Speech-to-sign language translation software written by a team from Thailand won the main category of a Microsoft-sponsored software development contest for students, the Imagine Cup, on Thursday. The four students from Kasetsart University in Bangkok won the software design category, ahead of six other finalists. They worked 12-hour days for six months to complete their entry, relying on strict planning to get them through logistical problems caused by riots and political instability in their home country. "The voice recognition module captures the speech and converts the sentence so it fits the grammar of sign language", Team Skeek captain Pichai Sodsai told IDG News Service. "The sign language is then animated on the screen, while face recognition is used to distinguish different speakers." The software also puts in text balloons much like a comic book, all in real time. In order to make the software viable, the team needed to make efficient use of resources. "We make extensive use of multithreading code to combine all parts of the software into one, functioning whole", said Sodsai. "Each part needs to run next to the other. It could not be done without that." pcworld/article/200767/article.html
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 04:23:39 +0000