Sign Language to Speech Conversion — An Assistive System for Speech Impaired

Abstract

People with speech and hearing disability have to interact with others with the normally abled people who can talk for their routine work. The persons who are deaf-mute throughout the world use a sign language used in their own country or their local language for the communication with other people. But the person who has been trained is able to understand it. Sign language mainly involves the gestures of hand and head which convey their meaning of either letters or words. The non-verbal behaviors such as the shape, orientation of the hand, head movements and body movements are used to express the thought of the speaker. The speech impaired use sign language to communicate. This often is either misinterpreted or falsely identified. This creates a communication gap between the physically disabled and the normal person. Through sign language, the communication gap is overcome and is possible for a deaf-mute person without acoustic sounds and through the means of signs.