High-Tech Translator.

• Position: DEAF CULTURE

Hundreds of thousands of people use American Sign Language (A.S.L.) to communicate-but if they encounter someone who doesn't know sign language, having a conversation can be tricky. That's why bioengineers at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently designed a glove that translates A.S.L into English using a smartphone. Sensors on the gloves pick up motion and transmit the information to the phone, which then speaks those words in English. Some members of the Deaf community are critical of the invention, however, pointing out that signers can already communicate by writing on paper or using...