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The person we often see on television programmes translating spoken words into sign-language could soon become a computerised avatar. Researchers at IBM have developed a technology that can detect and translate speech, then produce corresponding sign-language gestures, and this flexible new method may soon be used in a variety of different fields.

The system is called SiSi, short for Say It Sign It, and it was in fact created by a group of students. It uses speech recognition to animate a digital character. An intriguing video of it being used can be seen on this clip. The technology has gained approval from the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) who are excited by the developments. As a spokesperson from RNID, director of new technologies Guido Gybels says:

“RNID welcomes any development that would make the information society a more equal place for deaf and hard of hearing people. Sign language users are among the most disenfranchised citizens as a result of services and products not being designed with their needs in mind.”

He explains, however, that it may be quite a while before the system becomes common in everyday use as there is so much that needs to be done to boost the accuracy of the device and also make it easy to attach to appliances. Nevertheless, the technology is great news as there is a serious need in the UK for more facilities for the deaf, with a human interpreter not always being available. Computerised sign-language will eventually make it easy for meetings, radio and TV to employ automatic services for the deaf.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 15th, 2007 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Technology, Lifestyle, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.