It would have been much easier for Anne Sullivan to get Helen Keller to spell out “water” with this innovative mitten. The Mobile Lorm Glove allows people who are deaf and blind to communicate by transmitting tactile signals to their hands.
It uses something called the Lorm Alphabet, a hand-touch sign language that assigns characters to different points of the palm, used by deafblind individuals use to communicate. The glove uses various pressure points to convey information. Wearers can send messages from their palms to a phone or a computer, where they are translated into regular words. Responses, in turn, are translated back into Lorm, received through vibrations on the back of the hand.
Developed by the Berlin’s Design Research Lab, it’s just a prototype at this point, and it’s in German Lorm. But the broader applications — and the need — are both crystal clear. It’s difficult to imagine how isolating life must be for a deafblind person. The only way to talk to another person is by touching their hands. But this glove would allow them to communicate from more people and do so from a distance, dramatically improving the quality of their lives. [Fashioning Tech via DVice]