Janice/Team member

Hong Kong currently has just over 50 registered sign language interpreters while the number of hearing-impaired individuals exceeds 200,000. This creates a significant gap. That means, around 4,000 people are sharing a pair of ears and a piece of mouth. By using this AI module, we want to develop a sign language interpreter to assist the hearing-impaired to communicate with others. This ‘sign language translation device’ can instantly interpret sign language and facial expressions, making it easier for the hearing-impaired to communicate with others.

Danny/ Team member

When a hearing-impaired person goes to see the doctor, he needs to write down a lot of information about his condition for the doctor to read. However, the doctor may only respond me with just a few key words. It’s hard for the patients to express himself in such situations.

Sign language is pivotal to the hearing-impaired. Communicating through writing text is not desirable and sometimes not practical. A team of three programmers, consisting of both hearing-impaired and hearing-undamaged individuals, created an AI sign language translator which could greatly improve the communication of the hearing-impaired. This innovative project recently won the Innovation and Technology Prize at the ‘Artificial Intelligence Innovative Application’ Competition in Hong Kong.

When interacting with the hearing-impaired, we often assume that by simply writing and showing them information. they can understand it as they are able to see. However, this is a common misconception. How much information can hearing-impaired people truly grasp from the text alone? This is a critical link that we often overlook. Think about this: the Chinese, English, and Japanese languages we use for communication are all languages that have evolved from spoken to written form. First, there were sounds and then the text followed. Therefore, when learning a second language listening becomes a vital part. Without auditory input, merely showing written words like ‘A, B, C,’ it would be extremely hard for the learner to pick up a language. This is the challenge faced by the hearing-impaired.

Janice, a member of the AI module development team, has also suffered from hearing-impairment. She deeply understands the challenges faced by the hearing-impaired community and is committed to developing a convenient tool to enhance their communication experience.

One of my ears has hearing-impairment. So within the team, I fall somewhere between the hearing-undamaged and the hearing-impaired. I fully comprehend the challenges posed by hearing loss in daily life. Even though I can hear through one ear, I still have experienced a lot of inconvenience and difficulties. Relying solely on one method of communication makes hearing-impaired individuals feel isolated from the entire society. Isolation is definitely an uncomfortable experience. If not only makes it difficult for the hearing-impaired to receive information but also makes him difficult to fit into the community.

Currently, the AI module has learned 100 sets of Hong Kong sign language vocabulary and can facilitate two-way translation between spoken language and sign language through the program. However, there are over 2,000 sets of everyday words that have yet been incorporated and are not yet available on the market. The team hopes that this technology can be widely adopted to assist the hearing-impaired in accessing precise and comprehensive information whenever needed, and have much better communication with others in everyday life.

Cari/Team leader

Many ‘hearing-impaired friends’ have been visiting the exhibition recently and they are delighted to see the AI sign language translator. They told us the device can be a great help in their daily lives which makes us very happy too. We hope the device can be applied more extensively, benefiting larger users. Apart from developing our own applications, we also aspire to integrate the module into other social media platforms like WhatsApp and WeChat, enabling more individuals to be accessible to this technology.