A Multilanguage Database for Supporting Sign Language Translation and Synthesis

The design of a language database is an important task within projects targeting sign language research. In this paper is presented a database structure that supports both linguistic information and visualisation oriented data to assist a final publication of services for deaf people. The database has been designed within the Automatic Translation into sign LAnguageS (ATLAS) project that takes aim at getting the automatic translation from written Italian to Italian Sign Language (LIS). The final step of the overall process is the enrichment of the original video with a superimposed virtual character realised by 3D animated computer graphics. The top element within the database is the A_Product defined as the main primitive element managed by the ATLAS platform under which all the other data, from input sources to the final publication modalities and attributes lay. The A_Product includes the reference to the original content and all the intermediate elaborations results towards the final publication comprehensive of the virtual character animations. Among the others, the most important transformation is the automatic translation from a written Italian text to the intermediate language AEWLIS (ATLAS Extended Written LIS), formalized within the ATLAS project.