Technique links words to signing (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Geoff Adams-Spink
Age & disability correspondent, BBC News website

Technology that translates spoken or written words into British Sign Language (BSL) has been developed by researchers at IBM.

The system, called SiSi (Say It Sign It) was created by a group of students in the UK.

SiSi will enable deaf people to have simultaneous sign language interpretations of meetings and presentations.

It uses speech recognition to animate a digital character or avatar.

IBM says its technology will allow for interpretation in situations where a human interpreter is not available.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6993326.stm

[Igel]

1. Cool.

I know nothing about BSL except that it's not ASL. But I've read/heard things about ASL's use of signing space for deixis and about ways of expressing aspect/Aktionsart. I can't imagine software managing to easily cope with those.

Anybody know if BSL is like ASL in those respects?