According to the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) over 70 million people are deaf and communicate primarily via a sign language (SL). Currently, human interpreters are the main medium for sign-to-spoken, spoken-to-sign and sign-to-sign language translation. The availability and cost of these professionals is often a limiting factor in communication between signers and non-signers.
Machine translation (MT) is a core technique for reducing language barriers [for spoken languages]. Although MT has come a long way since its inception in the 1950s, it still has a long way to go to successfully cater to all communication needs and users. When it comes to the deaf community, MT is in its infancy.
The rapid technological and methodological advances in deep learning (DL), and in AI in general, that we have seen in the last decade, have not only improved Machine Translation, the recognition of image, video and audio signals, as well as the understanding of language, and the synthesis of life-like 3D avatars, etc., but have also led to the fusion of interdisciplinary research innovations that lays the foundation of automated translation services between sign and spoken languages.
This workshop aims to be a venue for presenting and discussing (complete, ongoing or future) research on automatic translation between sign and spoken languages.
A multifaceted task like the automated translation between sign and spoken languages requires a multidisciplinary collaboration. This one-day workshop aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, interpreters and innovators who focus on sign language linguistics, machine translation, natural language processing, interpreting of sign and spoken languages, image and video recognition (for the purpose of sign language recognition), 3D avatar and virtual signers synthesis, and other related fields, to discuss problems, challenges and opportunities for the automated translation of sign-to-spoken, spoken-to-sign and sign-to-sign communication.
This workshop will facilitate the open communication between different communities and professionals with diverse backgrounds through: (i) two key-note presentations; (ii) a panel discussion; and (iii) presentations of peer-reviewed papers submitted to the workshop.
Please, click here for the programme and call for papers.
