Marketing Students Create Concept Video for 'Google Gesture' App

A group of marketing students in Stockholm, Sweden have put together a concept video of an app that aims to help people understand sign language in real time.

The concept isn't real, but the thinking behind it is smart: an app that can translate sign language into speech, with the help of a wearable wristband. The video was filmed by students at Berghs School of Communication and is presented as though it was developed by Google.

The app — which the students call Google Gesture — would be paired with a forearm band that analyzes muscle movements made when signing — a process known as electromyography. These movements would then, in theory, be sent to the app and translated into audible words as they are signed.

The concept app's goal is to fix that problem by translating sign language right away, so there's no lull in conversation while the signer waits for audio voice to kick in.

Even though Google Gesture is fictional and isn't connected to Google at all, the search engine giant has developed software for the deaf in the past. For example, Android offers an option on its Google Translate app that turns speech into text.