signspeech

Signspeech is a term used to describe a hybrid communication modality that integrates sign language with spoken language. It encompasses systems in which manual signs, facial expressions, and simultaneous or sequential spoken words convey meaning, either by augmenting spoken language for deaf and hard-of-hearing users or by enabling non-signers to access sign-based information. The concept is discussed in linguistic and human-computer interaction contexts as a way to broaden multimodal communication.

In practice, signspeech can refer to several approaches: sign-to-speech translation, where signs are recognized and rendered as spoken words in real time; co-speech signing, where a signer produces signs alongside spoken language to reinforce or annotate the message; and gesture-driven speech synthesis, where sign input or motion data triggers audible output. These approaches may be implemented with varying degrees of simultaneity between signing and speaking, depending on user needs and the technology involved.

Applications include education, live interpretation, accessibility, and multimodal communication research. Technologies involved range from computer vision and motion capture for sign recognition to natural language processing for mapping signs to words or phrases, and text-to-speech or voice synthesis to produce the spoken output. Signspeech research also explores user interfaces that support signers who are bilingual in both a sign language and a spoken language.

Challenges for signspeech include standardization of signs and grammar, ambiguity and context, the complexity of sign languages with facial expressions and morphology, latency, and ensuring robust performance across diverse signers, environments, and illumination. Ongoing work focuses on improving recognition accuracy, cultural sensitivity, and user-centered design.