Hastha: Online Learning Platform for Hearing Impaired

Abstract

Sign language is the primary means of communication for the hearing-impaired community. Introducing a learning platform can result in many ways to make learning more accessible for the hearing-impaired community of Sri Lanka. Although many approaches are being made to build such systems, the learning platform “Hastha” aims to provide a more interactive outcome with a component that converts Youlhbe videos to sign language and a Chatbot component that acts as an intermediary between a hearing-impaired user and a Google Search Engine. Furthermore, it includes a game-based learning platform and a gesture translation component from Sri Lankan to American Sign Language while the results are displayed to the users in the form of an animation. The proposed methodology is achieved by using Natural Language Processing, speech recognition, and machine learning techniques. This web-based application enables increased interaction between the student and the system making it an effective learning environment for the hearing impaired.