The Sign3D project aims at creating a range of innovative tools to allow the recording and the processing of motion captured French Sign Language (LSF) content. The challenge is to design a complete workflow from the movement capture (including all upper body part articulations, facial expression and gaze direction) to their restitution using a 3D virtual signer. We present the main innovation challenges at each step of the project. As accessibility for Deaf people through Sign Language is one goal of this project.
Each sentence has been recorded by an optical motion capture system combined with a head-mounted oculometer. Markers are placed on the whole signer’s upper body, including her face and fingers which allows for a complete performance capture. One of the challenges of this process is to find a compromise between motion capture cost, measurement (space and time) accuracy, and spontaneity of the production (if the motion capture equipment is too invasive, the signer will not be able to sign in a natural way). After motion capture, the marker set is rigged onto a 3D virtual signer mesh in order to animate both its skeleton and its face....READ MORE
