Animated Avatars: A case study in improving the naturalness of Sign Language Avatars
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2023-07-04
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en
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Abstract
Sign language avatars are computer programs used to convey information through the medium of sign
language. We study an existing procedural sign language avatar, CWASA. CWASA was chosen as its is
developed by the University of East Anglia under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license and has seen recent use by SignLab
Amsterdam and Dutch Railways. CWASA is a procedural avatar, meaning that it uses scripts of sign language
phonetics to generate animation. We differ from motion capture approaches in that we seek to improve
the naturalness of a procedural avatar’s movements, instead of creating an avatar by adding scriptability to
capturedmovements.
We explore opportunities for improving the naturalness of CWASA’s movements. To this end, we seek to
define naturalness so that we can improve and evaluate it for sign language avatars. We do this by studying
sign language literature, analyzing a dataset of video recordings of signing humans, and analyzing the process
of writing animation for CWASA. From this exploration, we propose a case study of five improvements to
CWASA related to the timing of its movements. We change the avatar’s transition movements to more closely
reflect human transition speeds and we implement three different sign language processes that cause sign
lengthening. Additionally, we experiment with a different built-in motion controller in CWASA.We evaluate
these proposed improvements in a focus group setting with Deaf signers. Despite distractors during the
focus group session, we find that most of our improvements are judged favorably. This shows that the use of
human motion data and possibly amore human-like signing rhythmcan improve a procedural sign language
avatar. Though more research is necessary, our findings show a clear direction forward for the development
of low-cost sign language technology.
Keywords— sign language avatar, NGT, CWASA, naturalness, sign transitions, prosody, focus group
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen