Transparent Overlay for Simultaneous Sign Language and Visual Content
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Solution Overview
Problem
Hearing-impaired individuals face challenges in accessing visual information during presentations, especially in settings like museums or planetariums where sign language interpreters are distant, leading to a degraded experience due to the need to alternate attention between the interpreter and visual materials.
Innovation Solution
Computing systems that modify and synchronize video of sign language with corresponding spoken content, allowing simultaneous viewing of sign language and visual materials, either by blending videos or rendering as an overlay on transparent glass, to provide real-time visual accommodations for the hearing-impaired.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If sign language interpreters are used in distant positions during presentations, then hearing-impaired individuals can access spoken content through sign language, but they must alternate attention between the interpreter and visual materials, degrading their learning experience
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a video copy of the sign language interpreter's performance and displays it on a transparent display device positioned near the visual materials. This allows hearing-impaired viewers to see the sign language interpretation without needing to physically move or shift attention to a distant interpreter, eliminating the time loss from attention switching while maintaining access to both visual materials and spoken content through signing
Solution Approach 2:
A transparent display device acts as an intermediary between the distant sign language interpreter and the visual materials. The device captures and relays the interpreter's signs in real-time, serving as a local mediator that brings the interpretation directly to the viewer's field of view without requiring physical presence of the interpreter near the materials
2Loss of information
If sign language interpreters are positioned close to visual materials, then viewers can see both simultaneously, but the interpreter blocks the view of the materials and requires sophisticated equipment
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs a transparent display device with thin film technology that allows light to pass through while displaying the sign language interpretation. This transparent medium enables the interpreter's signs to be visible without blocking the view of the visual materials behind or beside the display, solving the occlusion problem while maintaining a relatively simple device structure
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent display device adds a new visual dimension by overlaying the sign language interpretation in the air space between the viewer and the visual materials. Rather than placing the interpreter in the same physical plane as the materials (which causes blocking), the system creates a separate transparent layer that allows both the interpretation and materials to coexist in the viewer's field of view
3Loss of information
If closed captioning is used for video presentations, then hearing-impaired viewers can access spoken content, but young children who cannot read do not benefit and non-hearing-impaired viewers find it distracting
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides different types of information access in different local formats: sign language interpretation for hearing-impaired viewers and closed captioning for others, with each format being locally optimized for its target audience. The transparent display device can show sign language to hearing-impaired viewers while the main presentation continues with closed captioning visible to all, allowing each audience segment to access information in their preferred modality without the other being distracted or disadvantaged
Data Source
AI summary
Computing systems are provided for facilitating communication to the hearing-impaired. The computing systems obtain and modify a video that includes a signer performing sign language about a topic. The video is then modified and presented to a viewer in such a way that the viewer can simultaneously view the sign language and the one or more objects corresponding to the topic. In some instances, the modified video is blended with another video corresponding to the same topic so as to enable a user to view the sign language at the same time as the corresponding video presentation. This can be done in real-time or with a time delay. In other instances, the modified video is rendered on a display through which the user is also viewing the one or more related items associated with the sign language.