Newsletter No. 407

4 No. 407, 19.11.2012 計 算機科學與工程學系本科生 陳俊杰 、 劉瑞峰 及 舒劍飛 ，希望把科技與日常生活聯繫。手語是聽障 人士的主要溝通語言，但是一般人不懂，目前本港的手語 翻譯服務及訓練課程也未廣泛，令聽障人士難與外界溝 通，幾位工程系學生遂設計可將手語翻譯為文字和語音的 「殘疾人手語交流輔助系統」，以高科技支援聽障人士。 打破溝通障礙 陳俊杰解釋系統運作原理：首先要讓系統學習辨識不同的 手語動作，他們以微軟的Kinect體感技術感應器，記錄以 手語溝通時雙手、雙肘和雙肩共六點的三維坐標，並以統 計分類常用的支持向量機計算法，推算出最大化幾何邊緣 區，即可識別出屬於某特定手語元素的動作的最大範圍。 這樣，不同用者表達同一套手語時，即使他們動作的角 度、速度、站立位置等互有差異，但只要是在系統紀錄的 範圍之內，則系統仍能辨識。 系統「學習」了各手語詞匯，建立一套以中文為主的數據 庫，做手語的人在感應器前做出數據庫已存有紀錄的動 作，系統便可翻譯成語音和文字，準確度高達九成以上。 隨身裝置用法簡單 陳俊杰續說，通用的手語詞匯約一千 個，數據庫只是初起步，現有四十八個 詞匯，但由於擴展性強，將來即使詞滙 量增加，也不會大幅增加程序運行時 間。此外，新系統易於攜帶，只需帶備感 應器和電腦，毋需滑鼠，也不用配戴任 何外置設備來控制，即可隨時應用。 三位同學以手語翻譯系統參加於上海舉 行的「2012英特爾杯大學生電子設計競 賽嵌入式系統專題邀請賽」，擊敗來自 十一個國家及地區七十一所大學，包括 北大、清華、復旦、新加坡國立大學等一 百五十九支隊伍，勇奪全場最高殊榮英 特爾杯，肯定了他們的創意思維及實踐 能力。 從生活出發 的創意 創意是跳出既定的框囿，從一種新角度思考。 電燈、電話、電腦等發明，都是由妙想天開的意 念開始，最終成為生活必需品，改變社會和人類 發展的面貌。 學生創新與創業促進委員會協助學生將創意帶出實驗 室，透過各種比賽、講座和展覽等活動，推動同學構思並 實踐創新科技發明或創業計劃，使創意轉化成商品，造福 人群。以下介紹兩項由學生研製的產品。 W ith a mission to improve daily life with technology, Chan Chun-kit , Liu Ruifeng and Shu Jianfei from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering developed the first-ever Chinese sign language recognition and translation system for deaf mutes. Sign language is an important means of communication for deaf mutes, but most people don’t understand it and the current interpretation service and training available in Hong Kong are not that inclusive. The new design helps to overcome the communication barrier between deaf mutes and people who can hear and speak. Bridging the Gap Chun-kit said the first thing they had to do was to teach the system to recognize the different hand gestures of sign language. The three-dimensional positions of both hands, elbows and shoulders of each ‘phrase’ in sign language are recorded by the system with Microsoft Kinect, a motion sensing input device. By using a support vector machine, a common supervised learning model for classification, the deviation tolerance of each motion is obtained. Chun- kit explained, when the same set of gestures are made by different people, the angles, speed or position might be different, but the system can still recognize them. Bringing Innovation Down-to-Earth Creativity is out-of-the-box thinking. The ideas that gave rise to the light bulb, the telephone and the computer originated from fantastical thoughts that blossomed into wondrous inventions having enormous impact on life and society. To promote students’ innovative projects and enhance commercialization, the Committee on Advancement of Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CASIE) renders support to students to participate in competitions, talks and exhibitions. Below are two outstanding student projects. The database of Chinese sign language is then built. When users perform a gesture available in the database before the Kinect sensor, the system would translate it into words and sounds, with an accuracy rate of over 90%. A User-friendly System There are about 1,000 phrases or words of sign language in common usage and the newly-developed database has collected 48 of them. Chun-kit mentioned that the system is highly extensible, meaning the program running time won’t be increased a lot even when the database is expanded. The only equipment needed is a sensor and a computer. With this design, the team won the championship in the 2012 Intel Cup Undergraduate Electronic Design Contest—Embedded System Design Invitational Contest held in Shanghai. They defeated 159 teams from 71 universities in 11 countries and cities, including Peking, Tsinghua, Fudan and National University of Singapore. The victory is a recognition of their innovative thinking and ability to put concept into practice. 殘疾人手語交流輔助系統 Sign Language Recognition and Translation System for Deaf Mutes 左起：劉瑞峰、陳俊杰和舒劍飛 From left: Liu Ruifeng, Chan Chun-kit and Shu Jianfei