Reconfiguring Communication through Technology
This session explores how communication becomes distributed across humans and technologies. Engaging with spoken, signed, and written modalities, as well as practices such as video-based signing, AR glasses, and AI translation, it considers how technological mediation reshapes communicative relations and possibilities for access.
Sign language and interpreter services are available for speech communication.
Talks and Speakers:
Signing and technology: chaining in distributed practice: This presentation examines how signers use chaining—the strategic linking of signs, writing, and digital tools—to communicate across languages and modalities in technologically mediated environments. It reframes language as distributed across people, devices, and spaces, highlighting how calibration and cooperation unfold through interactive platforms.
By Annelies Kusters is Professor of Sociolinguistics in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, at Heriot-Watt University.
This session explores how communication becomes distributed across humans and technologies. Engaging with spoken, signed, and written
modalities, and with practices such as video-based signing, AR glasses, and AI translation, it considers how technological mediation reshapes
communicative relations and possibilities for access.
Translating between Sign and spoken language using AI: This talk will give a history and overview of the current state of the art in using AI for sign language translation. It will provide an overview of current projects at Surrey that are working towards automatic translation and AI tools
under development for data processing and linguistic annotation/study. The talk will also introduce Signapse, a University of Surrey spin-out, deploying earlier versions of these technologies in real-world contexts such as transport. Finally the talk will discuss current challenges from a
technical, societal and ethical perspective.
By Richard Bowden is Professor of Computer Vision and Machine Learning within the Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey. Cross-signing: This presentation examines how communication via online platforms influences signing styles and strategies used to facilitate understanding across different sign languages. The resulting dataset will contribute to the development of an annotated corpus comprising both intra-sign language and inter-sign language interactions. Communicative strategies observed include calibration techniques, such as pointing, gesturing, mouthing, writing, and drawing upon linguistic resources from the sign language(s) involved in the interaction, as well as repair strategies.
Hearing glasses: In this talk, we explore how AI and 5G cloud processing enhance communication for people with hearing loss. Smart devices like AR glasses and hearing aids use low-latency, high-bandwidth links to deliver clean audio and visual cues. Future 6G and sign language recognition will enable seamless multimodal interaction in noisy environments. This IoT-driven system empowers reduced capability
users with real-time clarity and accessibility.
By Mathini Sellathurai is an IEEE Fellow and Professor of Signal Processing and Wireless Communications at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
Cross-signing: This presentation examines how communication via online platforms influences signing styles and strategies used to facilitate understanding across different sign languages. The resulting dataset will contribute to the development of an annotated corpus
comprising both intra-sign language and inter-sign language interactions. Communicative strategies observed include calibration techniques, such as pointing, gesturing, mouthing, writing, and drawing upon linguistic resources from the sign language(s) involved in the interaction, as well as repair strategies.
By Robert Adam is Associate Professor of Languages and Intercultural Communication at Heriot-Watt University, and Programme Director for British Sign Language.
and
Sujit Sahasrabudhe is Research Associate at Heriot-Watt University.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
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- Heriot-Watt University
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- United Kingdom Eh14 4AS
- Building: Robotarium
- Room Number: Multiplex room 11
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- Co-sponsored by Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies and Nationla Robotarium, HWU, UK
- Starts 09 November 2025 12:00 AM UTC
- Ends 11 November 2025 12:00 AM UTC
- No Admission Charge
Agenda
10:30 Welcome by LINCS HoR Marion Winters
10:35 Welcome by Annelies Kusters (event organiser)
10:40 Presentation by Annelies Kusters: Signing and technology: chaining in distributed practice
10:55 Presentation by Richard Bowden: Translating between Sign and spoken language using AI
11:25 Break - 15 minutes
11:40 Presentation by Mathini Sellathurai: Hearing glasses
11:55 Presentation by Robert Adam and Sujit Sahasrabudhe: Cross-signing
12:10 Discussion - led by Marion Winters
12:30 Tour in Robotarium