Award winners at Microsoft Italy’s AI for Inclusion Hackathon

Our ai4Sign is among the winning projects of AI for Inclusion, the hackathon promoted by Microsoft Italy to develop projects based on generative artificial intelligence solutions that enhance diversity and promote greater accessibility in business and society for the benefit of people with disabilities.

ai4Sign is a service that enables sign language users to communicate more agilely and effectively because it translates sign language into written words and voice in real time, breaking down communication barriers and enabling smooth and inclusive interaction between people using different languages. Simply frame the person who is using sign language with the camera of the smartphone, tablet or laptop. The artificial intelligence of ai4Sign will take care of the rest, translating gestures into written words and voice quickly and accurately.

The service uses artificial intelligence models both in interpreting the signs and in reprocessing the translation result to obtain a syntactically correct text, as sign language can have a different syntax from Italian.

To facilitate sign language studies, ai4Sign makes all data generated, linguistically or geographically, by the app available for academic purposes.

The areas of competence of the prize. Through a division into categories of competence, each dedicated to a specific field (mobility, sight, hearing, invisible disabilities or neurodivergences, transversal disabilities), the proposed ideas were evaluated on the basis of specific criteria such as technical feasibility, impact on society, business model, technological and social innovation.

The award was presented to us yesterday, Thursday 30 May, during the event held at the Politecnico di Milano.
The projects were judged by a panel consisting of experts from Microsoft, other companies, universities and associations that joined the initiative.

For the winning teams, exchange of experiences and integrated training courses.
The winning teams in each category were awarded an experiential award, which includes visits to the headquarters, labs and factories of partner companies exploiting innovative technologies, training on digital innovation and social inclusion, and access to events and networking opportunities.