The VISTA-SL project

The Signal Processing and Communications Laboratory (SPC Lab) is a global leader in sign language technology. It has implemented the first automated museum tour guide system for the deaf (SignGuide T2EDK-00982), which offers two-way communication in sign language. It has also implemented the first publicly available automated teaching system for teaching sign languages (Erasmus+ KA203 CAT-SL), and has coordinated the HealthSign project (T1EDK-01299) where it developed an application for the automated interpretation of the Greek Sign Language with an emphasis on healthcare services.

The Hellenic Mediterranean University is highly research-oriented in every scientific field covered by its departments and its research laboratories; therefore, it is an Institute that holds a top position in university research rankings and it is recognized for its contribution in the development of the island of Crete and the country in general. The academic and research staff of the Hellenic Mediterranean University is involved in many scientific activities in collaboration with national and international research groups and teams which have led, on the one hand, to important research results and, on the other hand, to the development of technological innovations in a wide range of research areas and innovative products with international recognition.

Royal Dutch Kentalis is a merger organization established in 2009, consisting of 3 predecessors. ln 2015 Kentalis celebrated its 225th anniversary, taking the establishment of one of Kentalis predecessors as its starting point. Kentalis is a national organization in the Netherlands, specialized in providing diagnostic, care and education to persons who are deaf, hard- of-hearing or deafblind, and to those who have a language impairment. Kentalis' expertise is focused on bridging communication barriers. Kentalis Academy develops and provides Sign Language courseware and training in Sign Language to its employees as well as parents and third parties to support education in Sign Language. The training options made possible by the modules developed in the CAT-SL project are considered a valuable extension of individual training facilities for learners of Sign Language.

Universitat Pompeu Fabra was established in 1990 as a public university with a strong dedication to excellence in research and teaching. UPF is a public, international and research-intensive university that has earned a place for itself among the best universities in Europe in this period of time. The Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) of UPF initiated its activity in 1999 with undergraduate studies in Computer Science. DTIC has an important track record of active participation in EU projects (67 H2020 projects with a total budget for the department of 30 million EUR). DTIC has a large number of ERC grants (26 up-to-date), it is part of the FET Flagship Initiative The Human Brain Project. It is the only Spanish university ICT department that has been awarded a second time the Maria de Maeztu excellence by the Spanish government for the quality and relevance of its pioneering scientific research, and as the top IT research concentration in Spain.

Universität Hamburg was founded in 1919 by local citizens and is the largest institution for research and education in northern Germany. The University is known for its outstanding basic research as well as its applied and transfer research projects. As part of the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments, Universität Hamburg has been granted clusters of excellence for 4 core research areas. Furthermore, alongside 10 universities and 1 university alliance, Universität Hamburg was named a University of Excellence and was deemed a "flagship university." The Institute of German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf (IDGS) at the Universität Hamburg is a well-known institute for sign language linguistics, sign language interpreting and deaf studies with a long tradition of sign language research in Germany. The institute professionally works on sign language corpus development due to the prestigious corpus project of German Sign Language (DGS) - DGS-Korpus - a long-term project of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg to build up an exhaustive data base and corpus-based dictionary of DGS.

TU Dublin (TUD), Ireland’s first Technological University, is where career-focused students, dedicated staff and academic excellence in science, the arts, business, engineering and technology converge to create the leaders of tomorrow. TU Dublin has a diverse student population, with 30,000 students from over 140 countries. The SFI ADAPT centres research vision is to pioneer new forms of proactive, scalable, and integrated AI-driven Digital Content Technology that empower individuals and society to engage in digital experiences with control, inclusion, and accountability. The Digital Content Transformation (DCT) Strand of ADAPT takes an algorithmic perspective to focus on enabling content to flow freely across different languages, cultures, and modalities. ADAPT is pioneering new Human Centric AI techniques and technologies including personalisation, natural language processing, data analytics, intelligent machine translation human- computer interaction, as well as setting the standards for data governance, privacy, and ethics for digital content.

The Deaf Studies Unit (DSU) belongs to the Department of Primary Education of the University of Patras, and is a leading center for Deaf Studies, Greek Sign language, and Deaf Education in Greece. Established in 1994, is the only academic institution in Greece that provides research in the area of deafness, and programs for teachers of the deaf, sign language tutors, and interpreters.