Prototype of a Text to Ecuadorian Sign Language Translator Using a 3d Virtual Avatar

Due to existing limitations in professional, educative, and social fields of deaf and hard of hearing people in Ecuador, a novel Sign Language Traducer System has been proposed in this work. It can be used to teach and translate phonemes or sentences to Ecuadorian Sign Language (LSEC by its acronym in Spanish) using a 3D virtual avatar called "Ema" that was designed using a software called "Makehuman". The database contains 133 sign animations that were elaborated using Blender. The graphic user interface (GUI) with a button for each sign, and a search bar were designed in Unity 3D. In relation to the text processing capabilities of the system, up to 60% of accuracy has been obtained using the Damerau-Levenshtein algorithm and an accuracy up to 95.66% has been obtained using the Jaro-Winkler algorithm, both of them have been coded in C# in the compiler Visual Studio Community. In this way, if the word entered in the search bar has a sign, the character will interpret it. Otherwise, the word will be spelled.