The Lab presented a new project, a digital service for people with hearing impairments, named “SURDO-HELP” to the First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, A.R. Belousov
The demonstration of the project took place during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, one of the largest business events in Russia.
Four "SURDO-HELP" functions were implemented in the demo version presented at the forum:
1. Speech-to-text translation The service recognizes oral speech and translates it into text so that people with hearing impairments can read what is being said to them.
2. Text-to-speech translation Deaf users can type a message and the program will convert it into spoken words for their interlocutor.
3. Video communication with a sign language interpreter At any time, the hard of hearing person can call a Russian sign language interpreter for daily tasks, consultations on important issues, and in emergency situations.
4. Virtual sign language interpretation A virtual specialist named Dasha recognizes Russian sign language and translates it into text or speech. Everything is powered by artificial intelligence, which was trained on a dataset of over 50,000 gestures.
A.R. Belousov, the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, highly appreciated the project and wished success in its further development.
The service will be available in 2024 on all platforms (iOS and Android), as well as on the website and web application.