More than 1.5 billion people, that is, nearly 20% of the global population live with hearing loss. And about 430 million of them have disabling hearing loss. WHO estimates that global hearing aid production covers just 3% of the need in the low and middle-income countries. The main goal of our project was to lend a hand to all of the people affected with hearing loss.

What it does

The proposed model provides a speech output upon detecting Indian Sign Language (ISL). This will introduce a medium that'll facilitate an easier form of communication with the deaf people. Thus, the proposed model can be used as a means to help and support the people affected.

How we built it

The model was built using languages like python and dart, using the open source framework Flutter for developing an application for the same. The model has been trained using a personally built and procured dataset with sharpened accuracy.

Challenges we ran into

The dataset was hard to build and required a lot of patience and perseverance. Integration of the trained model to perform detection of the signs in flutter was also a demanding task.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The model achieved a decent amount of accuracy and was successfully able to distinguish between several signs. We were also able to form full-fledged sentences using the proposed model, which turned out to be exceptional.

What we learned

The hackathon served as a means of testing ourselves and understanding how to perform the set of tasks under a given time constraint. It also allowed us to dive deep into the problems faced by the less-fortunate and be aware of the challenges faced by these people. Thus, by ideating on the solutions to the situations faced by these people, it also helped us to develop our logical skills and perform real life implementation. By working with the goal in mind for the development of society, we developed empathy and a sense of responsibility to do better.

What's next for Vocalize

The journey of Vocalize does not end here. Far from it, in fact, as this is just the beginning. The proposed application has the potential of allowing an extremely easy form of communication for people affected with hearing loss of all depths. Upon increasing the number of signs for detection and also enhancing the compatibility and accuracy of the model with the flutter application, the presented prototype has the ability of finally providing a voice to everyone.