Do you have any idea how this is done for the deaf?

Question

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RarMKnjqzZU

Do you have any idea how this is done? How do we convert each spoken word to a sign for the deaf?

Answer 1

Sign language is a series of gestures and body language. It was developed to communicate with the deaf. If you watch a person signing, you can see why these signs would indicate what they mean. Sort of a poetry in "motion". Our body language can give an idea of our mood. Our body language emphasises what we feel. When applied with signing, it is easier to determine what the person may be saying. Sign language can be quite wonderful to watch. It is very difficult to learn. You either get it, or you don't. As a child, I was deaf. I learned both sign language AND reading lips. However, I found that I was having difficuly understanding the signing of my family. They just didn't have the body language that goes with it. So I spent more time learning to read lips. I have since had two surgeries. I can hear about 70% of what the hearing person can hear. I still use my skill of reading lips. Comes in handy when my husband wants to know what swear was said when he's watching the game:) However, I have lost a lot of my signing skills. Unless it is used every day, it is mostly forgotton.

Answer 2

It depends on which language you're talking about, I guess. Converting each spoken English word into American Sign Language (ASL) just wouldn't be ASL... there isn't a sign for every word in English. You do realize that they're two different languages, right? It would make more sense to convert each spoken word into a word in print in the same language.

The youtube video is cool... but just not practical for communicating through ASL. Perhaps hearing people should just suck it up and learn how to use ASL and communicate with the Deaf instead of expecting the Deaf to something they physically can't really do - communicate with you the way you want them to.

Answer 3

voice recognition software has been around for years - if you wanted to you could talk-to-type using your Word Processor, or you can even set it up so that you can command a computer to load up a particular program. If you're running XP you can try this right now.

so now that the speech-to-text is worked out is incredibly simple to link a word or phrase to a Library of sign-language animations (as seen by the 3d animation)

As for how to get a deaf person to learn sign language i know little or nothing about it but i assume like all children; just without sound. Imagine holding up a sign that says 'Apple' next to an apple, next to a person performing the sign for apple.

Answer 4

Speech recognition has been around and they just took it a step further.

SiSi works by using speech recognition to convert a conversation into text. From there, SiSi translates the text into the gestures used in sign language and animates a customizable avatar that carries them out.