A 22-year-old entrepreneur in Kenya has developed robotic technology that can translate a teacher's speech into sign language, creating a new opportunity for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The device aims to facilitate these children's inclusion in education, especially in subjects like math and science.

There are an estimated 300 hearing-impaired children in Kenya, but only a small percentage of them attend school. One of the main difficulties is the lack of a standardized sign language, which makes communication between teachers and students more difficult.

The project was created by Norah Kimathi, founder of the company ZeroBionic. Her goal is to enable students to follow lessons even when the teacher does not know sign language. The robotic arm is produced through 3D printing technology, using recycled plastic waste. The device costs about $ 350 and, according to the company, can operate for about three years without maintenance. So far, 78 units have been sold.

According to Kimathi, the system achieves 92% accuracy in converting spoken language into sign language. For the developers, the challenge wasn't just creating the robotic mechanism. The team also faced the lack of a comprehensive database for African and Kenyan sign languages.

To solve the problem, ZeroBionic collaborated with deaf educators and sign language experts. Their movements were recorded through a special suit equipped with electrodes, creating the data needed to train the system. “No one else had built it on the continent, we started from scratch,” Kimathi said from her lab in Nairobi.

According to her, the efforts have been worthwhile, as the technology aims to give children with hearing impairments more opportunities to attend classes and be included in the education system. The next step for the team is the development of “Africa One”, an upper body robotic system that aims to significantly expand the sign vocabulary and improve the accuracy of communication.