Sign language translator wins students a place in global technology competition

Nathan Naidoo and Mehrdad Ghaziasgar beat off the challenge of computer programming students from across the country to win the South African leg of the Imagine Cup 2009, a Microsoft-sponsored technology competition that pits the world's best student programmers against each other.

Naidoo and Ghaziasgar's iSign application, which will ultimately allow deaf people to communicate with their hearing counterparts using cell phones and other devices, was adjudged the best entry in the final of the competition at the Champagne Sports Resort in the Drakensberg earlier this month.

iSign is a research project that investigates how a hearing person is able to speak into a microphone attached to a computer, and a three-dimensional avatar translates what their spoken words into sign language on the screen. By the same token, a hearing person can record sign language using a commercially available camera, and have it translated into English or the same avatar. Naidoo and Ghaziasgar are currently researching the applicability of implementing the system on standard cell phones enabled with cameras.

A Pretoria student, Morne Ausmeier of the Tshwane University of Technology, ended a close second with his Stroke Rehabilitation Glove application, which incorporates gaming environments into stroke rehabilitation exercises to motivate patients and speed their recovery.

Naidoo and Ghaziasgar, who are both Masters' students at the UWC, will go on to represent South Africa at the global Imagine Cup finals in Egypt in July 2009.

Now in its seventh year, the Imagine Cup challenges the world's best student programmers to create applications to solve real-world problems. More than 200 000 students from 100 countries entered the competition in 2008. In all, 213 competitors from 112 teams representing over 60 countries attended the worldwide finals in Paris, France in October 2008.

The theme for the 2009 edition of the competition is Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today.

iSign is part of a bigger project at the UWC called SA Sign Language (SASL), which will ultimately be a full translation system for South African sign language - much of which is unique to this country.

“SA sign language is very much a language on its own, but it is largely undocumented,” said Naidoo. “We're busy working closely with the deaf community to build up a greater base of knowledge, but in the meantime, we're trying to break down the communication barriers that currently contribute to the marginalisation of the deaf community in society.”

For Naidoo, the award was all the sweeter after he ended second in last year's regional finals. His entry was an application called Shark Spotta, which uses sophisticated pattern recognition technology linked to fixed cameras to detect shark activity in popular swimming areas, and alert lifeguards.

The head of Microsoft's developer and platform team, Dave Ives, said the judges had been “blown away” by the high calibre of the projects and the levels of innovation displayed, with a clear potential for real-world impact.

“The creativity demonstrated by the competitors this year has shown that tomorrow's technology leaders are ready to apply their solutions to real-world issues,” said Ives. “The Imagine Cup is a great opportunity for young developers to explore the entrepreneurial possibilities of their software solutions. We'll be looking at various ways of helping them bring their ideas to fruition.”

At the worldwide finals, students will compete in nine categories, ranging from software design and games development to challenges involving algorithms and programming. Students' work will reflect valuable solutions that give a helping hand to the world's sustainable environmental issues while giving them the opportunity to compete for generous cash prizes.

Last year's winners, University of Cape Town students Devin de Vries, Christopher King, Nabeel Nazeer and Nadeem Isaacs, went on to win an award at the worldwide finals of the competition in Paris in October for their “WhereIsMyShuttle?“ application, which uses satellite navigation devices to provide bus information directly to commuters by SMS.