Two students from the University of Washington have invented gloves with the capability to translate American Sign Language (ASL) into speech in real time.

The sensors in the gloves will allow a deaf or hard of hearing person to transmit hand and wrist movements made through ASL via Bluetooth to a computer program created by student Thomas Pryor, reports Buzzfeed. The program then translates this into speech in real-time.

Despite apparently building the prototype on a budget of just $100, Pryor and his partner, Navid Azodi, have been awarded $10-15,000 in funding from the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize.

"Access to communication is a basic, fundamental human right, and every single person deserves to be a part of a global community," said Azodi in a demonstration video. "However, those who are deaf or mute communicate differently than everyone else. They primarily use sign language, while the rest of the world communicates verbally. This puts the deaf-mute community at a disadvantage.

"We wanted to create something that would help the deaf and mute better communicate with the rest of the world, without changing how they already interact with each other."

Uber has recently made it easier for its deaf drivers to communicate with passengers, with the company working with the Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD) to create online Uber video support guides in ASL, host sign-up events for the deaf community across the US, and partner with the CSD ASL-based customer experience team once drivers get started.