Inspire by a suggestion from a Microsoft executive focused on accessibility issues, a Durham startup is adding a new dimension to hologram technology.

Sign language.

Prsonas, fresh from winning a project with the U.S. Army, today is adding American Sign Language capabilities to its virtual assistants, making its technology accessible to the 70 million users of ASL.

In the future, the three-year-old company aims to make signing interactive.

In a video, Prsonas demonstrates how the hologram uses American Sign Language to “sign” a greeting.

Says the company: “Three years ago we set out to build a technology to communicate with humans, as humans. We have worked passionately to make our Prsonas characters look like us, talk with us and even show personality and emotion. However, we were never able to reach the almost 70 million people worldwide who use American sign language as their native tongue . .. until now. Prsonas has learned to sign . . . and what can be more human than that!?”

(You can watch the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULFvmPghVC4&feature=youtu.be )

The company works with a growing number of clients, including Microsoft, to develop and manufacture holograms for use at trade shows and other venues. Described as “self-service holograms,” they utilize patent-pending technology to create a “human” to help “attract, automate, and analyze customer engagements.” Prsonas says it offers “mixed reality technology that mimics human experiences.”

Its latest contract is with the Army, which paid Prsonas to develop a series of holograms that utilize video in making recruiting pitches.

Now comes sign language.

Make holograms more accessible

Intrigued by an idea from a Microsoft executive, Prsonas chose to invest in developing the sign language capability even though it does not yet have a customer.

“The original idea for our product doing sign language came from Microsoft’s Chief Accessibility Officer, Jenny Lay-Flurrie,” says Prsonas CEO David Rose.

“Jenny saw our product installation at Microsoft’s Retail Experience Center in Redmond, Wash., and asked if our product could potentially sign.”

Chuck Rinker, the founder of Prsonas and its chief innovation officer with a lengthy career in interactive technology, was intrigued by the idea.

“Given Chuck’s background at EA Sports we were quickly able to figure out a way to create CGI animation for the PRSONAS units that allows them to deliver sign language,” Rose explains.

“We developed the product entirely with our in-house engineering team with input from an ASL interpreter on signing techniques and best practices.”

No customers … yet

Despite not having a customer to pay the bills, Rose says the privately held company chose to invest its own resources in adding sign language due to the potential they see in not only English but other languages.

“The funding for the develop came from the round we raised earlier this year and from revenues from on-going product sales.,” he says. “We’ve initially developed American Sign Language (ASL) capabilities but we can develop any sign language (signing varies by country / region).

“We think adding sign language to our current multi-lingual capabilities is a big idea!”

Rose says Prsonas sees business potential in multiple areas.

“Hopefully, this new product enhancement will provide healthcare providers, government agencies, retail brands and others that don’t currently have an effective way to communicate with the hearing impaired a great way to better serve their customers,” he explains.

“Mixed reality CGI holograms delivering sign language is a good example of the potential of human-computer interactions (HCI).”

Two-way some day

Prsonas also aims to make its sign language holograms interactive.

“Our initial product launch will provide pre-produced ASL delivery,” Rose says.

In other words, customers provide the message they want to sign.

“The second phase will deliver real-time ASL via text or speech input,” he adds.

“Ultimately, we envision two-way, real time ASL dialogue.”

In the future, Rose says he expects “We expect significant demand.”