This Amazon Echo mod lets Alexa understand sign language

It seems like voice interfaces are going to be a big part of the future of computing; popping up in phones, smart speakers, and even household appliances. But how useful is this technology for people who don't communicate using speech? Are we creating a system that locks out certain users?

These were the questions that inspired software developer Abhishek Singh to create a mod that lets Amazon's Alexa assistant understand some simple sign language commands. In a video, Singh demonstrates how the system works. An Amazon Echo is connected to a laptop, with a webcam (and some back-end machine learning software) decoding Singh's gestures in text and speech.

Speaking to The Verge, Singh...

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