A Research Review on Indian Sign Language Recognition using Machine Learning

Abstract

Sign language is the best communication media to interact with the deaf and dumb people. As sign language is completely different from our regular languages, someone has to learn that language and they are called as sign language interpreters. As per the survey of Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center (ISLRTC), there are around 466 million people worldwide with hearing loss and 34 million of these are youth. If we will think about India, only 250 interpreters are available from India, roughly 1 for 20284 deaf and dumb people. So, education of deaf and dumb people is very big question as interpreters, schools/colleges/any learning institutes available for them are very few and not available at every place. So, this problem can be solved by having online educational system for deaf and dumb people. Because it is one of the important purposes of this system that system should be accessed by deaf and dumb people from anywhere or at any place. Already online systems are available for deaf and dumb people. But problem in existing systems is that, more focus is given on just character recognition, gesture recognition etc. But I would like to contribute more additional work regarding educational courses (ex. like NPTEL, Coursera, Udemy) for deaf and dumb people instead of just gesture recognition in existing systems. So, more focus is given on Dynamic gesture recognition and Web-based technology for the implantation point of view. As well as vision-based method is chosen for implementation as it is cheaper and more comfortable for user than sensor-based method. As per the Persons with Disability Act 1995, one percent jobs in government and private sectors are reserved for them. But those jobs have conditions like people with disability should have degree certificates from known universities across India. With the help of this application, they can learn as well as can give exams using mobile or laptop camera. If they will clear the exams successfully then certificates will be provided to them. On the basis of those certificates, they can get a job as they will get certified education. This system itself can test the deaf and dumb users in exams as it is using Machine Learning instead of any external help of sign language interpreters. Various machine learning algorithms like Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Hidden Markov Model (HMM), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Finite State Machine (FSM) are used in existing systems.