Generating Co-occurring Facial Nonmanual Signals in Synthesized American Sign Language

Jerry Schnepp, Rosalee Wolfe, John McDonald, Jorge Toro

2013

Abstract

Translating between English and American Sign Language (ASL) requires an avatar to display synthesized ASL. Essential to the language are nonmanual signals that appear on the face. In the past, these have posed a difficult challenge for signing avatars. Previous systems were hampered by an inability to portray simultaneously-occurring nonmanual signals on the face. This paper presents a method designed for supporting co-occurring nonmanual signals in ASL. Animations produced by the new system were tested with 40 members of the Deaf community in the United States. Participants identified all of the nonmanual signals even when they co-occurred. Co-occurring question nonmanuals and affect information were distinguishable, which is particularly promising because the two processes move an avatar’s brows in a competing manner. This brings the state of the art one step closer to the goal of an automatic English-to-ASL translator.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Schnepp J., Wolfe R., McDonald J. and Toro J. (2013). Generating Co-occurring Facial Nonmanual Signals in Synthesized American Sign Language . In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications and International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2013) ISBN 978-989-8565-46-4, pages 407-416. DOI: 10.5220/0004217004070416

in Bibtex Style

@conference{grapp13,
author={Jerry Schnepp and Rosalee Wolfe and John McDonald and Jorge Toro},
title={Generating Co-occurring Facial Nonmanual Signals in Synthesized American Sign Language},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications and International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2013)},
year={2013},
pages={407-416},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004217004070416},
isbn={978-989-8565-46-4},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications and International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2013)
TI - Generating Co-occurring Facial Nonmanual Signals in Synthesized American Sign Language
SN - 978-989-8565-46-4
AU - Schnepp J.
AU - Wolfe R.
AU - McDonald J.
AU - Toro J.
PY - 2013
SP - 407
EP - 416
DO - 10.5220/0004217004070416