A virtual signer to interpret SignWriting

Abstract

In the absence of a standardized writing system to transcribe their native sign language, deaf signers cannot communicate between each other in their own language except face-to-face. They can't leave messages, read books take class notes and send email in sign language. Certainly, being able to read and write their own language would bring to these signers the same advantage that writing systems for spoken languages bring to speakers. SignWriting system seems at present the most appropriate method that could meet the deaf needs than other existing notations, as it was intended as an everyday tool for reading and writing. However, such script requires a training to learn to interpret the proposed transcriptions. In this paper, we present an avatar-based system named, tuniSigner, able to display and interpret automatically sign language transcriptions, in the well known SignWriting system. Showing how the actual gestures should be performed in virtual reality would be very useful to signers. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.