VR Sign Language

Lack of sign language literacy in the Australian community is a serious problem for deaf individuals and can lead to isolation and communication difficulties. The recent broad commercialization of virtual reality systems presents an opportunity to create a learning aid well suited to the naturally 3D nature of sign language. The aim of this research is to explore whether such a program can be used to effectively assist in the sign language learning process by developing a prototype and evaluating its potential as a sign language learning system. The majority of participants who used the system found it to be more useful than a 2D system, because 3D nature of the visuals and the concurrent feedback in the form of the ghost hands. However, there were hardware issues that suggest more development of hand tracking hardware is needed before such a system can be truly useful.