Open issues and challenges in automatic sign language translation systems

Abstract

More than 466 million people suffer from hearing disability comprising of 34 million children and 432 million adults worldwide. People of deaf community are mostly in an uncomfortable situation while visiting or travelling at public places without a sign interpreter. Deaf people are unable to understand any public announcements made at public places. They remain ignorant about the choosing of counter/gate/platform number without the assistance of a sign interpreter. Translation of spoken language to sign language is a very exigent task due to non-availability of standard grammar rules and lack of sign language dictionaries. Sign language translation possesses many challenges. In this paper, open issues and challenges in automatic sign language translation are addressed and future directions are also provided to encounter these issues and challenges. Proper handling of these issues and challenges can help in meeting the communication needs of deaf people at public places very effectively. The development of automatic sign language translation systems in public domains is also discussed.