Plenary talk II: Recent developments in sign language recognition systems

Automated translation systems for sign languages are important in a world that is showing a continuously increasing interest in removing barriers faced by physically challenged individuals in communicating and contributing to the society and the workforce. These systems can greatly facilitate the communication between the vocal and the non-vocal communities. For the hearing-impaired, such systems can serve as the equivalent of speech-recognition systems used by speaking people to interact with machines in a more natural way. Few research projects tried to develop a translation system from and to visual sign language. Very few of these attempts were on Arabic sign language. None of them succeeded to develop a reliable industrial product. This review explores these trials and proposes clear recommendations to convert the lab research to a real product useful to the community.