SUPERIOR, Wis. — In far northern Wisconsin, a college student from Armenia developed a technology that could potentially help others.
Hayk Arzumanyan is an international student at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. He recently completed a research project and shared his findings at the Wisconsin State Capitol.
When choosing a college four years ago, Arzumanyan said UW-Superior seemed like the perfect fit to dive into his passions of computer science and mathematics.
As part of a fellowship, he and one of his professors, Sergi Bezroukov, have been working for nearly a year to develop and program a battery-powered device that recognizes and translates human movements and gestures.
“The machine is identifying human gestures in real space and time,” Arzumanyan said. “So, if you have it in your hand, or if you are holding it, or if it is attached to your body, your motions — as far as it’s trained to understand — your motions will be understood by the machine.”
He said he hopes that it can help people with disabilities or those who rely on American sign language.
“This way, having a device on their hands, the communication can be way smoother and faster in real time, so you don’t have a lag in communication,” he said.
Arzumanyan also said this type of technology could be beneficial for the growing fields of gaming and virtual reality.
“If you can train the machine learning device to understand some of the features, then the gestures will be translated instantly to the machine, so gamers would really appreciate it,” Arzumanyan said.
Bezroukov is well known across the world for his work in computer science. He works with many students on projects like this. He said seeing his student excel is the best part of the job.
“As their professor, it’s a great pleasure,” said Bezroukov. “So, I consider my students my kids, and I really enjoy watching their growth.”
Through this project, the two have been able to form a close bond rooted in math and science. Arzumanyan graduates from UW-Superior in May with a degree in computer science and a minor in mathematics.
He said he believes this work will serve as a strong foundation for whatever comes next.
“It was a great experience working with him (Professor Bezroukov),” he said. “I learned a lot of things that I am going to use in my professional career in the future.”