Norwich AI Company makes Chloe Smith Sign Language Avatar

Robotica Machine Learning has created the avatar of Norwich North MP Chloe Smith, who recently announced she will not be standing for re-election, to be used for as a sign language aid.

Ms Smith has paid a visit to Robotica’s HQ on Rosary Road to learn how they are using artificial intelligence (AI) to make sign language translations.

Robotica Machine Learning Limited is an audio-visual machine learning, comprehension, translation, and synthetic presentation services company, based in the heart of Norwich (Image: Robotics)

The digital signers are very human-like and after Mastering British Sign Language they are setting their sights on learning American, Italian and other sign languages.

One in six UK adults are deaf or have difficulty hearing and some 70 million people worldwide are sign language users – with upwards of 300 different sign languages ​​existing globally.

Norwich-based start-up Robotica Machine Learning has created a sign language avatar of Norwich North MP Chloe Smith (Image: Robotics)

CEO Adrian Pickering of Robotica said: “There’s a global shortage of sign language translators and interpreters.

“They work really hard to improve lives in hospitals and courtrooms, at job interviews, helping people buy a new home.

“It’s a tough job and takes years to learn – even if there were a hundred times as many translators, there still wouldn’t be near enough to meet the demands of a content-hungry digital world.

Using a green screen Chloe Smith’s face was able to be used for a Sign Language avatar (Image: Robotics)

“Last year, the BBC released 28,000 hours of new content. Every single hour, tens of thousands of new pages are crafted, 30,000 hours of new videos are uploaded to YouTube.

“The only way that sign language users can gain equality of access to information and entertainment is with machine translation.”

Co-founder Michael Davet said: “Human translations will always be first choice.

“Anything that can be signed by human interpreters should be signed by human interpreters.

“You don’t want a computer giving your diagnosis, or reporting a disaster.

“There will always be a need for empathy, for the personal touch. We’ll just translate everything else!”

Many people wonder if subtitles can answer the problem, but for many deaf people, reading English can be difficult or impossible, and subtitles and audio description may be of no help.

Chloe Smith MP attended the Rosary Road office to learn more about the process of creating an avatar (Image: Robotics)

“Learning to read English as a second language, without being able to hear it, is like learning to read Korean without knowing how to speak it,” said Catherine Cooper, Robotica’s product owner and deaf culture consultant.

“For children in particular, subtitles just don’t work. We need sign language on TV as that’s the language we think and speak.”