Chapter 1

Hand Talk Application

Introduction the World Health Organization, 360 million

people around the globe have hearing
Hand Talk is an app which is
problems and
designed to allow better communication
between deaf and non-deaf people.The app, struggle to communicate.
which has already been downloaded more
Representing an accessible
than one million times, works by either
solution, the app was acknowledged around
speaking directly into it or manually typing
the globe for
in the words. It then displays an on-screen
its innovation and potential. The startup has
avatar who translates the words into sign
won a number of awards including the Best
language.
Social
Recently nominated as one
App of the World in 2013, handed by UN at
of 35 most innovative under 35 by the MIT,
the World Summit Mobile Award, in Abu-
Brazilian Ronaldo Tenório is the face behind Dhabi.
the app Hand Talk. Launched in 2012, the
Ronaldo Tenório talked to INKLINE about
app led
how he came up with the idea of Hand Talk
by a friendly 3D translator named Hugo, and his
translates Portuguese conversations into sign
aspirations for the future.
language.

Knowing that 70% of the

Brazilian deaf people cannot read or write in
Portuguese,

the app is having a massive impact on the Statement of Objectives

way they communicate with hearers.
The objective of the study is to
According to
develop the Hand Talk Application from
Non-Deaf
People and Deaf People.

Specifically, the study should attain the

following objectives:

INKLINE: How did you come up with the

idea of Hand Talk?

Can you tell us more about how the app

works and how you chose Hugo as your
interpreter.

How is the situation now in Brazil

concerning people with hearing disabilities?

Do you have any plans to reach schools as

well?

What was your biggest challenge when

launching Hand Talk?

What do you have in store for Hugo now?

What advice would you give to potential

social entrepreneurs?
Significance of Study than one million users but taking into
account the other solutions we offer, which
This study aimed to develop the Hand
all have Hugo
Talk Application for Non-Deaf People and
Deaf as interpreter, we have impacted more than
six millions people here in Brazil. We have
People. It is hope that the study will be
solutions
importance to the following:
for websites, where we put Hugo’s plugin on
To the Deaf and Non-Deaf People, this
sites to allow its translation. We also have
study will help them to collecting all
solutions
neccessary
to translate videos and other tools to help
data and or reports that will came from the
translate in other communication channels
system.
used by
To the Future Researchers, he outcome
companies.
of this study might give them valuable data
that

might be useful for the related study.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The app is for free and we really

want people to have it in their house, in their
bags, for

them to use whenever they need to. But the

app is only the top of the iceberg. We offer
other

solutions for companies that bring us some

financial returns as well. The app already
has more
Definition of Terms

Hugo- Means mind.

Hand Talk-You can count on the largest

sign language automatic translation platform
to take accessibility to everyone.

Innovation- New Idea

Potential- Having or showing the capacity to

develop into something in the future.
 CHAPTER 2 facial expressions. He also has big hands
which helps the communication and we
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
wanted him to
AND STUDIES
be amicable so that everyone from children
This chapter presents the review of related
to older people likes him.
literature and studies which will serve

as a frame of reference for this study.

Related Literature

When we started thinking of how to create

an virtual interpreter, a virtual translator, we
realized

that we needed to design a character and

Thadeu, who worked with 3D and virtual
effects before,

told us that we had to create a

very caricatured and friendly character that
everyone would like.

So we started to design him and decided on

the clothes he would wear. We even had a
meeting

just to define his characteristics and then

suddenly Hugo was born.

His face is very expressive because the

communication in sign language depends a
lot on the

The app is for free and we really want
people to have it in their house, in their
bags, for them to use whenever they need to.
But the app is only the top of the iceberg.
We offer other solutions
for companies that bring us some financial
returns as well. The app already has more
than one
million users but taking into account the
other solutions we offer, which all have
Hugo as
interpreter, we have impacted more than six
millions people here in Brazil!
We have solutions for websites, where we
put Hugo’s plugin on sites to allow its
translation. We
also have solutions to translate videos and
other tools to help translate in other
communication
channels used by companies.
Nowadays in Brazil it is estimated that 70%
of deaf people cannot understand
Portuguese. If they
see a text, they are not able to understand
what it says. There are different factors that
can
explain that.
We [hearers] learn to speak and write
through the sound we hear and the phonetics
and from
there we learn to read but deaf people can’t
hear so they struggle to learn. There are very
few
deaf people who are bilingual and can talk in
both libras (Brazilian sign language) and
Portuguese.
I believe this is going to improve because
the information will become more and more
accessible
so deaf people will be able to link one thing
with another, they will start comparing and
that will
help them get a better understanding of the
Portuguese language.
But we are trying to resolve a problem that
is much bigger than us, we won’t be able to
educate
everyone to learn Portuguese but we will
manage to pass the information in their
language. I
always compare being deaf to being a
stranger in your own country. It’s really hard
for us to
imagine.
In 2014, the Ministry of Education bought
tablets to be distributed in public schools
and selected
free apps to be accessible on those tablets.
Hugo comes in the classroom to help the
communication for deaf children which is a
big issue in the classrooms. Some professors
say it’s
really difficult to teach to deaf children and
hearers at the same time in one classroom.
It’s really challenging because the learning
times are different and so often deaf kids
abandon
school and don’t go to university so they
won’t manage to improve the life of their
families and
it affect their financial opportunities. So we
want to bring Hugo to schools and
universities to

bring more opportunities to the deaf

community.

I had some experience in the design and

creation as I was working in an
advertisement company

before, so I designed the layout of the app.

Thadeu did all the 3D and Carlos did the

development of the app. The main challenge

was that we were doing something that We want to amplify the solutions we offer

nobody had and bring him to other channels of

ever done before and being an innovator is
difficult!
It’s like you’re in a forest trying to find a
way out and you are creating a path without
knowing if
you are doing it right. Sometimes you have
to go back and take a different path.
communication.
Now we are able to translate videos,
websites and live talk on the app. We want
to launch new
applications to translate videos
automatically, imagine YouTube with Hugo,
or on Netflix or in
the cinema!

We also want to teach Hugo new languages.

He is already learning American Sign
Language and
we believe that we will be able to launch the
app in the USA this year. We hope to launch
it in
other countries as well but that will depend
on the conversations we’ll have and the
opportunities
in each country.
It’s really incredible to develop a social
business because beyond the financial gain
you have an
impact and you can see the life of people
improving thanks to the solution you
created. It’s really
gratifying! In the world, there are lots of
social problems and often governments
don’t have the
capacity to resolve these problems.
I think startups can provide an opportunity
to create solutions for those problems. In our
case, we
are solving a global problem by starting here
in Brazil and expanding soon to other
countries.
Our business is not b2b (business to
business) or b2c (business to consumer), it’s
p2p: people to
people!
CHAPTER 3

METHODS OF RESEARCH AND SOURCES OF

DATA

This chapter presents the methodsof research

and data collection processes. The researchers
used research design, respondents, and
methods of gathering data, research instrument
and procedure in the development of the
system. Research Design The approach for this
study was the Research and Development
where the system was designed, created, tested
and validated. The approach was chosen due to
researcher’s conciousness of a need to design
and develop a better and modern solution in
developing the Hand Talk Application. The
development of the system was based on the
functionalities that the Deaf and Non-Deaf
people will supply. The users validated the
functionalities of the system while the IT
experts validated its technical aspects such as
validation, database design, and the algorithm
design.

Development Phase

The researcher conducted observation and

interviews from the conception of the study
until it was concluded. This enabled to gain
necessary information and feedback from
intended users and to explain to them clearly
about what the system was design for. Software
programming, setting up the computer server,
generation of database and reports will be done
by the researcher. The figure below shows the
flow of the development of the system
Validation Phase
On the third phase, which is the last phase of
the Research and Development research design,
the (1) group will evaluate the proposed system.
These will be the users, and the IT experts.
IT Experts
The IT experts will be evaluating the
functionality, database design and security of
the biometrical enrollment system. They will
also evaluating the system in terms of graphical
user interface including icon, button and screen
resolution.
Instruments
A scale will be used to evaluate the system, the
evaluators will be using a 5- point Likert’s scale.
Since the system is a research and development,
the most appropriate instrument to measure
the objectives of the study is the 5-point Likert’s
scale. The scale equivalent will be 5 – Excellent,
4 – Very Satisfactory, 3 – Satisfactory, 2 – fair,
and 1 – Needs Improvement
People
The scale will have the question such as for the
usability the evaluators will give point if the
users can view the schedule on the system and
if the system has attributes that make it easy to
operate and control. For the functionality, the
user will give point if the system is functional
complete which means it covers all the specified
tasks and user objectives. And lastly the
graphical interface design, as users they will give
point base on the interface design if the design
is appropriate to the eye of the user. Ease of use
will be checked on how the system provides
simple user interface and instruction to the
user.
IT Experts
The scores that the IT experts will give is based
on the following criteria: If the system is
functions correctly according to what it should
do.; if the system database is accurate based on
the data that where stored on the database, if
the database design is normalized or
appropriate based on the needed data of the
users, and lastly is security, if there is any
process of retrieving account specifically for
account. They will also need to check if there
are no redundancy on the files being stored to
the database.
Statistical Treatment Scale
use in Validating the system To determine the
efficiency and aceptability of the system, the
following scales was used for IT Experts and the
users in rating the system. The scale used are
follows: Very Poor (VP) -1, Poor (P) – 2,
Satisfactory (S) – 3, Very Satisfactory (VS) – 4,
Excellent (E) – 5. To determine the efficiency of References
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biometric identi_cation,. in IEEE Symp. Secur.
The data will be computed, and the result will
Priv., Oakland, CA, May 1998.
be analyzed using the following statistical
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identification system basedin keyboard
P = F / ( N * 100)
filtering,” in Proc. IEE 33rd Annu. Int. Carnahan
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P = percentage A. K. Jain, R. Bolle, andS. Pankanti, Biometrics:

Personal Identification in Networked Society.
F = frequency
Norwell, MA: Kluwer, 1999.
N = Number of Respondents Weighted Mean
will be determined by using this formula:

W M = (∑ n fi xi) / N

Where:

fi = weight given to each response

xi = number of responses

N = total number of responses