6th Workshop on Sign Language Translation and Avatar Technology

Hamburg, Germany, Sept 29, 2019

Recent advances in virtual character technology and a common trend toward the 3D internet have the potential to achieve full accessibility for the deaf/Deaf in the internet and to provide key tools to facilitate participation in a hearing world. Prior work on the topic of sign language translation using avatars has explored an impressive range of methods in various languages and application domains.

Future projects will profit from a joint effort of international experts to look back on the work done and identify and specify the remaining problems (or those only partially solved) in specific areas, such as symbolic translation and sign language animation. The motivation is threefold: First, discussing problems in detail will reveal potential solutions and, second, will lead to an exchange of ideas across sign language boundaries. Third, a common agreement on problems hopefully leads to a higher comparability of results and even objective benchmarks.

We focus on three main topics: symbolic translation of sign language, animation of sign language using avatars, and usability evaluation of practical translation and animation systems.

The format encourages discussion and collaboration between researchers. We have a mix of oral/signed presentations as well as poster presentations covering active work and proposed research. There are opportunities for demonstration of existing work and presentation of videos.

The workshop takes place directly after TISLR at the Institute of German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf, Gorch-Fock-Wall 7, 20354 Hamburg.

Workshop languages are English and International Sign.

Link to the workshop series

SYMBOLIC TRANSLATION
• Lexicographic and linguistic approaches
• Use of corpora to inform translation
• Modelling of signing space for translation
• Handling of productive signs, classifier constructions, and constructed action
• Incorporation of non-manual features in production
• Consideration of emotional and prosodic aspects

AVATAR ANIMATION
• Requirements for signing avatar technology
• Linguistically-informed notations for gestural animation
• Use of corpora to inform animation
• Realistic animation of manual and bodily gestures
• Flexibility in animation of facial gestures and mouthing

USABILITY
• Evaluation results for practical translation systems
• Evaluation methodologies for signing translation systems
• Realism and acceptability of signing avatars
• Efficient content creation and editing tools for signing texts

Schedule