How to Hear Sign Language

Scientists at Microsoft and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, however, think they have found a way to bridge the gulf. And it involves the same technology used in video games. The Kinect Sign Language Translator project, released this week in a prototype form, aims to enable the hearing to understand sign language--and vice versa. It works, essentially, like this: The deaf person signs, and the system renders both a written and a spoken translation of those gestures. The system also processes a speaking person's words, converting them into readable text.