The development and evaluation of a speech to sign translation system to assist transactions.
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Date
2003Author
Cox, Stephen
Lincoln, Michael
Nakisa, Melanie
Wells, Mark
Tutt, Marcus
Abbott, Sanja
Metadata
Abstract
The design, development, and evaluation of an experimental translation system that aims to aid transactions between a deaf person and a clerk in a post office (PO) is described. The system uses a speech recognizer to recognize speech from a PO clerk and then synthesizes recognized phrases in British Sign language (BSL) using a specially developed avatar. The main objective in developing this prototype system was to determine how useful it would be to a customer whose first language was BSL, and to discover what areas of the system required more research and development to make it more effective. The system was evaluated by 6 prelingually profoundly deaf people and 3 PO clerks. Deaf users and PO clerks were supportive of the system, but the former group required a higher quality of signing from the avatar and the latter a system that was less constrained in the phrases it could recognize; both these areas are being addressed in the next phase of development.