Translation and conversion for Czech sign speech synthesis

Abstract

Recent research progress in developing of Czech Sign Speech synthesizer is presented. The current goal is to improve a system for automatic synthesis to produce accurate synthesis of the Sign Speech. The synthesis system converts written text to an animation of an artificial human model. This includes translation of text to sign phrases and its conversion to the animation of an avatar. The animation is composed of movements and deformations of segments of hands, a head and also a face. The system has been evaluated by two initial perceptual tests. The perceptual tests indicate that the designed synthesis system is capable to produce intelligible Sign Speech. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.