Automatic Sign Language Translation to Improve Communication

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2019-04-07

Authors

Fernando Maciel Barbosa (Author) FEUP; Tiago Oliveira (Author) Other; Emanuel Rocha (Author) Other; Nuno Escudeiro (Author) Other; Paula Escudeiro (Author) Other

Conference proceedings International

Title: IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference

Pages: 937-942

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 1 Citation

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 1 Citation

INSPEC

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00Q-QKR

DOI: 10.1109/educon.2019.8725244

Abstract (EN): Over the last years, there has been an increase in hearing-impaired students who use sign language as their main form of communication attending higher education institutions around the world. The knowledge that their comprehension of texts is reduced due to sentence structure differences causes a need for more solutions to improve communication and support students in environments where they are unable to be accompanied by sign interpreters. This article details the improvements and current structure of the VirtualSign platform, a bidirectional sign language to text translation tool that has been in development since 2015. The platform is divided into two main parts, sign to text and text to sign, and both components are described and explained. The solution has received positive feedback on several tests and a pilot experiment, and is being developed with partnerships with sign interpreters from six different European countries. Some planned improvements and future functionalities for the tool are also mentioned and detailed.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6