CWA Signing Avatars

CWA Signing Avatars, or CWASA, is our virtual signing system that animates natural sign language in web browsers using virtual human characters. The software supports all modern browsers on laptops, tablets, and smart phones. It is also available as an application on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

The software, based on HTML5 using JavaScript and WebGL, is an evolution of the avatar signing system behind Simon the Signer, TESSA, and LinguaSign. Previous software, JASigning, was developed in a number of EU projects, based on Java and C++. CWASA is entirely delivered via JavaScript with key components coded in CoffeeScript and converted to JavaScript. It uses our bespoke Avatar Research Platform which renders animation though WebGL. Signing is synthesised from a notation called SiGML (Signing Gesture Markup Language) which is converted to animation data through the innovative Animgen system.