Virtual sign: using a bidirectional translator in serious games

• Autor(a) principal: Norberto, Marcelo
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Lopes, Jorge, Escudeiro, Paula, Escudeiro, Nuno, Reis, Rosa, Barbosa, Maciel, Bidarra, José, Baltazar, Ana Bela
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/14513
• topic: Serious games; Sign languagey; Education; Kinect; Accessibility; Deaf communit

The work presented in this paper is one of the outcomes of the virtual sign project that aims to assist the communication with deaf students in the classroom. The project is being developed by Portuguese researchers. The main goal of the virtual sign project is the creation of a bidirectional Portuguese sign language translator. This translator supports the development of a serious game that was developed to facilitate the sign language learning process. In the game, it is possible to gather different gestures and reproduce them. The game includes three different scenarios. These scenarios are linked to increasing levels of proficiency in sign language. The first one addresses the alphabet, the second one goes a step forward to teach words, and the third one introduces full sentences. The game experience can be enhanced by using the Kinect to perform the gestures. This game intends to be of great assistance in the process of learning the Portuguese sign language.