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Robotic Hand Translates Speech into Sign Language

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the look-ma-no-hands dept.

usermilk writes "Robot educators Keita Matsuo and Hirotsugu Sakai have created a robot hand that translate the spoken word into sign language for the deaf. From the article: 'A microchip in the robot recognizes the 50-character hiragana syllabary and about 10 simple phrases such as "ohayo" (good morning) and sends the information to a central computer, which sends commands to 18 micromotors in the joints of the robotic hand, translating the sound it hears into sign language.'"

10 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. How to sign First Post? by A+Dafa+Disciple · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Good lord! I imagine the Japanese language with its 1945+ character alphabet is hard enough to learn; learning Japanese sign language must really suck.

    You know what would really spoil those deaf kids is, instead of a robot doing sign language, a robot that shows images or words based on what a speaker says. I know, I know; creating a robot to do this is a feat within itself and impressive in its own right, but perhaps there are better ways of communicating with a robot if it can already perform more than adequate speech recognition.

    --

    Falun Dafa is good!
    1. Re:How to sign First Post? by tpgp · · Score: 4, Informative
      Good lord! I imagine the Japanese language with its 1945+ character alphabet is hard enough to learn; learning Japanese sign language must really suck.

      The relationship between a language & sign language does not work like that.

      From the wikipedia sign language page
      A common misconception is that sign languages are somehow dependent on oral languages, that is, that they are oral language spelled out in gesture, or that they were invented by hearing people
      and
      On the whole, deaf sign languages are independent of oral languages and follow their own paths of developmental. For example, British Sign Language and American Sign Language are quite different and mutually unintelligible, even though the hearing people of Britain and America share the same oral language.
      You know what would really spoil those deaf kids is, instead of a robot doing sign language, a robot that shows images or words based on what a speaker says.

      That doesn't really sound like a robot, but speech recognition software connected to a teleprompter (or monitor)
      --
      My pics.
  2. Over Kill? by xoip · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Call me culturally insensitive but, why not simply translate speech to text?

    1. Re:Over Kill? by tpgp · · Score: 4, Informative

      Call me culturally insensitive but, why not simply translate speech to text?

      Because signing is the native 'tongue' for most deaf people - and it is easier for them to communicate using sign language (over text) - just as its easier for you to understand speech (over text).

      Basically - the same reason that some British TV (and undoubtedly many other channels around the world) have a signer translating the news rather then scrolling text.

      --
      My pics.
  3. Picture of robotic hand by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny

    signing "I'll be back"

  4. More Useful As Software by Afty0r · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Would this not be more useful as software, able to render simple 3d hands with low microprocessor overheads, and preferably available for mobile phones and PDAs?

    Deaf people could carry a PDA, and when they need to find out what someone is saying, they can hold the PDA up like a microphone, and watch the screen, assuming the translation is at least reasonable accurate...
    Of course they could lipread too but some find that harder than others, and this could also be used eventually to cross language barriers?

    I imagine it's extremely hard to lipread a foreign language.

  5. Amy Pretty by Inkieminstrel · · Score: 3, Funny

    Tickle... Amy... Tickle

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112715/

  6. This gives a whole new meaning by sikandril · · Score: 5, Funny

    This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "talk to the hand"

  7. it's about form factor by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny
    Would this not be more useful as software?

    Yes but not nearly as intimidating. Who's going to get their lunch money taken -- deaf kid with a PDA, or deaf kid with a giant robot hand?

  8. Recognziing Sign Language by SWroclawski · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There's a researcher at Gallaudet working on the other side of this equation with a system designed to recognize sign langauge, which seems like a much harder problem.

    ASL isn't like English in that there are always specific words- a lot of it has to do with spacial context (where in the signing space the sign was made) and a whole class of signs that don't translate directly into words (they're hand shapes which can translate into an event or a description of an object or set of objects).

    And, as the research page shows, facial expressions and even facial movements can be part of a sign.

    Of course, this is American Sign Language, Japanese Sign Language may be very different.