Punjabi University making higher education avenues for differently abled persons especially for deaf
Research Centre for Technology Development for Differently Abled People, Department of Computer Science, Punjabi University Patiala has played vital role in making provision for Higher Education to Differently Abled Persons especially to deaf. Deaf students used to stop their education maximum up to 12th standard because they did not find much educational institutes who can provide them higher education. On 11th March, 2020, One seminar was organized by this centre inviting various stakeholders from schools and instates providing education to Children with Special Needs from Patiala and Rajpura on the theme – Need of Technologies for Differently Abled Persons for making their Lives Better. In the round table discussion, it has been found, very less opportunities are there with deaf students for Higher Education.
Then Dr. Dharam Veer Sharma, Head of the Department along with other senior faculty members decided to bring out options for them in Higher Education. With his efforts, Punjabi University Patiala spread awareness among deaf children for getting admission in various affiliated colleges in various professional courses like BCA etc. PMN College Rajpura has shown soft heartedness for this nobel cause and admitted two deaf students in BCA first year. Number of students are taking admission in Distance Education Department of Punjabi University Patiala. As awareness is being spread, more and more such students are coming for admission. Some students approached to PMN College after the admission dates are over.
But Vice Chancellor, Ravneet Kaur, IAS is kind enough to direct Dean Academic Affairs Dr. Amritpal Kaur to take up such cases in positive through Dean College Development Council, Prof. Jagroop Kaur. Dean Academic Affairs has taken the case of the admission of these two deaf students as sympathetic and Special Cases and approved their admissions. Now It has been sent to Honorable Vice Chancellor for their kind approval. It is really a nobel task, Punjabi University Patiala is doing in bringing opportunities for Deaf for Higher Education. Even Case has been moved by Dr. Dharam Veer Sharma, Head of the Department, Department of Computer Science for giving exemption to differently abled persons taking admission in distance education department from attending PCP as it is difficult for them to travel, stay and attend classes because they need special assistant for doing their tasks. It is under approval process. Speaking Hands, Rajpura is helping PMN College Rajpura is providing education in ISL to deaf students. Mrs Gurmeet Kaur, Director, Speaking Hands, Rajpura is always keep in helping deaf students.
Punjabi University Patiala has taken the lead in developing technologies for Differently Abled Persons especially for deaf. To formulize such research activities, Special centre- “Research Centre for Technology Development for Differently Abled People” has been opened in the department of Computer Science. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first of its kind centre in Northern India. The Objective of this research centre is to develop technologies for differently abled people for making their lives better and to bring opportunities for them in terms of higher education, guiding for job opportunities, inculcating technical skills etc.
The journey of development of technologies for this community started in 2011. Dr. Vishal Goyal, Professor, Department of Computer Science along with his Ph.D. student Lalit Goyal, Assistant Professor, DAV College, Jalandhar has taken the initiative to develop Automatic Machine Translation System from Simple English Sentences to Indian Sign Language using Synthetic animations. In this machine translation system, the Graphic User Interface was developed in which user can enter any simple English sentence and on the click of the button, the equivalent ISL animated video was generated and played at real time. It was very challenging task as very less word dictionary was available from Coimbatore centre. Using that dictionary, they had started their work. Very less literature was available, No ISL grammar rules were available. With lot of hardships, they had developed ISL animated dictionary and coined ISL grammar rules with the help of ISLRTC, New Delhi. Thus within the time span of about 4 years, they were able to develop this machine translation system but this system was having disadvantages such as less dictionary words, facial expressions were very less in animations etc.Then, ISLRTC, New Delhi was consulted for the evaluation of their system and for helping them in making this system more perfect with their expertise. They had cooperated their team and they had demonstrated this machine translation system to their staff and students. Dr. Vishal Goyal told us that the major issue raised were missing of facial expressions. He further emphasized that this drawback can be overcome if they gets financial funding for the same from some funding agency to work on this.
With the advent of time, work was extended with the collaborative effort of Dr. Vishal Goyal and Dr. Lalit Goyal as team through their various MCA, M.Tech., M.Phil and Ph.d. students. This system has now been extended to translate English Sentences (Simple, Complex and Compound) into ISL animated videos. The accuracy of the machine translation system is about 80%. It can be increased further with the extension of ISL dictionary which require funds from some funding agency.
To research further, they had developed the Automatic Announcement system at Public Places for deaf using ISL animated videos. For the time being, it has been developed for Railway Stations and Airports. Dr. Lalit Goyal explained that the biggest challenge they had faced was to collect announcements at Airports and Railway Stations. Shortly, they will develop for other public places like Bus Stand, Hospitals, and Post Offices etc. They are constantly in touch with ISLRTC for their guidance and consultations. To the best of the knowledge, this is World’s first such system developed so far which is in working and implementable.
In nut shell, following technologies have already been developed and these can be further made more accurate –
- Automatic Machine Translation System from English to ISL animated videos
- Automatic Announcement System at Public Places for deaf using ISL animated videos
- Various Dictionaries for Deaf such as alphabets, fruit names, vegetable names etc.
These all are World’s first working systems that are MAKE IN INDIA.
Following technologies are in progress for deaf-
- Automatic telecast of news for deaf in ISL using synthetic animations
- Automatic Machine Translation System from Indian Languages to ISL using animated videos
- Automatic Announcement System at Public Places for deaf using ISL animated videos (For all Indian languages)
- Development of e-content in ISL using Synthetic animations for deaf.
Following institutions are involved in making this dream true of making technologies for differently abled persons for making their lives better –
- Vishal Goyal, Professor and Coordinator, Research Centre for Technologies for Differently Abled Persons, Department of Computer Science, Punjabi University Patiala.
- Gurpreet Singh Josan, Associate Professor and Co-Coordinator, Research Centre for Technologies for Differently Abled Persons, Department of Computer Science, Punjabi University Patiala.
- Lalit Goyal, Associate Professor, DAV College, Jalandhar.
- Parshant Singh Rana, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Thapar University Patiala.
- Jagdeep Singh, President, Deaf Foundation Patiala.
- Sanjay Kumar,Dy Director and Faculty at Indian Sign Language Research and Technology Centre, DePWD, MSJ&E, GoI, New Delhi.
The above team is always eager to work for this community in developing technologies for making their lives better.
Dr. Vishal Goyal, Professor and Coordinator, Research Centre for Technologies for Differently Abled Persons, Department of Computer Science, Punjabi University Patiala is also working for other differently abled persons like Blindness, Autism etc. He told that his Ph.D. students Deepali, Rakesh Kumar, Annu Rani, Gurdeep Singh, Mukhtiar Singh, Nitika Bansal , M.Phil Students ( Gurdeep Kaur and Amandeep Kaur) and number of MCA students have contributed a lot in these projects. Krishma, Sign Language Interpreter which is trained from ISLRTC has developed videos for the vocabulary for deaf.
January 2,2021
