This project presents a real-time Egyptian Sign Language (ESL) recognition system that translates sign language gestures into text using a webcam. The system combines hand gesture recognition and facial emotion detection to better capture the linguistic and expressive components of ESL.
# Egyptian Sign Language (ESL) Real-Time Recognition System
## Project Overview
This project presents a **real-time Egyptian Sign Language (ESL) recognition system** that translates sign language gestures into text using a webcam.
The system combines **hand gesture recognition** and **facial emotion detection** to better capture the linguistic and expressive components of ESL.
The project is designed as a **graduation-level prototype**, focusing on feasibility, clarity, and real-time performance rather than large-scale deployment.
---
## Objectives
* Recognize **word-level Egyptian Sign Language signs** from live webcam input
* Integrate **facial emotion detection** as a non-manual linguistic cue
* Run **in real time** on a local machine
* Use **pre-trained models and lightweight classifiers** (no training from scratch)
* Deliver a **working demo application** suitable for academic evaluation
---
## System Architecture (High Level)
```
Webcam Input
↓
Frame Capture (OpenCV / Streamlit)
↓
MediaPipe Holistic
(Hand + Face Landmarks)
↓
Feature Extraction
↓
Sign Classifier (MLP / LSTM)
↓
Predicted Word
↓
Emotion Detection (DeepFace)
↓
Live Display (Text Overlay)
```
---
## Dataset
* **Dataset:** Egyptian Sign Language (ESL)
* **Structure:**
* Word-level classes
* Multiple videos per word
* **Usage:**
* Videos are split into frames
* Hand landmarks are extracted using MediaPipe
* Facial emotion is inferred using a pre-trained model
Dataset link:
data.mendeley.com
> ⚠️ Note: The dataset contains **sign labels only** (no facial expression labels).
> Facial emotion is inferred using pre-trained emotion models.
---
## Tech Stack
### Core Technologies
* **Python 3.9+**
* **OpenCV** – webcam capture & visualization
* **MediaPipe** – hand & face landmark detection
* **TensorFlow / Keras** – sign classification model
* **DeepFace** – facial emotion recognition
* **NumPy / Pandas** – data processing
### Demo Interface (not decided …