Technology that translates spoken or written words into British Sign Language (BSL) has been developed by researchers at IBM. In particular a software system, called SiSi (Say It Sign It), was created by a group of students in the UK. SiSi brings together a number of computer technologies. A speech recognition module converts the spoken word into text, which SiSi then interprets into gestures that are used to animate an avatar which signs in BSL. The main of SiSi is to enable deaf people to have simultaneous sign language interpretations of meetings and presentations based on speech recognition to animate a digital character or avatar.
IBM says its technology will allow for interpretation in situations where a human interpreter is not available. It could also be used to provide automatic signing for television, radio and telephone calls. It is worth-mentioning that the concept has already gained the approval of the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID). The students used two signing avatars developed by the University of East Anglia. One of them signs in BSL and the other uses Sign Supported English - a more direct translation using conventional syntax and grammar.