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Publications (82)
A wordnet for a number of sign languages targeted in the Easier project.
The direct involvement of deaf users in the development and evaluation of signing avatars is imperative to achieve legibility and raise trust among synthetic signing technology consumers. A paradigm of constructive cooperation between researchers and the deaf community is the EASIER project1, where user driven design and technology development have...
Although signing avatar technology seems to be the only option currently available to serve sign language (SL) display in the context of applications which demand generative capacity from the part of the technology like in machine translation to SL, signing avatars have not yet been accepted by signers' communities. One major factor for this reject...
This paper reports on the restructuring of a bilingual (Greek Sign Language, GSL – Modern Greek) lexicographic database with the use of the WordNet semantic and lexical database. The relevant research was carried out by the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) / Athena R.C. team within the framework of the European project Easier. Th...
Wordnets have been a popular lexical resource type for many years. Their sense-based representation of lexical items and numerous relation structures have been used for a variety of computational and linguistic applications. The inclusion of different wordnets into multilingual wordnet networks has further extended their use into the realm of cross...
Given the achievements in automatically translating text from one language to another, one would expect to see similar advancements in translating between signed and spoken languages. However, progress in this effort has lagged in comparison. Typically, machine translation consists of processing text from one language to produce text in another. Be...
This paper presents assessment findings of the “i-Walk” robotic rehabilitation assistant. i-Walk provides support to target groups of people with cognitive and/or mobility deficits via a pioneer robotic rollator that utilizes innovation in multimodal robot perception, user-adaptive robot autonomy and natural human-robot interaction. The i-Walk roll...
In this paper we present a recommendation system for (semi-)automatic annotation of sign language videos exploiting deep learning techniques, which handle handshape recognition in continuous signing data. Major tools in our approach have been the keypoint output of OpenPose and the use of HamNoSys in sign annotation of the training data. Prior to a...
Robots can play a significant role as assistive devices for people with movement impairment and mild cognitive deficit. In this paper we present an overview of the lightweight i-Walk intelligent robotic rollator, which offers cognitive and mobility assistance to the elderly and to people with light to moderate mobility impairment. The utility, usab...
Here we discuss the design and implementation features of a platform aiming to provide two distinct modules for self-monitoring and objective assessment of learners of the Greek Sign Language (GSL) as L2. The platform is designed according to user needs of both learners and instructors. It incorporates the educational content of the A0 and A1 level...
Robotic rollators can play a significant role as assistive devices for people with impaired movement and mild cognitive deficit. This paper presents an overview of the i-Walk concept; an intelligent robotic rollator offering cognitive and ambulatory assistance to people with light to moderate movement impairment, such as the elderly. We discuss the...
The paper focuses on the method and steps implementing a suite of rehabilitation exercises on an assistive robotic platform. The suite is based on extensive user needs identification procedures and consultation with medical and rehabilitation experts. For the design of the human-robot interaction (HRI) component of the platform, the user centered a...
Greek Sign Language (GSL) was recognized as an official language in 2000 [1], but was not until 2017 [2] that it finally gained equal status with Modern Greek (MG). Considering the above facts, it is not surprising that available electronic resources in GSL are far from abundant. Even scarcer are original resources that have been generated by the d...
A common problem for the elderly population with mobility impairment is the difficulties in performing Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), that consequently leads to restrictions and the degradation of the living standards of the elders. When designing a user-centered assistive device for mobility constrained people, the variable spectrum of disabil...
Here we present the methodological principles and technologies, which compose the backbone of designing the i-Walk platform Human Robot Interaction (HRI) environment. The reported work builds upon experience gained from previous engagement with development of the multimodal HRI communication model of the MOBOT assistive robotic rollator and its end...
In this paper, we touch upon the requirement for accessibility via Sign Language as regards dynamic composition and exchange of new content in the context of natural language-based human interaction, and also the accessibility of web services and electronic content in written text by deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. In this framework, one key...
This paper describes the process of compiling NOEMA+, a bilingual dictionary of approximately 12,000 entries for the pair Greek Sign Language (GSL) - Modern Greek (MG) and of making it available openly online (http://sign.ilsp.gr/signilsp-site/index.php/el/noima/). The dictionary was based on several corpora that have been collected over the years,...
Here we present the POLYTROPON parallel corpus for the language pair Greek Sign Language (GSL) – Modern Greek, which is created and annotated aiming to serve as a golden corpus available to the community of SL technologies for experimentation with various approaches to SL processing, focusing on machine learning for SL recognition, machine translat...
In this paper, we touch upon the requirement for accessibility via Sign Language as regards dynamic composition and exchange of new content in the context of natural language based human interaction, and also accessibility of web services and electronic content in written text by deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. In this framework, one key issu...
Here we present how Greek Sign Language (GSL) has provided content to various functionalities of the Information System PYLES,
a management system for on-line lessons, designed to support accessible asynchronous e-learning by addressing learning needs of
students with various communication capabilities and needs, at the Technological Educational In...
In this paper, we report on the evaluation strategy and the results that were obtained from the final end-user evaluation process of an innovative robotic assistive device supporting mobility. More specifically, the paper deals with the evaluation of the MOBOT robotic rollator as regards to the system’s overall performance and its individual assist...
In this paper, we report on the evaluation strategy and results obtained from the final end-user evaluation process of an innovative robotic assistive device supporting mobility. More specifically, we report on the evaluation of the MOBOT robotic rollator as regards the system's overall performance and its individual assistive characteristics and f...
Accessibility of electronic content by deaf and hard-of-hearing WWW users is crucially depending on the possibility to acquire information that can be presented in their native sign language (SL), from the vast amounts of text sources being constantly uploaded. Similarly crucial is the ability to easily create new electronic content that can enable...
In this paper we discuss the integration of a communication model in the MOBOT assistive robotic platform and its evaluation by target users. The MOBOT platform envisions the development of cognitive robotic assistant prototypes that act proactively, adaptively and interactively with respect to elderly humans with slight walking and cognitive impai...
The MOBOT project has envisioned the development of cognitive robotic assistant prototypes that act proactively, adaptively and interactively with respect to elderly humans with slight walking and cognitive difficulties. To meet the project's goals, a multimodal action recognition system is being developed to monitor, analyse and predict user actio...
Acquisition and annotation of a multimodal-multisensory data set of human-passive rollator-carer interactions have enabled the analysis of related human behavioural patterns and the definition of the MOBOT human-robot communication model. The MOBOT project has envisioned the development of cognitive robotic assistant prototypes that act proactively...
This paper reports on work related to the modelling of Human-Robot Communication on the basis of multimodal and multisensory human behaviour analysis. A primary focus in this framework of analysis is the definition of semantics of human actions, i.e. verbal and non-verbal signals, in a specific context with distinct Human-Robot interaction states....
In this paper we touch upon the request for dynamic synthetic signing by discussing requirements for accessibility via Sign Language for information retrieval and dynamic composition of new content. The key issues remain the option for reuse of pre-existing signed “text” along with the exploitation of basic editing facilities similar to those avail...
This paper presents a multilingual lexicographic project – expected to be completed by the end of 2015 – which focuses on the development of a set of corpus-based dictionaries for users not previously targeted; namely, adult immigrants in Greece trying to cope with a new reality. The project caters for languages that as of yet remain disjoint and a...
This paper proposes the implementation of a post-processing stage to a grammar-based machine translation (MT) system from written into sign language for the pair written Greek–Greek sign language (GSL), where translation output is visualized by an avatar. Post-processing is applied on the output of the MT system’s transfer module by activating an e...
Previous work in the framework of the MOBOT European project has led to acquisition of a multimodal sensory corpus that is intended to become the primary source of data retrieval, data analysis and testing of the mobility assistive robot prototypes currently under development within the project. The rich and multi-layered annotation of this corpus...
Mobility disabilities are prevalent in our ageing society and impede activities important for the independent living of elderly people and their quality of life. The goal of this work is to support human mobility and thus enforce fitness and vitality by developing intelligent robotic platforms designed to provide user-centred and natural support fo...
We report on the procedures followed in order to acquire a multimodal sensory corpus that will become the primary source of data retrieval, data analysis and testing of mobility assistive robot prototypes in the European project MOBOT. Analysis of the same corpus with respect to all sensorial data will lead to the definition of the multimodal inter...
This book constitutes revised selected papers from the 9th International Gesture Workshop, GW 2011, held in Athens, Greece, in May 2011.
The 24 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 35 submissions. They are ordered in five sections named: human computer interaction; cognitive processes; notation systems and animation; gestures...
The paper discusses the potential of exploitation of sign language (SL) monolingual or multilingual resources in combination with lately developed Web technologies in order to answer the need for creation of SL educational content. The reported use case comprises tools and methodologies for creating educational content for the teaching of Greek Sig...
The paper provides a report on the user-centred showcase prototypes of the DICTA-SIGN project (http://www.dictasign.eu/), an FP7-ICT project which ended in January 2012. DICTA-SIGN researched ways to enable communication between Deaf individuals through the development of human-computer interfaces (HCI) for Deaf users, by means of Sign Language. Em...
We present a multi-lingual Lexical Resource (LR) developed in the context of a lexicographic project that involves the development of user-oriented dictionaries for immigrants in Greece. The LR caters to languages that as of yet remain disconnected, and also encompasses a variety of styles that are relevant to communicative situations that the targ...
Here we present the outcomes of Dicta-Sign FP7-ICT project. Dicta-Sign researched ways to enable communication between Deaf
individuals through the development of human-computer interfaces (HCI) for Deaf users, by means of Sign Language. It has
researched and developed recognition and synthesis engines for sign languages (SLs) that have brought sig...
This paper presents the multilingual corpus of four European sign languages compiled in the framework of the Dicta-Sign project. Dicta-Sign researched ways to enable communication between Deaf individuals through the development of human-computer interfaces (HCI) for Deaf users, by means of sign language. Sign language resources were compiled to in...
The aim of the present work is to discuss a limited set of issues which concern the grammar modelling of Greek Sign Language (GSL) within the framework of improving the naturalness and more specifically the grammaticality of synthetic GSL signing. This preliminary study addresses the linguistic issues relating to specific grammar structures and the...
In this paper we describe on-going work aimed at the creation of a suite of specialized Language Resources (LRs) intended for users not previously targeted at, namely, adult immigrants in Greece. The ultimate goal being to help them integrate in the Greek society, we aim to provide support touching at basic linguistic, social and everyday issues. T...
Proceedings of the GW 2011: The 9th International Gesture Workshop on Gesture in Embodied Communication and Human-Computer Interaction, May 25-27, 2011, Athens, Greece
Describes how a multilingual corpus is used to improve sign language technology
In this article, a prototype Greek text to Greek Sign Language (GSL) conversion system is presented. The system is integrated into an educational platform that addresses the needs of teaching GSL grammar and was developed within the SYNENNOESE project (Efthimiou et al. 2004a. Developing an e-learning platform for the Greek sign language. In: K. Mie...
Sign language and Web 2.0 applications are currently incompatible, because of the lack of anonymisation and easy editing of online sign language contributions. This paper describes Dicta-Sign, a project aimed at developing the technologies required for making sign language-based Web contributions possible, by providing an integrated framework for s...
This paper presents results achieved in the frames of a national research project (titled ldquoDIANOEMArdquo), where visual analysis and sign recognition techniques have been explored on Greek Sign Language (GSL) data. Besides GSL modelling, the aim was to develop a pilot application for teleoperating a mobile robot using natural hand signs. A smal...
Sign language and Web 2.0 applications are currently incompatible, because of the lack of anonymisation and easy editing of
online sign language contributions. This paper describes Dicta-Sign, a project aimed at developing the technologies required
for making sign language-based Web contributions possible, by providing an integrated framework for s...
This paper focuses on design and implementation of deaf accessibility tools currently integrated in a portal environment intended
to serve communication of disabled citizens with the Hellenic State. Deaf accessibility is supported by a sign language terminology
glossary, while interaction with the portal is supported by the use of a virtual finger-...
This paper presents the modules that comprise a knowledge-based sign synthesis architecture for Greek sign language (GSL).
Such systems combine natural language (NL) knowledge, machine translation (MT) techniques and avatar technology in order to
allow for dynamic generation of sign utterances. The NL knowledge of the system consists of a sign lexi...
The work reported in this study is based on research that has been carried out while developing a sign synthesis system for Greek Sign Language (GSL): theo-retical linguistic analysis as well as lexicon and grammar resources derived from this analysis. We focus on the organisation of linguistic knowledge that initiates the multi-functional processi...
In this paper, we present how creation and dynamic synthesis of linguistic resources of Greek Sign Language (GSL) may serve to support development and provide content to an educational multitask platform for the teaching of GSL in early elementary school classes. The presented system utilizes standard virtual character (VC) animation technologies f...
In the framework of a research target that aims at integration of sign language technologies to human-computer interaction applications, creation and annotation of the Greek Sign Language Corpus (GSLC) involve, on the one hand, data and analysis of the phonological structure of morphemes of Greek Sign Language (GSL) and, on the other hand, collecti...
In this paper, we present a system that performs sign language synthesis in the framework of an educational platform for young deaf children. The proposed architecture is based on standardized virtual character animation concepts for the synthesis of sign sequences and lexicon-grammatical processing of Greek sign language (GSL) sequences. A major a...
In this paper we introduce the characteristics of the educational platform that is being developed within the SYNENNOESE project.
The platform integrates avatar and animation technologies, exploiting electronic linguistic resources of the Greek Sign Language
(GSL), in order to provide a Greek-to-GSL conversion tool that allows to construct, store a...
In this paper we present the methodology of data collection and implementation of databases with the purpose to create extensive lexical and terminological resources for the Greek Sign Language (GSL). The focus is on issues of linguistic content validation, multipurpose design and reusability of resources, exemplified by the multimedia dictionary p...
In this paper we present the methodology of data collection and implementation of databases for the creation of extensive lexical and terminological resources for the Greek Sign Language (GSL) in order to introduce the major issue of dynamic sign representation. In respect to electronic linguistic resources of GSL, the focus is on issues of validat...
Here a platform environment is presented which has been used for the development of various educational applications fully accessible by deaf users. Subject to Design for All primes, the environment is built on methodological principles which adopt sign language as the basic means for communication of educational content. The platform makes extensi...
Here it is attempted to present a platform environment that allows development of various educational applications fully accessible by deaf users. Subject to Design for All primes, the environment is built on methodological principles which adopt sign language as the basic means for communication of linguistically uttered educational content. It al...
This paper presents the modules that comprise a sign generation tool for Greek Sign Language (GSL). The tool combines Natural Language (NL) knowledge with avatar technology in order to allow for unrestricted generation of sign utterances. The NL knowledge of the system is exploited in the context of typical NLP procedures, which involve syntactic p...
This paper presents the scientific framework and achieved results of the DIANOEMA project, in the framework of which visual analysis and sign recognition techniques have been explored on Greek Sign Language (GSL) data aiming at GSL modelling and a pilot application for robot teleoperation. The project's accomplishments comprise the Greek Sign Langu...
Given the existing standards for organising terminology resources, the main question raised is how to create a DB or assimilated term list with properties allowing for an efficient NLP treatment of input texts. Here, we have dealt with the output of MT and have attempted to improve terminological annotation of the input text, in order to optimize r...
This paper reports on research and development work for the implementation of a Greek to Greek Sign Language (GSL) conversion tool, integrated into an educational platform that addresses needs of teaching GSL grammar, exploiting avatar technologies for the representation of linguistic message articulated in the 3D space. The Greek to GSL conversion...
1. SUMMARY Here we provide an overview of the currently available documentation of Greek Sign Language (GSL). Some background information on the social status, as well as on the societal attitudes towards GSL are initially mentioned, followed by a practical assessment of minority language vitality levels and necessary associated maintenance actions...
The here presented work reports on incorporation of a core grammar of Greek Sign Language (GSL) into a Greek to GSL conversion tool. The output of conversion feeds a signing avatar, enabling dynamic sign synthesis. Efficient conversion is of significant importance in order to support access to e-content by the Greek deaf community, given that the c...
