A Study on the Use of Multiple Avatars in 3D Sign Language Dictionaries

Numerous platforms in the field of machine translation of oralized languages to sign language are available nowadays, and accessibility has been gaining more and more space. However, it is noticed that most platforms use only a unique 3D avatar, and this character is responsible for all the reproduction of signals, with no alternative of choice for users. Such a limitation may have an impact on the acceptance of automatic translation by the deaf community, since there must be empathy of the deaf with the animated agent. Having only one available avatar makes impossible a more precise choice, which may involve personal characteristics and affinities. One of the reasons for this is the great effort, human and technological, that is necessary for the construction of a sign dictionary, which can scale proportionally with the addition of new avatars. In view of such a scenario, the present study aims to investigate mechanisms that allow multiple avatars to be offered in sign dictionaries without necessarily needing to reshape them again and manually, one by one. The initial premise is to analyze the functioning of each signal in a particular avatar, in order to predict possible problems in the reproduction of the signals after the permutation to a new one (retargeting), such as improper collisions or mesh invasions. As main contributions of the work, techniques are proposed to facilitate the identification and automatic correction of nonconformities in the movement of the signals and also some practical recommendations for the modeling of new avatars in order to minimize the occurrence of errors.