Chinese Sign Language animation generation considering context

Abstract

Sign language (SL) is a kind of natural language for the deaf. Chinese Sign Language (CSL) synthesis aims to translate text into virtual human animation, which makes information and service accessible to the deaf. Generally, sign language animation based on key frames is realized by concatenating sign words captured independently. That means a sign language word has the same pattern in diverse context, which is different from realistic sign language expression. This paper studies the effect of context on manual gesture and non-manual gesture, and presents a method for generating stylized manual gesture and non-manual gesture according to the context. Experimental results show that synthesized sign language animation considering context based on the proposed method is more accurate and intelligible than that irrespective of context.