Annual Report 2010 - Fachgruppe Informatik an der RWTH Aachen ...

The interpersonal communication problem between signer and hearing community could be
resolved by building up a new communication bridge integrating components for sign-,
speech-, and text-processing. To build a complete sign-to-speech translator for a new
language, a six component-engine must be integrated (see above), where each component is
in principle language independent, but requires language dependent parameters/models. The
models are usually automatically trained but require annotated corpora. In SignSpeak, a
theoretical study is carried out about how the new communication bridge between deaf and
hearing people could be built up by analyzing and adapting the ASLR and MT components
technologies for a Sign-To-Text sign language processing engine.
T4ME
T4ME - Technologies for the Multilingual European Information Society - is a 3-year (2010-
2012) EU-FP7-funded network of excellence (NoE) that launched META-NET, a network
aiming to build the Multilingual Europe Technology Alliance (META). It is is dedicated to
the technological foundations of the European multilingual information society consisting of
applications that enable communication and collaboration among people without language
boundaries, secure users of any language equal access to the information and knowledge
society, and include and push forward functionalities of networked information technology.
Massive research and engineering in language technology is needed before this will be
achieved, and META-NET brings together the players in the field and helps preparing the
European strategic research agenda.
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