1. An Overview of ViSiCAST zVirtual Signing: Capture, Animation, Storage and Transmission zJohn Glauert, Andrew Bangham, Stephen Cox, Ralph Elliott, Ian Marshall zSanja Rankov, Mark Wells

2. ViSiCAST Aims zImproved access for deaf citizens z... information and services z... preferred medium is sign language zBuilds on SignAnim and Tessa

3. ViSiCAST Project zExtend applications of virtual signing zTarget to natural sign languages xBSL (British Sign Language) rather than xSSE (Sign-Supported English) zImprove animation technology xincreasingly natural avatars xeasier but more accurate sign capture

4. ViSiCAST Partners yITC, UK : Project coordination yIRT, Germany : Broadcast technology yTeleVirtual, UK :Virtual humans yIDGS, Hamburg, Germany : Sign language notation yUEA, Norwich, UK : Language processing, Speech, and Image

5. ViSiCAST Partners yINT, Paris, France : Animation standards yIvD, Netherlands : Multimedia content creation yPost Office, UK : Interactive dialogue systems yRNID, UK : Monitoring and evaluation

6. ViSiCAST Structure zApplications zEnabling Technologies WWW Transactions Broadcast Language Animation

7. Multimedia and WWW Applications zAdding signing services to multimedia ximproves access to information xenhances communication for deaf people zBrowser plugin xaccurate signing of prepared content xsimplistic translation of general text xGesture Markup Language (GML)

8. Face-to-Face Transactions zPost Office, Advice Services, Shops zMore flexible speech recognition x“Do you want first or second class postage?” x“First or second?” zDialogue between customer and clerk xrecognition of a very few signs xtranslation to text or speech for clerk

9. Television and Broadcast zDeveloping transmission technology xvirtual signer in set-top boxes xtransmission of signing through GML zIncorporation in emerging standards xMultimedia Home Platform (MHP) in DVB xface and body animation through MPEG-4 xGML within Multimedia Content Description Interface of MPEG-7

10. Language and Notation zUEA, Norwich and IDGS, Hamburg zTranslate English text to European sign language yBSL, DGS, SLN zDefine Gesture Markup Language yan XML-compliant notation for gestures

11. English to Signing zTranslation via DRS xDiscourse Representation Structure EnglishDRS BSL (UK) DGS (Germany) SLN (Netherlands)

12. English to Signing zMorphology : “phonemes” for signs yhand shape yhand orientation yposition in “signing space” ymovement zDirectional Verbs yI give X to you yYou give X to him

13. GML Notation for Signing zHamburg Notation System yHamNoSys yCode for hand shape and orientation, location, and movement zGesture Markup Language yXML Compliant (W3C standards) yBuilds on HamNoSys

14. GML Notation for Signing zGloss level xGIVE_BOOK_I_YOU xcode for a complete sign xsimilar to SignAnim and Tessa approach zHamNoSys level xencodes sign “phonemes” as in HamNoSys zArticulation level xrepresents captured or synthesised motion xencodes arbitrary gestures

15. GML Notation : Illustration

16. Animation & Modeling  Overview of the ViSiCAST Project zSanja Rankov zMark Wells

17. Motion Capture, Calibration and Display System Computer System “care for”

18. Motion Capture, Calibration and Display System Weather Forecast Computer System

19. Motion Capture, Calibration and Display System Weather Forecast Computer System

20. Post-processing zMotion data decomposed into individual recorded signs zSigns are blended and played back through an avatar that can sign a sentence Improvements for GML driven player 6identification of basic physical avatar features 6development of methods for generation of realistic gestures

21. ViSiCAST : Conclusion zAmbitious three-year project zNovel computational linguistics work to generate and represent signing zAdvanced avatar technology for signing virtual humans zAccess to services for deaf citizens