Chennai: A smart glass that tracks the sign language of people with hearing and speech disabilities and converts it into audio in any Indian language was one of the innovations on display at the Vellore Institute of Technology’s (VIT) tech festival.VIT Chennai’s two-day international technical festival, technoVIT’26, was inaugurated on Thursday, with this year’s edition focusing on “Inclusive Innovations” and using technology to address societal challenges. More than 15,000 participants from 14 countries are taking part in the festival, which features 140 events spanning artificial intelligence, robotics, fintech, gaming, IoT, healthcare and green technology.On the sidelines, TOI spoke to the team behind the smart glasses, named Smart Perception and Assistive Reality Companion (SPARC). Vedant N, a third-year Computer Science Engineering (CSE) student, said a team of five CSE third- and fourth-year students spent two months building the model. “A camera fitted into a wearable glass captures the hand movements. Then we have a detection mechanism to locate fingers and joints, which converts the loaded gestures into text or speech,” he said. The team also holds a design patent for the model.Others in the team were Harsh Yadav, Avishkar Jaiswal, Amol Bhatia and Divyam Madan.Chief guest Aleksandr Fomin, Deputy Consul General of the Russian Federation in Chennai, said that India and Russia shared a ‘time-tested relationship’ spanning eight decades. He said the economic relationship between the two countries was rapidly expanding, with both sides looking to cooperate beyond traditional areas. India and Russia are working together in peaceful nuclear energy, space and digital technologies, including critical and emerging fields, he said.Fomin said the goal is not to exchange finished projects but to connect laboratories, universities, startups, and youth for knowledge.Russia aims to have at least 5 lakh international students pursuing higher education by 2030, he said. At present, students from 185 countries study in Russia, with Indians accounting for around 7% of the international student population, he added.Guest of Honour of technoVIT, H Arulselvam, vice-president – pperations & logistics, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles .said, “Technology is neither good nor bad. It depends on the person who uses it. But it becomes valuable only when it improves human life.”VIT pro vice chancellor T Thyagarajan, VIT vice president G V Selvam, VIT founder G Vishwanathan were also present.
