Towards a dialogue system based on recognition and synthesis of Japanese sign language

Abstract

This paper describes a dialogue system based on the recognition and synthesis of Japanese sign language. The purpose of this system is to support conversation between people with hearing impairments and hearing people. The system consists of five main modules: sign-language recognition and synthesis, voice recognition and synthesis, and dialogue control. The sign-language recognition module uses a stereo camera and a pair of colored gloves to track the movements of the signer, and signlanguage synthesis is achieved by regenerating the motion data obtained by an optical motion capture system. An experiment was done to investigate changes in the gaze-line of hearing-impaired people when they read sign language, and the results are reported.