10105420Translating Text into Sign Language: Using AI to transform accessibility for the Deaf communityClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKSignapse wants to make as much information as possible available in sign language. In this project, we are building AI software that automatically translates from written English text to British Sign Language video, delivered by a photorealistic digital signer that is indistinguishable from a human. This will ensure the Deaf community can have the same access to information as their hearing peers. British Sign Language (BSL) is used by more than 150,000 people in the UK and is the preferred language for at least 87,000 Deaf people. As most Deaf people grow up with English as their second or third language, ordinary information, whether found online or in person, is mostly inaccessible to them. This seriously impacts their access to healthcare, employment, education, transport and more. The current solution to this is to rely on BSL interpreters. However, with approximately 1 interpreter to every 100 Deaf individuals, as well as barriers like cost and geography, it is evident that the needs of the Deaf community cannot be fully met. Our technology can complement the interpretation profession, making it both straightforward and cost-effective to deliver sign language translation automatically and at scale. Having successfully developed AI translation for constrained information settings such as train and flight announcements, our project focuses on working with translators to build a large-scale BSL dataset, and using this to train an AI model for automatic text-to-sign translation. Signapse was co-founded by Sally Chalk, the founder and ex-CEO of Clarion, the UK's largest BSL interpreting agency; Professor Richard Bowden, Professor of Computer Vision and Machine Learning and Head of the Cognitive Vision Group at the University of Surrey; and Dr Ben Saunders, who holds a PhD in Sign Language Translation. Working with our Deaf Leadership Board and in consultation with the Deaf community, we ensure that the needs and preferences of Deaf people are understood and consistently reflected in the development of our technology.