Frame Sixty Wins “Best Societal Impact” at the 2025 Auggie Awards for Vision Pro ASL Translator

On June 11, 2025, the Frame Sixty team took the stage at AWE USA 2025 to accept the Auggie Award for “Best Societal Impact.” Our winning entry? A real‑time American Sign Language (ASL) translator for Apple Vision Pro—technology designed to tear down communication barriers between Deaf and hearing communities.

The Auggie Awards are the XR industry’s longest‑running awards program, celebrating breakthrough achievements in augmented, virtual, and mixed reality since 2010. In their 16th year, AWE received a record number of nominations and votes across 19 categories; winners were announced live in Long Beach, California.

Our Vision Pro application leverages Vision Pro’s sub‑millimeter hand‑tracking and advanced gesture‑recognition to translate ASL instantly into on‑device speech and text. Visual overlays provide real‑time feedback, empowering users to sign accurately while communicating naturally—without an interpreter. The goal: independence, inclusion, and smoother interaction in classrooms, workplaces, and everyday life.

1. Mobile Beginnings (2017–2019). Our journey began on smartphones, where we experimented with camera‑based gesture recognition and built the first dataset to translate core ASL phrases.

2. Vision Pro Ideation & Prototyping (2023–2024). Leveraging Vision Pro’s sub‑millimeter hand‑tracking APIs, we ported our gesture engine to spatial computing and validated real‑time translation accuracy.

3. Submission & Judging (2025). After public voting and expert review, our translator topped the Best Societal Impact category, earning recognition for measurable positive change.

• Accessibility at Scale: Real‑time translation amplifies independence for more than 70 million global signers.

• Proof of XR’s Social Good: The award underscores how spatial computing can solve real‑world challenges beyond entertainment.

• Momentum for Virtual reality development: The project validates Vision Pro as a platform for life‑changing applications and fuels further R&D in inclusive XR.

• Expanded Language Recognition Database — adding more ASL variants, British Sign Language (BSL), Japanese Sign Language (JSL), and other international systems for broader global reach.

• Edge‑AI Optimizations — lower latency models to support offline translation.

• Enterprise Integrations — APIs for hospitals, universities, and public‑service kiosks.

• Open‑Source Gesture Datasets — contributing anonymized hand‑motion data to accelerate accessible Virtual reality development across the industry.

Thank you for celebrating this milestone with us. To explore partnerships or learn more about our award‑winning work in Virtual reality development, reach out at [email protected] or visit the project page.