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Robotic Hand Translates Speech into Sign Language
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Tue Jan 17, 2006 08:41 AM
from the look-ma-no-hands dept.
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.'"
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How to sign First Post? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:How to sign First Post? (Score:2)
Re:How to sign First Post? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:How to sign First Post? (Score:3, Informative)
Universal Sign Language (Score:2)
Yup, much the same as how, unfortunately, no one's come up with a universal spoken or written language. Gosh, let alone trying to get a universal programming language...
Re:How to sign First Post? (Score:5, Informative)
The relationship between a language & sign language does not work like that.
From the wikipedia sign language page [wikipedia.org] and 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)
Parent
Re:How to sign First Post? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How to sign First Post? (Score:3, Informative)
Sorta, but not quite. You can fingerspell words you don't know, and some words are derived from their associated lett
Scutters! (Score:2, Funny)
Additional warning:
Do not let this robot pat you on the back whilst near the top of the stairs.
Over Kill? (Score:5, Insightful)
Text is not the same (Score:3, Insightful)
American Sign Language is not English (American or other).
Thus, translating speech to ASL would reach people that that understand ASL but don't read Englih.
Signing, but not reading (Score:3, Interesting)
It is my understanding that children can learn to sign before they can learn to read. (In fact hearing children can learn to sign before learning to speak.)
Similarly, developmentally challenged people, such as certain people with Down's Syndrome, never learn to read, but can sign just fine.
Reading takes certain specific brain functions, and it is not inconceivable that there
Re:Over Kill? (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Parent
Visibility? (Score:2)
Does it also distinguish... (Score:2, Interesting)
I seem to recall that sign languages differ between countries, same as 'natural' language.
However this is really great for deaf people.
Picture of robotic hand (Score:5, Funny)
More Useful As Software (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
it's about form factor (Score:5, Funny)
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?
Parent
Amy Pretty (Score:3, Funny)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112715/ [imdb.com]
I've gotta hand it to these scientists (Score:3, Funny)
So it's not just a hand, but a hand with two legs!
This gives a whole new meaning (Score:5, Funny)
The article makes no sense (Score:3, Interesting)
Universal Signs (Score:2)
It would be interesting to know how these motions translate, if at all.
Recognziing Sign Language (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
I bet deaf people hate it (Score:3, Insightful)