Automatic Translation of Arabic Text to Arabic Sign Language

Sign language is the basic means of communication among hearing-impaired people. Systems that could act as interpreters between vocal and hearing-impaired people would facilitate the life of deaf and integrate them in the society. Such systems should perform bidirectional translation of sign language and spoken language. A lot of efforts invested on translating sign languages to spoken languages. However, it is just as important to translate a spoken language to a sign language. This would provide a two-way communication between hearing-impaired and vocal people. A reasonably priced portable computer would be sufficient to perform the two-way translation. This paper proposes a system that translates Arabic text to Arabic sign language. A word that corresponds to a sign from the Arabic sign language dictionary calls a pre-recorded video clip showing the sign played on the monitor of the portable computer. If the word does not have a corresponding sign in the dictionary, it is finger spelled as done in real life by deaf for words that do not have specific signs; like proper names. They system is expandable as all what is needed is to add new signs to the database. The developed system can also be used to teach deaf or their relatives the Arabic Sign Language. It is accessible at the site http://naas.itc.kfupm.edu.sa:8080/SignsApp/.