@mastersthesis{gemert:22,
  title = {Co-designing a Sign Language Avatar for Railway Announcements},
  author = {Gemert, Britt van},
  school = {Radboud University},
  year = {2022},
  url = {https://www.signlab-amsterdam.nl/publications/van_Gemert.pdf},
  abstract = {Public transport organisations, such as Dutch railway operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), generally communicate important messages through spoken announcements in the train or station. As a result, Deaf people miss crucial information. Because of varying levels of reading proficiency, textual information is not always a solution. Moreover, video footage is not scalable and will not yield satisfactory results when individual video parts need an update. Virtual sign language avatars can provide consistent, anonymous and scalable translations. For the development of a comprehensible and fluent sign language avatar, collaboration between experts in language technology, avatar technology and sign language is fundamental. Unfortunately, inclusive approaches are not evident in existing technologies. To address these problems, we present a case study on co-designing a sign language avatar for the automatic translation of railway announcements into Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). For the initial design, video sign language translations of NS announcements created by the Dutch Sign Center were annotated and used for the translation basis. A scripted keyframe animation technique for the JASigning avatar engine makes it possible to efficiently create many variants of a given template, without expensive equipment. Three iterative co-design sessions took place with an interdisciplinary research team including deaf sign language experts. Simultaneously, hearing passengers from NS were consulted for additional remarks on the sign language avatar. Subsequently, multiple phrase variants of the system were evaluated within a diverse focus group audience to account for demographic differences. Combining the various disciplines led to mayor adjustments of the avatar (manual movements, facial expressions, mouthing, grammar, transitions between signs, camera angle and speed). With this case study, we aimed to effectively and inclusively develop sign language avatar technology. More research and focus groups are necessary to ensure high quality translations (improved mouthings, facial expressions and prosody), resulting in enhanced comprehensibility and natural appearance of the avatar.}
}

{"_id":"n9yvkzbhLEYdKT9SD","bibbaseid":"gemert-codesigningasignlanguageavatarforrailwayannouncements-2022","author_short":["Gemert, B. v."],"bibdata":{"bibtype":"mastersthesis","type":"mastersthesis","title":"Co-designing a Sign Language Avatar for Railway Announcements","author":[{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Gemert"],"firstnames":["Britt","van"],"suffixes":[]}],"school":"Radboud University","year":"2022","url":"https://www.signlab-amsterdam.nl/publications/van_Gemert.pdf","abstract":"Public transport organisations, such as Dutch railway operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), generally communicate important messages through spoken announcements in the train or station. As a result, Deaf people miss crucial information. Because of varying levels of reading proficiency, textual information is not always a solution. Moreover, video footage is not scalable and will not yield satisfactory results when individual video parts need an update. Virtual sign language avatars can provide consistent, anonymous and scalable translations. For the development of a comprehensible and fluent sign language avatar, collaboration between experts in language technology, avatar technology and sign language is fundamental. Unfortunately, inclusive approaches are not evident in existing technologies. To address these problems, we present a case study on co-designing a sign language avatar for the automatic translation of railway announcements into Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). For the initial design, video sign language translations of NS announcements created by the Dutch Sign Center were annotated and used for the translation basis. A scripted keyframe animation technique for the JASigning avatar engine makes it possible to efficiently create many variants of a given template, without expensive equipment. Three iterative co-design sessions took place with an interdisciplinary research team including deaf sign language experts. Simultaneously, hearing passengers from NS were consulted for additional remarks on the sign language avatar. Subsequently, multiple phrase variants of the system were evaluated within a diverse focus group audience to account for demographic differences. Combining the various disciplines led to mayor adjustments of the avatar (manual movements, facial expressions, mouthing, grammar, transitions between signs, camera angle and speed). With this case study, we aimed to effectively and inclusively develop sign language avatar technology. More research and focus groups are necessary to ensure high quality translations (improved mouthings, facial expressions and prosody), resulting in enhanced comprehensibility and natural appearance of the avatar.","bibtex":"@mastersthesis{gemert:22,\n title = {Co-designing a Sign Language Avatar for Railway Announcements},\n author = {Gemert, Britt van},\n school = {Radboud University},\n year = {2022},\n url = {https://www.signlab-amsterdam.nl/publications/van_Gemert.pdf},\n abstract = {Public transport organisations, such as Dutch railway operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), generally communicate important messages through spoken announcements in the train or station. As a result, Deaf people miss crucial information. Because of varying levels of reading proficiency, textual information is not always a solution. Moreover, video footage is not scalable and will not yield satisfactory results when individual video parts need an update. Virtual sign language avatars can provide consistent, anonymous and scalable translations. For the development of a comprehensible and fluent sign language avatar, collaboration between experts in language technology, avatar technology and sign language is fundamental. Unfortunately, inclusive approaches are not evident in existing technologies. To address these problems, we present a case study on co-designing a sign language avatar for the automatic translation of railway announcements into Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). For the initial design, video sign language translations of NS announcements created by the Dutch Sign Center were annotated and used for the translation basis. A scripted keyframe animation technique for the JASigning avatar engine makes it possible to efficiently create many variants of a given template, without expensive equipment. Three iterative co-design sessions took place with an interdisciplinary research team including deaf sign language experts. Simultaneously, hearing passengers from NS were consulted for additional remarks on the sign language avatar. Subsequently, multiple phrase variants of the system were evaluated within a diverse focus group audience to account for demographic differences. Combining the various disciplines led to mayor adjustments of the avatar (manual movements, facial expressions, mouthing, grammar, transitions between signs, camera angle and speed). With this case study, we aimed to effectively and inclusively develop sign language avatar technology. More research and focus groups are necessary to ensure high quality translations (improved mouthings, facial expressions and prosody), resulting in enhanced comprehensibility and natural appearance of the avatar.}\n}\n\n","author_short":["Gemert, B. v."],"key":"gemert:22","id":"gemert:22","bibbaseid":"gemert-codesigningasignlanguageavatarforrailwayannouncements-2022","role":"author","urls":{"Paper":"https://www.signlab-amsterdam.nl/publications/van_Gemert.pdf"},"metadata":{"authorlinks":{}}},"bibtype":"mastersthesis","biburl":"www.signlab-amsterdam.nl/bib/signlab.bib","dataSources":["R8Za3BGYPnYDXtHHL"],"keywords":[],"search_terms":["designing","sign","language","avatar","railway","announcements","gemert"],"title":"Co-designing a Sign Language Avatar for Railway Announcements","year":2022}