Sunday, January 26, 2014

NTID students accepted into startup accelerator

A group of student researchers from Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf have been awarded $25,000 and is one of ten teams acceptance into a business startup accelerator called Leap Axlr8r based in San Francisco. It's for companies building on the gesture-based technology called Leap Motion. The $80 device allows users to interact with technology through motion rather than screens, keyboards, mice, and consoles. The technology is playing a critical role in 3D human computer interaction. The students are working on a program to help the deaf and hearing better communicate. They call themselves MotionSavvy and their application is designed to translate a hand shape into a text letter of the alphabet in sign language. Eventually, they hope it will translate sign language into words and sentences. Read more from NTID here.