There are many sites that translate between different languages, but a site I found today called Sign Translate is the first one I’ve seen that translates between English and sign language.
The site is intended for health professionals working in Britain’s NHS (National Health Service) and provides translations from English to and from British Sign Language (BSL), and also between English and Arabic, Bengali, French, Gujarati, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Somali, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu. The BSL translations are displayed as videos, while translations in the others languages are available as text and audio.
The system does not in fact translate anything you say to it; instead it is programed with a set of typical questions and answers used in medical situations with versions of these in BSL and the other languages. Online BSL interpretation by real interpreters using webcams is also available.
This kind of system could be useful in other places such as hotels, police stations, banks, etc.
Have you come across any similar systems?
I wouldn’t say I saw such a “system” but most of the language teaching books that I have are specified mainly for tourists in the first place, so, they have some phrases and typical answers to them. I always thought of, OK..I know how to ask, but is my ear capable of translating the answer when I receive it? I don’t think the answers would be exactly as mentioned in the book as well!