http://www.drum.co.za1 AUGUST (^2019) | 15
LEFT: In June,
at London
Tech Week,
Luckyhadthe
opportunityto
demonstrate
howthe
glovesensors
workin
combination
withtheapp.
Hesaysthere’s
beeninterest
frominvestors
inChinaand
AbuDhabi.
onthe other end of the phone,”
plains.
e idea has been around since the
0swhen researchers began exploring
whumans could interact with com-
tersusing gestures. In 2017 a team
the University of California, San
iego, in the USA developed a glove
asedon American sign language.
Lucky’s glove and app system is
first designed with South Africa in
d as it can convert movement into
e inall 11 official languages.
IS parents’ deafness had a
profound impact on his
childhood in the village of
Nzhelele in Limpopo. Lucky
and his three younger sib-
lings, Phathutshedzo (now
25),Denga (21) and Rendani (19), went
tolivewith their grandmother, Masindi
Mudzunga, in the village of Hamutsha
because of the challenges they faced
being raised by deaf parents.
Lucky would visit Selinah and
Abraham only during school holidays.
This impeded his ability to learn sign
language and increased his yearning
to connect with his mom and dad.
“I tried my best to learn how to sign,”
he says, “but you can imagine how
difficult it was just popping in for visits,
then having to leave again. Still, I tried
to learn the basics.”
He says Selinah can hear him if he pro-
jects his voice loudly, and often acts as an
interpreter between him and his father.
Lucky finds it painful to see his parents
living in isolation and having limited in-
teraction with the world around them.
“It’s difficult for a deaf person to go out
becauseofthecommunicationbarrier.
Mymomhardlyevergoesoutandbarely
hasfriends,”Luckysays.
Hesaystheirprivacyisalsoinfringed
uponastheycan’tdosimplethings,such
asopena bankaccount,withouthelp.
Luckyalsowitnessedhisfatherstrug-
gle to find employment after he lost his
job at a cooldrink-manufacturing com-
pany that employed deaf people.
He lived with his parents for much of
his matric year and when he left to study
financial management at Tshwane
North College in Pretoria he became in-
creasingly concerned about them.
“I had a lot of anger because my par-
ents can’t do anything for themselves.
I’d worry if I wasn’t there. Who’d help
with their everyday life? There were no
systems in place to help them,” he says.
So began his mission.
In 2015, with no background in infor-
mation technology, Lucky worked tire-
lessly to develop a device that would
make communication easier for the deaf.
“While I was busy doing research
visiting schools for the disabled – espe-
cially Filadelfia Secondary School in
So shanguve – I kept learning more about
the challenges they faced,” he says.
Lucky then came up with the idea for
the mobile app connected to the glove
sensor and worked on it with the help of
software developer Tebogo Mthombeni.
The prototype was officially launched
this year but even before then it had
piqued the interest of international in-
vestors in June at a London tech expo.
Lucky was able to travel to the English
capital with help from the South African
Department of Trade and Industry.
“Wehada lotofinterest– people from
China, the health department in London
and even an investment scheme from
Abu Dhabi that wants to incorporate
this glove sensor system at their call
centre for deaf clients,” he says.
So far there’s also been interest in SA,
including from a tertiary institution in
Pretoria and government departments
that have indicated they have many
hearing-impaired employees, Lucky says.
L
UCKY believes his glove-sensor
app system will help deaf
people participate in life more
fully and with greater ease.
“When deaf people go to shops
or restaurants there aren’t any
people fluent in sign language, which
means they need pen and paper to
make themselves understood but that’s
an outdated system. We’re in the fourth
industrial revolution and we need to tap
into that technology,” he says.
He recently quit his job as a financial
manager to focus on his company,
Rudzambilu Holdings, which he founded
in 2016. The Communi*Care Glove Sen-
sors system, which is still a prototype, was
self-funded and his aim is to secure fund-
ing to manufacture the glove in bulk.
“We’re still looking for funding – we
need several million rand,” Lucky says.
His first production target is 10
units and the goal is to distribute them
where they’re needed around South Af-
rica through purchases by government
departments and corporate entities.
Lucky is interested not only in helping
the hearing impaired – he’s focusing on
developing telecommunications systems
for persons with other disabilities too.
“We have a stick in the pipeline for the
visually impaired and we’re developing
a system that will help people who don’t
have arms with writing,” he says.
“I want Rudzambilu to be one of the
leading companies providing help to
persons with disabilities but we want
to start with rural areas, with people in
communities that are seriously in need
of this,” he tells us.
Once the ball is rolling, Lucky is certain
he’ll station one of the company’s man-
ufacturing workshops in Limpopo.
“The invention is from Limpopo, so it
makes sense to start at home,” he says.
“I’mdoingthisfrommyheart.I don’t
thinkofmoneywhenI domyjob.I think
aboutpeoplewhoneedtobehelped.”
EXTRA SOURCES: THEATLANTIC.COM, SIGNALOUD.COMThe app translates a hearing person’s
spoken words into an animation of
South African sign language.SHARON SERETLO, SUPPLIED
signs
heexp
The
1980
how
put
at
Di
ba
L
the
min
voice25) DNEWS