Facilitating Direct Communication Between the Deaf and Others A Student Project at UoB Interprets Sign Language into Comprehensible Meanings

Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Mansoor Al-Wanni)

11 September 2023

Students at the University of Bahrain (UoB) developed a smart system project that interprets sign language gestures and movements into comprehensible and meaningful meanings, aiming to enable people with hearing disabilities to communicate directly with other individuals.

The project stems from an idea based on providing a system that helps the deaf interpret and decode sign language gestures, using computer vision in real time, and then converting the codes into meanings that are understood by the public.

The students’ project won first place in the Computer Engineering Department during the graduation projects exhibit organized by the College of Information Technology. The team consisted of students: Zainab Reda Matrook, Afifa Mohammed Ismail, and Pooja Karmakar, and supervised by Assistant Professor in the Computer Engineering Department, Dr. Jalal Khalifat.

The student, Matrook, said: “The project enables individuals with hearing disabilities (the deaf) to express themselves freely and communicate with others better. It also helps individuals understand the meanings of sign language using machine learning and computer vision.”.

Furthermore, she added that the project contributes to enhancing social solidarity and diversity by teaching sign language to community members and provides means to learn this language effectively in real time. It contributes to developing a machine learning model based on computer vision techniques and neural networks.

Moreover, Matrook confirmed that applying the model to a group of sign language movements showed an accuracy of up to 95%, noting that visual data for key points can be captured in real time, and response can be given in a short time that is appropriate for use in daily life, in order to help the deaf communicate with others easily.

Sign language is a set of hand movements and gestures that people who are deaf and hard of hearing use to communicate in society. It helps them express their needs, develop their social relationships, and accelerate their acquisition of knowledge.

The College of Information Technology had organized the graduation projects exhibit for students of the three departments in the College: computer engineering, computer science, and information systems, at the end of the second semester of the academic year 2022/2023, which included 53 projects prepared by about 152 students.

It is noteworthy that the graduation projects exhibit of for the students of the College of Information Technology – which is held at the end of each semester – is a subject of interest and follow-up to many professional sectors in the technical fields, employers, and a number of companies that seek to adopt innovative student projects.

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