Gestures typewriter
A typewriter that recognizes gestures and turns them into words. What do you need that for, you wonder? This is indispensable for a large group of people in our society. Namely for: deaf people who cannot read or write with difficulty. Because how else do you come into contact with hearing people? Or how do you send an email or message to your loved one? And make no mistake, this group of people consists of an estimated 4.000 people. In addition, this tool is also useful for all other deaf people. The tool makes communicating with hearing people a lot easier.
Can you help us?
We are very enthusiastic about this project and are working hard for a quick result. You can help us to speed up and improve this process. If you read this message and think you can contribute. Do not hesitate to contact us. We can use all the help, but certainly from the people with the following knowledge:
Computer vision and / or machine learning. A person with knowledge of these topics may be able to speed up and optimize the process. We also have knowledge of these subjects ourselves, but we do not have much experience with similar projects. Do you have that? Then contact us.
Experiential experts. Are you deaf or hard of hearing? Or do you work a lot with this group? Then you can probably help us. We would like to talk to the group for which we are making the tool. This allows us to tailor the system better to their wishes. If you think you can help us please contact us.
How did this come about?
One of our employees was talking to a personal counselor of deaf people. During this conversation, the counselor said that many deaf people have a delay in their language development. To date, NGB (Dutch Sign Language) has not been recognized as a language in the Netherlands. In fact, sign language has been suppressed for years. In the past, children were not taught sign language and were not allowed to use this language among themselves. Because deaf children could not communicate well, they suffered a considerable language delay.
Fortunately, deaf children now receive appropriate education, but there is still a large group of deaf people who cannot read and / or write. We are now working on this project for these people. Of course we do this without any obligation and without subsidy.
From problem to idea
Due to the delay in language development among deaf people, the bridge between that group and people with good hearing is great. We want to reduce this bridge. Most of the Dutch population cannot speak sign language. That is why we want to develop a tool that converts gestures into a text document. In this way, these people can write letters or emails themselves. Or even have a live conversation with someone who has no knowledge of Dutch sign language.
Where are we now?
At the moment we are still at the basis of the project. We are experimenting with computer vision. Which points do we need to measure to recognize gestures. We have already been able to automatically recognize cars, motorcycles, cyclists and pedestrians. Face recognition also works well. Now we are in the process of recognizing finger games (the alphabet in sign language). Once we have finger games in place, the step to other gestures is less big.
Why are we doing this?
In the first instance, we do this mainly because we believe it is important to actively make a positive contribution to society. We heard about this problem and thought it was a great challenge.
In addition to the social part, we do this to expand our own knowledge. Computer vision and Machine Learning are becoming an increasingly important part of our current society. That is why we want to know all the ins and outs of this. If we work with these principles in practice, we can advise our customers better later.
If you can help us with this project, please do Contact us.
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