FleXLIBRAS: Description and Animation of Signs in Brazilian Sign Language

Deaf communicate naturally through gestural and visual languages called sign languages. These languages are natural, composed by lexical items called signs and have their own vocabulary and grammar. In this paper, we propose the definition of a formal, expressive and consistent language to describe signs in Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS). This language allows the definition of all parameters of a sign and consequently the generation of an animation for this sign. In addition, the proposed language is flexible in the sense that new parameters (or phonemes) can be defined “on the fly”. In order to provide a case study for the proposed language, a system for collaborative construction of a LIBRAS vocabulary based on 3D humanoids avatars was also developed. Some tests with Brazilian deaf users were also performed to evaluate the proposal.