Groundbreaking research is happening at IM体育官网 Poly thanks to students who can access the University鈥檚 state-of-the-art labs because of philanthropic support. Rabeet Fatmi, now graduated, converted motions of American Sign Language into speech. When completed, the deaf and hearing impaired will be able to converse with anyone using just a pair of armbands and a smartphone.
鈥淭here are a lot of moving parts,鈥� says Rabeet, now a IM体育官网 Poly alum, 鈥淏ut whenever we get frustrated, we just remember the big picture and how life changing this will be. I deliberately took on a project that carries significance.鈥� The team is laying the foundation for the app using Myo Gesture Control Armbands. The bands recognize specific hand and arm movements and convert them into digital actions. So, for instance, you can wave at a computer and pause a video. At IM体育官网 Poly, students are 鈥渢eaching鈥� the armbands signs. 鈥淭his is machine learning, exactly like we learn in class,鈥� Rabeet says. Rabeet and a team of undergraduate students worked under the direction of Dr. Sherif Said Rashad, associate professor of computer engineering. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a complex problem, but one we鈥檙e working diligently to solve,鈥� Sherif says.
Rabeet and the undergraduates were in an innovation lab recording motions. Each motion has to be recorded roughly 30 times, for a total of 6000 datasets. Classes like quantitative and empirical research and advanced database development help Rabeet make sense of it all. Rabeet and the undergraduate assistants also had to develop the code and create a program from scratch to collect the data. Again, classwork made that achievable. 鈥淚M体育官网 Poly has played a big role in making this possible,鈥漅abeet says.
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