SIGNER.AI - an AI-powered translator for Indian Sign-Language

Did you know? Most deaf people remain marginalized in society and do not get opportunities for education, employment, and entertainment because no content is available in sign-language . According to the World Health Organization, about 63 million people in India have a disabling hearing impairment. Among these, approximately 10% of the deaf are anticipated to use sign language as a primary mode of communication. Unfortunately, most of us (non-deaf people) don't understand sign-language and there are only about <500 certified Indian sign language interpreters in India. This limited supply, which is grossly inadequate to suffice the huge demand, and therefore makes it unaffordable, unavailable and unscalable for the deaf to access these services. As a result, they remain excluded from all growth & development parameters and remain less educated, less employed and therefore less utilized.

Our non-profit aims to resolve the scarcity of interpreters with our digital sign language translator, which will convert speech/ text into Indian Sign Language in real-time. We, in collaboration with IIIT-B, have been working on research and development for over 2 ½ years. We have developed a functional proof-of-concept with a word-bank of 300 sign-words. It is being built on state of art technologies such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing, 3-D animation, etc.

Unlike others, our project has a special focus on the beneficiaries that is people who are deaf and that is why it is being developed in consultation with users of Indian Sign-Language, our characters very human like, and have a special focus on facial expressions and the grammar of this unique language. Our word-bank have referenced the official dictionary released by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre. Consequently, deaf users are responding well and have scored it extremely high on understandability, clarity, and familiarity in our user-study.

You can support our initiative to scale-up this solution from the existing 300 words to 10,000 words. Approximately, the cost of making one sign-word is ₹ 600, which includes complex AI programming, 3-D animations and synthesizing in a mobile/laptop app.

We’re confident that our AI-powered solution will open doors for mainstreaming of thousands of deaf people, including:

·       Make higher education accessible with real-time interpretation in classrooms for students who are deaf and make books available in ISL.

·       Make workplaces more inclusive as sign-language interpretation could be provided in meetings and zoom calls, training etc.

·       Enable them to consume multi-media content like YouTube, Podcasts, Netflix etc.

·       Make services such as banking, voting, etc. more inclusive for the Deaf

Protect and promote the ISL, which is a critical aspect of deaf culture.