Automatic Sign Language Translator for Accessibility
Awards:
- 15 minutes of glory SIMO NETWORK
- FICOD – third place, best Innovative Business ModelFICOD
The Technical Institute of Castilla y León and associates signed an agreement in order to add 1500 signs to our interpret Maya and create a new translation service of web pages in real time.
With this project we expect to improve the accessibility of several contents to persons with hearing impairment who communicate through the Spanish Sign Language (Lengua de Signos Española – LSE).
Under this project agreement between XUL and ITCL, the Maya’s translations will be improved by the increased vocabulary size, from 350 to 2500 new words approximately. With this improvement and the new online service, XUL will manage to produce a commercialisable product from the initial prototype.
The project is currently presented in several forums, awarded by great reception from the participants, standing out in the “feria del SIMO” , where it won the project “15 minutes of glory”, the “Broadcast it”fair , the “CARVI 2011” conference and a large number of apparitions in the media. Maya, our virtual translator had improved significantly from the first iterations, now with high degree of expressiveness and realism, as can be seen from the following pictures. Thanks to this tool, we expect to improve the accessibility of web pages, public services, administrative pages.
Demonstration of the Automatic Sign Language Translator
TextoSign Texto to Language conversion, version 1.0
ITCL has a cooperative project in conjunction with the enterprise XUL Comunicacíon Social from Cordoba aiming to create a conversion tool from text to sign language. XUL is responsible for the text translation whether ITCL is responsible
for the representation of said signs through a virtual character, in real time.
The “virtual interpret” is able to express through sign language a set of given phrases, using a list containing 350 signs which will be further expanded. In the case of a sign or word not present on the list, the word is spelled out. The translator allows exporting the translated phrases to a video format, in order to be integrated in a web page or instructional video, or the real time visualization of the virtual interpret.
The 3D visualization of the interpret allows observe the execution of the sign from any angle or position, which has a potential as educational tool for teaching sign language. It is also possible to visualize each signal individually or with natural transitions between each other, as would occur in a conversation.
More information about the complete project can be accessed from www.textosign.es
