This session is the start of a new project: building a sign language interpreter using a robot hand. Thanks to a local startup, I got access to a robot hand, which I’ve been getting familiar with. My goal is to allow an LLM to communicate through sign language, while simultaneously interpreting motions made by other users. This would be handy in tasks that involve conversation with computers, which have traditionally from deaf people, as they may involve a high degree of technical and traditional literacy.

This work session specifically, I spent setting up the servos to be compatible with an arduino microcontroller. I’ve produced a script capable of moving the fingers in a sequence. After that, I tried building a c++ library to store the sequences that I would deem a symbol, aka a sign language library. But halfway through, I got off task, and found a sign language interpreting computer vision model, that I wanted to test out. I’m currently trying to install the dependencies, which has proven tedious, as the repo uses an older version of python.

That’s all for this session; this next session, I’m trying to set up flex resistors and get mimicry working…