Roy Allela, a Kenyan youth has invented tech that uses a Bluetooth enabled smartphone and a mobile app to help decode sign language into audible speech.

Sign-io’s sign language to speech translation gloves recognizes various letters signed by sign language users and transmits this data to an Android application where it is vocalized.

As per Business Insider, Allela won the admiration and recognition by the prestigious American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the world’s largest organization for mechanical engineers, during its 2017 ASME Innovation Showcase (ISHOW) competition.

Roy Allela shared $500,000 in cash and in-kind prizes, along with three other winners in Bangalore, India, and three more in Washington, DC.

More than 30 million people around the globe suffer from speech impairments and heavily rely on sign language. Therefore creating a barrier for non-sign language users.

And, Allela was no stranger to this dilemma. It was his 9-year old niece who was born deaf that pushed him to create this piece of tech.