Bundesjugend SIGNS for the future!
IFHOHYP’s German member organization Bundesjugend supports “Project SIGNS” and we find it sounds awesome.
While speech assisted systems like Siri or Alexa become smarter and smarter every day, they have been of little use for people who communicate with sign language so far. This is about to change right now! SIGNS is an algorithm that enables controlling smart devices via sign language. Instead of giving Siri or Alexa commands vocally, it can soon be done with gestures. This project, brought up and led by Christian Endecott from the Product Innovation Studio of MRM//McCANN Deutschland has unlimited possibilities. First, it will be integrated in systems like smart phones, banking apps or service systems at airports to ease the life of sign language users. The developers hope that SIGNS will evolve from there to a system broadly used across apps, companies and social groups.
Michelle and Lucas from the German HoH organization Bundesjugend - Verband junger Menschen mit Hörbehinderung e.V. support this project by providing their sign language expertise. They helped training the algorithm to recognize many different signs of the German sign language (DGS), for example to ask Siri for the weather forecast.
SIGNS is currently also trained to understand ASL. However, the goal is to make it available for ALL sign languages. And for that, SIGNS needs YOUR help! Are you an expert in a sign language and willing to share your knowledge? Then contact the project leaders (see email address below).
Bundesjugend and IFHOHYP sees great potential in using modern technology to create a more inclusive, disability-friendly world. We hope to hear about many more such projects!
You want to know more about SIGNS?
- Watch SIGNS cool promotion video: https://vimeo.com/337210520
- Or check out their webpage: https://projectsigns.org
You want to offer your sign language expertise to improve SIGNS? Contact the project leaders: christian.endecott@mrm-mccann.de or mark.hollering@mrm-mccann.de
You want IFHOHYP to publish a story from your member organization as well? Write to us: mic@ifhohyp.org
