Punjabi University prof to develop rly announcement system for hearing impaired

Tribune News ServicePatiala August 19A Punjabi University professor along with his counterpart from DAV College Jalandhar will develop an announcement system for hearing impaired which will be installed at railway stationsThe project worth Rs 2415 lakh has been granted by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Government of IndiaProf Vishal Goyal from the Department of Computer Science Punjabi University along with Associate Professor Lalit Goyal DAV College Jalandhar have been working on machine translation announcement systems for hearing impaired for the past many yearsThey have already developed a machine system for the translation of English sentences to Indian sign language ISL animated videos for hearing impaired Its first version has already been releasedDr Goyal coordinator Research Centre for Technology Development of Differently Abled Persons said the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities had sanctioned Rs2415 lakh project of two years duration titled Development of announcement system at railway stations for hearing impaired using ISL synthetic animationsThe team working on the project comprises Jitesh Pubreja computer programmer and Saurabh Singh ISL interpreter-cum-signer The team will record all videos related to railway announcements which will be converted into ISL animations he addedThey will produce both types of announcements static and dynamic Static announcements include warnings guiding and advice Dynamic announcements are related to arrival departure change of platform calling some person instant warnings and others he saidAs part of the project the team will collect names of trains stations routes and other information from various sources he addedPunjabi University Vice-Chancellor Prof Arvind said This is an innovative project which will help hearing impaired