SIGNME: A VIRTUAL SIGN LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR APP

Abstract

Deaf and mute individuals often encounter communication barriers that affect their social and career aspects. In many instances, both individuals with hearing and speech impairments and their relatives struggle to effectively express their thoughts and engage with others. The researchers conducted a study to find a solution to enhance communication with mute, deaf, and other individuals using a virtual sign language translator application. The study employed a quantitative-descriptive approach with purposive sampling. Survey questionnaires were utilized as research instruments to measure the level of acceptability of the proposed model in terms of accuracy, offline capabilities, vocabulary recognition, application interface, and presentation. Percentage was the statistical tool used to summarize the composition of IT specialists and sign language educators.   The weighted mean was used to calculate the average value, considering different weights assigned to each data point. The t-test was the statistical approach used to determine the difference between two groups: five (5) IT specialists and five (5) sign language educators. The results of this analysis, in terms of accuracy, offline capabilities, vocabulary recognition, application interface, and presentation, are “acceptable.” The acquired overall mean of IT specialists was 3.66, which was interpreted as “highly acceptable,” while the acquired overall mean of sign language educators was 3.67, which was also interpreted as “highly acceptable.”   The variance of IT specialists was 0.15175, while the variance of sign language educators was 0.0595. The t-computed value was 0.0487, while the t-critical value was 2.306, with an alpha-two tail of 0.05 and a degree of freedom of 8, indicating that there is no significant difference between the assessments of the two groups of respondents. To further enhance the study, respondents suggested adding more words or phrases, video-to-text translations, and Filipino sign language, as well as incorporating features such as zoom, adjustable speed, etc.