Towards a Tool to Translate Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) to Brazilian Portuguese and Improve Communication with Deaf

In Brazil, only 15% of deaf people are fluent in Brazilian Portuguese. Although Brazilian law says that public spaces should provide access in Libras, deaf still face lots of issues accessing customer services. Also, there is no tool able to allow them to talk in Libras via customer service communication channels, such as chats. Thus, this work aims to help deaf to access the customer services of a big computer manufacturer by providing a way for them to communicate in Libras while the call center attendant receives a translation in Brazilian Portuguese. The method to translate Libras to Portuguese includes the use of a CNN. The results in recognizing and classifying signs (captured from video) reached over 90% of the accuracy in the training phase.