The EUD is proud to be working on SignSpeak, a EU-funded three-year project that aims to increase the linguistic understanding of sign languages to eventually create a software that is able to translate signing into text or speech. Similar projects have achieved this for spoken language translations, such as Arabic or English. 

The project will work on gaining insight about sign language structures from a new point of view: A computer will be trained to understand and translate not only individual signs but whole sentences and conversations. To achieve this the SignSpeak system will track the dominant and non-dominant hands, facial expressions and also body posture.To be able to understand sign language, the computer has to take into account the signs before and after, i.e. the context of the produced sign.

This project could have large implications on the Deaf community, possibly allowing them to communicate with hearing people without having to use a relay service: In a few years a Deaf person might be able to simply sign into the camera and a hearing person could either hear a translation or read it on the screen. It is not yet possible to do so but this project is a step towards realising new e-technologies for Deaf people. 

The EUD is involved in this project to ensure the end-user (i.e. the Deaf community) is adequately represented and is able to use the software. To manage this project, the EUD is working together with four research centres and one industrial partner in several European countries: Spain, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. 

The project has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement n° 231424 (FP-ICT-2007-3. Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics - STREP).

Small or Medium-Scale Focused Research Project (STREP)

Project Start Date: 1 April 2009

Project Duration: 36 months

For further information please consult the SignSpeak website .