University backs social entrepreneurship: Wearable AI gloves help the deaf communicate

Glovatrix designs gloves to help deaf and speech-impaired people communicate effectively, supported by an incubator program.

When in the eighth standard, Aishwarya Karnataki was part of the student council. One of her responsibilities that came with the role was to interact with children with disabilities every week for a school project. She recollects her memories. “Most kids with disabilities had friends. But a six-year-old deaf child named Atharv had none as no one knew sign language”, she said.

Ms. Karnataki then dabbled in sign language and asked Atharva to be her friend. Since that day, she has been driven towards the goal of helping deaf people communicate.

Years later, at 26, Ms. Karnataki is the Co-founder and CEO of Glovatrix, a startup that designs wearable gloves for speech and hearing-impaired people to communicate effectively. The glove supports two-way communication between the deaf and others who may not be conversant with sign language. The glove converts the deaf person’s sign language into speech and text for others to comprehend. The sensors on the glove help produce text from speech so the deaf can read what others are saying.

Ms. Karnataki had initially bootstrapped the startup, which is currently part of the ongoing partnership between BML Munjal University’s Atal Community Innovation Centre (ACIC-BMU) and HDFC Bank’s Parivartan initiative. The project awards ₹6 million in funding to four early-stage ventures that address urban mobility and accessibility challenges faced by India’s specially abled population.

Davinder Singh, CEO, ACIC-BMU Foundation, informs that under CSR, the bank provides grants to startups and incubators, and funding to run an accelerator program for the selected startups. About the university’s focus on mobility, Mr. Singh says, “We address mobility, not just in the physical sense but also social and economic mobility, for specific groups. Glovatrix was included to help people with listening and speaking disabilities move out and pick up jobs”.

Glovatrix is making gloves that translate sign language to voice so that deaf and speech-impaired people can communicate with everyone. The first vertical of impact is working-class people. The startup is working with organisations that hire deaf people as employees. The first deployment was in Bangalore with Royal Orchid Hotels, a hotel chain with over 10 hotels across India as they recently started hiring deaf people.

They have around 20 to 25 deaf employees and have passed a mandate to hire more. When the Glovatrix team initially spoke to them, deaf employees said their roles were limited to serving water, lifting plates, or opening doors. They were not able to take orders or communicate with guests due to the communication barrier. Their personal growth was limited. A normal waiter may grow to become a manager, but deaf employees were stuck.