Two high school students from Texas have developed Hand Wave, an AI-powered service that translates American Sign Language (ASL) in real-time. The system uses smart glasses with a built-in camera and machine learning algorithms, El.kz reports.
The teenagers began their work outside of the school curriculum, driven by personal challenges faced by their families. Sanghvi’s uncle communicates via sign language, and Velagapudi’s father has partial hearing loss.
According to the students, it was this personal experience that pushed them to create a technology that could facilitate communication between hearing individuals and those with hearing impairments.
Hand Wave recognizes hand movements through the camera, analyzes the position of fingers and hands, and then translates the gestures into text or speech. The developers spent several months training the model, gradually adding individual letters, words, and phrases of American Sign Language to the system.
The idea behind the project is that a user wearing smart glasses can look at someone using sign language and receive a translation almost instantly.
According to the creators, the user will be able to hear the translation directly during the conversation. The project is currently in the development stage. The teenagers hope that with the support of investors, they can create a full-fledged prototype for testing outside of their home laboratory.
The students' development fits into a growing global trend of creating AI tools for communication with the hearing-impaired. According to the World Health Organization, over 430 million people worldwide require rehabilitation due to hearing loss, and this number could exceed 700 mln by 2050. However, there is no universal sign language: more than 200 national sign languages are used globally. Therefore, technologies like Hand Wave require specific training for each country and linguistic community.
Similar projects have been in development for several years. For instance, the SignAll system used cameras, sensors, and machine learning algorithms to translate sign language, taking facial expressions and body movements into account. Additionally, in 2026, Sorenson introduced its AI Sign Language Translation service for short everyday dialogues in shops, hotels, and transportation.
Experts believe that such technologies could simplify the participation of people with hearing impairments in education, work, and daily communication. If the translation becomes fast and accurate enough, it will help lower barriers in learning, job interviews, and interactions in public spaces.
