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A.L.I.C.E. The A.L.I.C.E. (Audiovisual Language Interpreting Computer Emulator) is a portable translating unit that acts as a liaison between the deaf and the hearing, eliminating the need for a human translator. More importantly, it creates an atmosphere of self-reliance and privacy, while still enabling its deaf user to communicate through sign language. A more natural and open conversational environment is possible, where the deaf can comfortably sign-speak, while the hearing can simply talk. With this unit, the communication and other social barriers between the deaf and the hearing may be eliminated. The unit, approximately the same size as a laptop computer, sits on a desktop or any other flat surface, and is used with the top open, facing the deaf user. The user then signs in front of the unit. The hearing user, in turn, speaks toward the unit, where a built-in microphone picks up the audio signal. The audio signal is digitized and sent to the processors, which in turn manipulate the information into a computer-animated image on the monitor. This computer-animated image signs the message for the deaf user to understand. ALICE was named after Alice Cogswell, Mason Cogswell's deaf daughter, who inspired her father and another man, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to form Gallaudet University, the world's premiere college for the deaf.
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Two stereoscopic cameras "read" the sign language, and send the signals to the processors. The processors translate the information into an audible language that is then spoken by ALICE's computer voice, so that the hearing person can understand. 
By using three Pentium chips processing symmetrically, all computer functions will have virtually no waiting period, so that a deaf-hearing conversation can take place in real time, without the need for a human translator. A typing pad for both the deaf and hearing user is supplied, for cases in which the computer is unable to translate fluently. 