With Tokyo Startup’s New Gloves, Deafblind People Get the Digital World at Their Fingertips

Haruki Inaba uses a prototype of Ubitone Inc.’s gloves. The app shows a message that Inaba produced through finger taps in the gloves.
7:00 JST, January 25, 2025
A startup is developing innovative devices to ensure that no deafblind person is left behind in the accelerating pace of the information age.
At a booth at a three-day exhibition for assistive technology in Tokyo in December, Ubitone, Inc. demonstrated its flagship product: an app and a pair of accompanying gloves that, through “finger braille,” facilitate wireless communication for deafblind people.
Developed by the mother of University of Tokyo Prof. Satoshi Fukushima, who is deafblind himself, finger braille makes use of finger taps on the hands of another person to convey messages, which allows for deafblind people to communicate with others, and for others to communicate with them.
Ubitone’s app translates voice or text into the finger braille code and sends it via Bluetooth to the gloves. The fingers of the gloves then vibrate, emulating finger taps and conveying messages to the gloves’ wearer. The app can also turn the finger taps made by the wearer into text displayed on a screen.

Haruki Inaba, center, is seen with Ubitone Co-President Koji Sato, right, Co-President Eitaro Yamatsuta, second from right, and others at an exhibition for assistive devices in Tokyo in December.
There is no limit to the number of words or characters that the app can process, meaning deafblind people can use the technology not only for long-form communication but also to consume audiobooks, news and other types of digital information and entertainment.
Currently, Ubitone plans to put the gloves on the market in autumn this year at a price of about ¥100,000-¥200,000. However, the company aims to get the product officially designated as an assistive device by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which would qualify it for a government subsidy. The subsidy covers at least 90% of the cost of assistive devices, meaning consumers would only be expected to pay around ¥10,000-¥20,000.
The company’s guiding philosophy is to “leave no one behind,” a principle of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Haruki Inaba, a deafblind individual, trialed the gloves at the Tokyo exhibition. “I think the device will be helpful [in my daily life],” he told The Japan News via email.
He added that he felt there was a lack of devices in Japan targeting people who have problems with their eyesight.
“People say there has been an IT revolution, but for deafblind people, it still feels like access to information and technology is lagging,” he said. “Without a Ubitone-style revolution, deafblind people will continue to be restricted in what we can do.”
Ubitone Co-President Eitaro Yamatsuta explained that he came up with the idea for the gloves while on a tour of Silicon Valley for young entrepreneurs in 2018. The nonprofit organization Benetech shared an audiobook about blind people with the tour group, and another person on the tour remarked that her deafblind friend would be unable to hear it.
The remark was an eye-opener for Yamatsuta, as he “was completely unaware of deafblind people and didn’t even know that such a disability existed at that time.” He wondered, “How can I share the book with [her friend]?”
That question led to Ubitone’s founding two years later.
“As long as there are people who are unable to access information and communication and who, as a result, feel their freedom restricted, I believe that a truly prosperous and fair society cannot be achieved,” Yamatsuta said.
The company is also working on expanding its product line to more broadly meet the needs of many types of disabilities.
“Originally, we only planned to sell the gloves,” Co-President Koji Sato said. “But we talked with deafblind people and began developing products to address the extensive and diverse needs that we learned they have.”
One such need became clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, when deafblind people were unable to take their own temperature because they could not see their thermometer. To address this, Ubitone made their app compatible with Bluetooth thermometers developed by Tokyo-based A&D Co., so that the displayed temperature can be conveyed by the app to a smartphone or smartwatch, which will then vibrate the number as a simple code.
The company is also developing an ankle bracelet that uses radio-frequency identification, or RFID, to communicate with devices that will be placed under the yellow tiles on subway platforms. The bracelet will provide vibration-based information and warnings.
“We realized that our products can also be used by people with limb disabilities and speech disabilities, and we are thinking about expanding into a business that meets the needs of all disabilities,” Sato said.
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