Providing signed content on the Internet by synthesized animation

Abstract

Written information is often of limited accessibility to deaf people who use sign language. The eSign project was undertaken as a response to the need for technologies enabling efficient production and distribution over the Internet of sign language content. By using an avatar-independent scripting notation for signing gestures and a client-side web browser plug-in to translate this notation into motion data for an avatar, we achieve highly efficient delivery of signing, while avoiding the inflexibility of video or motion capture. Tests with members of the deaf community have indicated that the method can provide an acceptable quality of signing.

Evaluation of a psycholinguistically motivated timing model for animations of american sign language

“…Software that can display computer-generated animations of American Sign Language can make more information, communication, and services accessible to these users. These ASL animations may be scripted by a content developer [13,19] or generated by Englishto-ASL automatic machine translation software [2,12,14,17].…”

“…Several projects have focused on the synthesis of animations of virtual humans performing sign language [3,5,12,16] (and surveys in [12,13]). For example, several years of European projects have contributed to the eSIGN project, which creates technologies for content developers to build sign databases in a symbolic notation, assemble scripts of signing performance for use on accessible web pages, and allow viewers to see animations on their web browser [13].…”

“…For example, several years of European projects have contributed to the eSIGN project, which creates technologies for content developers to build sign databases in a symbolic notation, assemble scripts of signing performance for use on accessible web pages, and allow viewers to see animations on their web browser [13]. SignSmith Studio [19], discussed in section 3.1, is a commercial tool for scripting ASL animations.…”

“…Software that can display computer-generated animations of American Sign Language can make more information, communication, and services accessible to these users. These ASL animations may be scripted by a content developer [13,19] or generated by Englishto-ASL automatic machine translation software [2,12,14,17].ASL signing conveys information at the same rate as spoken English [1], but the average speed at which most adults can read English text is much faster than the speed of spoken English audio. For deaf adults with low literacy to access information at a speed comparable to English-reading adults, ASL animations would need to be displayed quickly (while maintaining their understandability).…”

Improving Spatial Reference in American Sign Language Animation through Data Collection from Native ASL Signers

“…In fact, the majority of deaf high school graduates in the U.S. have a fourth-grade (age 10) English reading level [9]; consequently, many deaf people find it difficult to read English text on computers, captioned television, or other applications. Software to display computer-generated animations of sign language can make more information and services accessible to these users [3] [8] [12] [14] [18]. Unfortunately, essential aspects of ASL are not yet modeled by modern computational linguistic software; ASL signers associate entities under discussion with 3D locations around their bodies during a conversation.…”