Sign Language Translation: A Survey of Approaches and Techniques

Sign language is the main communication way for deaf and hard-of-hearing (i.e., DHH) people, which is unfamiliar to most non-deaf and hard-of-hearing (non-DHH) people. To break down the communication barriers between DHH and non-DHH people and to better promote communication among DHH individuals, we have summarized the research progress on sign language translation. We provide the necessary background on sign language translation and introduce its four subtasks (i.e., sign2gloss2text, sign2text, sign2(gloss+text), and gloss2text). We distill the basic mode of sign language translation (SLT) and introduce the transformer-based framework of SLT. We analyze the main challenges of SLT and propose possible directions for its development.

Automated summary

Sign language is the main communication method for DHH people, and there is a need to bridge the communication gap between DHH and non-DHH individuals. This article summarizes the research progress on sign language translation, including its background, subtasks, basic mode, and transformer-based framework. The challenges of sign language translation are analyzed, and potential directions for its development are proposed.