The Nippon Foundation Releases Handbook App for Learning Japanese, Hong Kong and Yangon Sign Languages (1)

Ahead of the International Day of Sign Languages on September 23, The Nippon Foundation released a sign language learning app which serves as a simple dictionary making it easy to search for and learn signs.

The SignTown Handbook app represents the second stage of the foundation’s Project Shuwa (sign language) jointly undertaken with the Chinese University of Hong Kong in collaboration with Google and Kwansei Gakuin University.

We launched the project in 2019 and released the SignTown sign language learning game in 2021 during the project’s first stage with a view to increasing the number of people engaged in sign language interpretation and supporting more active participation of deaf people in a wide range of activities.

The SignTown Handbook, a free app released on September 10, also ties in with the theme of the 2023 International Day of Sign Languages, “A World Where Deaf People Everywhere Can Sign Anywhere!” It can be used as a tool to enable both deaf and hearing people to learn sign language and to have simple conversations in sign language.

The SignTown Handbook includes not only Japanese and Hong Kong sign languages, but also Yangon sign language with more than 800 individual entries.

A mobile app has been developed in addition to the web-based version for use on smartphones and tablet devices as well.

For more than 50 years, The Nippon Foundation has been supporting the development and promotion of sign language, focusing on training sign language interpreters and building schools where students can learn sign language. The aim has been to have sign language recognized and promoted throughout society while making it clear that sign languages are equal in status to spoken languages.

The SignTown learning game has been used by more than 70,000 people, who have been introduced to it through children’s books, school textbooks and as part of comprehensive learning programs in elementary schools.

Project Shuwa uses information and communications technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop educational materials that make it easy for people to start learning sign language.

An ordinary camera attached to a personal computer or a smartphone can only recognize images in two dimensions. By using special sign language recognition technologies equipped with ICT and AI, it is possible to recognize three-dimensional sign language movements including special actions such as body movements, facial expressions, leaning forward and the shape of the mouth.

SignTown Handbook web version

English version (external site)

Japanese version (external site)

SignTown Handbook mobile app

Apple (iPhone・iPad) (external site)

Android (external site)

(To be continued)