美研發手語翻譯技術 方便聾人與正常人交流
2003年8月4日 13:06
東方網8月4日消息：據美聯社美國當地時間8月3日(北京時間8月4日)報道一種用於幫助聾人更方便地與正常人交流並可以將手語動作轉化為聲音語言或是文字語言的電子手套目前正在研發當中。美國喬治-華盛頓大學的研究人員赫爾南德斯-雷伯拉已經在演示中表明，他名為“AcceleGlove”的手套可以將快速變化的手語“翻譯”成正常人可以明白的語言。
今年34歲的雷伯拉的研究專業是電子工程學，上述安裝了很多感測器的電子手套是他為了獲得博士學位而進行的一個研究項目。雷伯拉說：“雖然我本人並不聾，但我想設計出一種能夠幫助聾人在日常生活中與正常人自如交流的產品。”目前全美有2800萬人正飽受聽力上的困擾。
“AcceleGlove”實際上就是一個可以佩戴在手上的小型計算機，裏面安裝了超微型的電子電路。手套裏的各種感測器通過微控制器與佩戴者的胳膊相連，對佩戴者的胳膊和手指的動作及位置進行測繪。上述測繪資訊可以被轉化為計算機能夠閱讀的數據，然後再由一個擴音器“翻譯”成聲音語言或是以文字語言的形式出現在計算機顯示器上。專家稱，那些孩子有聽力障礙的父母或是父母有聽力障礙的孩子會發現上述手套很有用。
雷伯拉表示，電子手套可以將相應的手語動作與26個英文字母相對應起來，所以任何一個手語動作都可以用文字語言或是聲音語言表達出來，但當然這是一個不會很快的過程。他說進一步的測試還需要進行，但他相信明年這種手套就可以投產並面市。雷伯拉表示，這種手套的“翻譯”準確度一般較高，但如果聾人的手語比較複雜，那麼“翻譯”準確度也會隨之下降。
編輯:黃蒙磊 來源:新浪網 作者:陳立榮
資料來源:
http://61.129.65.8:82/gate/big5/news.eastday.com/epublish/gb/paper148/20030804/class014800014/hwz991008.htm
April 15, 2003
GW Engineering Doctoral Candidate Jose Hernandez-Rebollar Creates an Electronic Translation Device for American Sign Language
By Matthew Lindsay
American Sign Language (ASL) is one of the most used languages in the United States. Yet communications between the ASL-fluent and those unfamiliar with the deaf community’s chosen parlance are a constant dilemma. It’s especially problematic in emergency situations because no electronic translation methods exist for ASL. It’s a problem that GW doctoral candidate Jose Hernandez-Rebollar has devoted three years of his life to solving — how to construct a device that translates the sometimes complex movements of ASL into written and spoken form.
To that end Hernandez-Rebollar, who studies electrical and computer engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), devised the AcceleGlove. His ASL translation device uses accelerometers, a microcontroller, and algorithms he wrote especially to translate ASL into the written and spoken word in two basic steps.
First, the AcceleGlove is placed on the hand and strapped to the arm, allowing the accelerometers on the glove to act as sensors that generate signals from the movement, orientation, and positioning of the hand and the fingers in relation to the body. These signals are analyzed by a microcontroller to find the position of the fingers and hand trajectory.
The second step of the process is to take the recorded position and trajectory and find what they mean. To do so, the position of the fingers and the trajectory of the hand are run through Hernandez-Rebollar’s algorithms to detect the gesture and classify the gesture in a certain category, to find the correct word associated with the hand movement. This entire process takes milliseconds from the time the sign is made, to recognition of the sign, and the computerized voice saying the corresponding word.
Hernandez-Rebollar realized that while there are dictionaries to translate almost every spoken language, there is no electronic means of translating ASL. According to Thomas E. Allen of the Gallaudet Research Institute, the accepted range for numbers of speakers of ASL in the United States is between 500,000 to two million people, leading some to refer to ASL as the fourth most-used language in the United States.
“I started thinking about an electronic translation method for ASL before I came to GW,” says Hernandez-Rebollar. “The language has been around for almost 200 years, yet unlike most other languages we do not have electronic translation for ASL.”
A native of Mexico, Hernandez-Rebollar came to the United States and GW in 1998 on a Fulbright scholarship after completing his undergraduate and master’s work at University of Puebla, and later working at the National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics (INAOE). At INAOE, Hernandez-Rebollar was involved in building the largest millimeter telescope in the world. His specific area of interest involved the control of the telescope’s antenna. INAOE encouraged Hernandez-Rebollar to go overseas to obtain an advanced degree and training, which led him to apply for a Fulbright scholarship.
The Fulbright provided Hernandez-Rebollar funding for two years of coursework and one year of work on his dissertation. In 2000, he presented Nicholas Kyriakopoulos, professor of electrical and computer engineering at GW and Hernandez-Rebollar’s dissertation director, with the preliminary idea of creating a method of electronic translation of ASL for his doctoral research. Kyriakopoulos cautioned him about the difficulties of undertaking the project because Hernandez-Rebollar had no experience in that area.
“I thought it would be very hard and that the topic was mostly covered by others anyways,” shrugs Kyriakopoulos. “People who undertake experimental dissertations are generally risking more, there is less opportunity to change direction midstream.”
Undeterred by Kyriakopoulos’ warnings, Hernandez-Rebollar developed the primary circuits for the AcceleGlove while his dissertation director was on sabbatical during the spring 2000. Over the summer, he developed the first algorithm, or program, to identify ASL gestures. When Kyriakopoulos returned and saw the work Hernandez-Rebollar had already put into the project, he gave Hernandez-Rebollar his blessing to go forward with the AcceleGlove project. Now, Hernandez-Rebollar is on course to earn his PhD in May or the following semester.
For Hernandez-Rebollar, this research is the combination of two of his passions: helping others and inventing new devices by experimenting with electronics. In high school, he was actually more interested in being a doctor or a lawyer. However, as time passed, he realized the benefits of an engineering career. “In electrical engineering if I blow up something, I can buy another one and it’s no problem,” Hernandez-Rebollar says. “It also doesn’t hurt to get paid to do something you enjoy,” he chuckles.
When Robert Lindeman, assistant professor of computer science, realized Hernandez-Rebollar’s ability to build and test electronic products, Lindeman hired him as a research assistant to help with his work in virtual reality.
“Professor Lindeman really came to the rescue when my Fulbright scholarship was running out,” says Hernandez-Rebollar.
Without his research assistantship Hernandez-Rebollar could not have afforded to stay in the United States and in all likelihood would have been unable to continue work on the AcceleGlove.
It is still a question as to whether the deaf community would embrace a device like the AcceleGlove. In Hernandez-Rebollar’s research and testing of his glove he found two distinct feelings in the deaf community. Some feel that being deaf is not a handicap, it is simply another way of life and you should not use artificial means to overcome loss of hearing.
Meanwhile, others feel that if new technologies can help improve your life or make you feel better about yourself, why not make use of what is available?
However, the AcceleGlove is not a new technology that would simply be useful for deaf people in emergency situations. The ability to communicate through hand gestures could also be used to teach ASL, along with being modified for use in virtual reality, military settings, and in different forms of sign language. “The thing that makes Jose’s research so interesting is that it is applicable to so many different areas,” says Lindeman.
Of course, at this point the AcceleGlove is not viable as a commercial product and there is room for improvement and growth. The AcceleGlove currently only recognizes 173 words, although new signs may be added to the lexicon and recognized without Hernandez-Rebollar having to change the code. The algorithms used to recognize hand and finger movements can always be improved to become more reliable in their detection of words.
Hernandez-Rebollar is proud to say that the AcceleGlove correctly translates “easy” words more than 95 percent of the time, but what he calls “hard” words have only a 60–70 percent success rate. If he can extend the research, development and testing to gloves to both hands, Hernandez- Rebollar would be able to work with an even larger dictionary of words in ASL.
Although there is more work to be done with the AcceleGlove, Hernandez-Rebollar is not sure if he will have the necessary financial support to continue his research after his dissertation. He is not sure if other pursuits, such as one of the small side projects he is always working on, will eventually pull him away from the AcceleGlove project.
If the project continues it will keep Hernandez-Rebollar busy; a language is not something easy to catalogue and translate. When James Murray set out to create the Oxford English Dictionary, he did not know it was a project that would consume 40 years of his life, and that he would not live to see it completed. Does Hernandez-Rebollar want the AcceleGlove and make it his lifelong project? Right now he looks at everything as a blank slate. Fortunately for Hernandez-Rebollar, that is when he does his best work.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
text from:http://www.gwu.edu/~bygeorge/041503/aslglove.html
圖片來源:www.atnet.org/news/ 2003/aug03/081502.htm
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