StorySign opens the world of books to deaf children. It instantly translates selected children’s books into sign language, to help deaf children learn how to read.
StorySign is supported by charities including the European Union of the Deaf, powered by
Huawei AI, designed by Aardman Animations, with classic children’s books from Penguin Random House.
Reading is challenging for deaf children for a variety of reasons. They can’t hear their mother or father read them a bedtime story. Or their teacher read words from a textbook. Plus, sign language is very different to spoken and written language. All of this means many deaf children struggle to match printed words with the concepts they represent. With StorySign, we can help change that.
How to use StorySign:
• Open the app and click on the selected book from the StorySign library.
• Hold the phone up to the words on the page, and our friendly avatar, Star, will sign the story as the printed words are highlighted.
• This allows children to learn to sign and read, at their own pace.
StorySign is a free app, available on
Android via the
Google Play Store, in 10 sign languages (British, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Irish, Belgian Flemish, Swiss-German). We are launching with one classic children’s book for each sign language, including ‘Where’s Spot?’, ‘Peter Rabbit; A Peep-Inside Tale’, and ‘Three Little Bunnies’. Please make sure you have a physical copy of the book for StorySign to scan and bring to life.
StorySign is compatible on Android devices, but is optimised for Huawei devices, including the Mate 20 Pro, in the following ways:
• NATURAL READING - HiAI’s Image Recognition allows children to hold the phone up to a 45 degree angle to the book and the app will still recognize it perfectly.
• HIGH ACCURACY - HiAI’s OCR (optical character recognition) allows the app to function with a greater degree of accuracy.
• SPEED - The AI performance will also power the speed at which pages from book can load in the app, allowing for an improved user experience.
StorySign has been developed by partners including: Huawei; The European Union of the Deaf; The British Deaf Association, Penguin Random House; Aardman Animations; FCB Inferno.
COMING SOON: Our ambition is to load many more books onto StorySign. Switch on your notifications to be informed as soon as a new book is uploaded!
