VideoTRAN: A translation framework for audiovisual face-to-face conversations

Abstract

Face-to-face communication remains the most powerful human interaction. Electronic devices can never fully replace the intimacy and immediacy of people conversing in the same room, or at least via a videophone. There are many subtle cues provided by facial expressions and vocal intonation that let us know how what we are saying is affecting the other person. Transmission of these nonverbal cues is very important when translating conversations from a source language into a target language. This chapter describes VideoTRAN, a conceptual framework for translating audiovisual face-to-face conversations. A simple method for audiovisual alignment in the target language is proposed and the process of audiovisual speech synthesis is described. The VideoTRAN framework has been tested in a translating videophone. An H.323 software client translating videophone allows for the transmission and translation of a set of multimodal verbal and nonverbal clues in a multilingual face-to-face communication setting. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.